Theoretical frameworks that bridge ecology and design

Ecologists and designers need to share theoretical frameworks in order to develop actionable collaborative  research. Urban design is a complex, iterative, feedback process that involves multiple stakeholders and decision makers and a linear process where prescribed ecological principals inform design decisions is overly deterministic. Instead, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study has been involved in a discursive exchange based on shared interest in the following theoretical frameworks that bridge ecology and design: conceiving the architecture and ecology of the city rather than in the city; watershed rather than political frameworks for planning, designing with patch dynamics, and the shared concept of the metacity.