XVI International Botanical Congess

Urban brownfields-abandoned industrial lands-are increasingly a focus of redevelopment efforts in post-industrial cities across North America and throughout the developed world. A series of studies have addressed the hyperstressed, 145 ha valley of Nine Mile Run in the archetypal rustbelt city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Botanists, designers and engineers collaborated closely with community participants to formulate an ecosystems-based approach to regeneration, as an alternative to conventional mechanistic brownfield solutions. The team posed a number of ecologically-based alternatives to slag slope vegetation, riparian restoration, and invasive species control. They also applied principles of landscape and restoration ecology to promote ecological integrity over several spatial scales through time. Strategically, this translated into plans for stimulating successional processes, raising the likelihood of a realizable, resilient and unique urban ecosystem.