Sustainability and Urban Design

Undergraduate #285
Discipline: Ecology Environmental and Earth Sciences
Subcategory: Plant Research

Cynthia Hill - Harris-Stowe State University
Co-Author(s): Gabrielle Pouncil, Harris-Stowe State University, Saint Louis, MO

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Urbanization poses a real challenge for the pursuit of sustainability. High settlement density including industrialization leading to a concrete jungle may offer some economic and social advancement but it can have profound implications for the environment (Humphries, 2012). Sustainability science has emerged over the past twenty years as a critical field of research with an agenda that seeks to facilitate transition toward sustainability. This leads to improving the capacity to use earth’s ways that meet the needs of stabilizing people living in urban settings (Clark, 2007). Our study involved growing plants indoors in vertical units (bio walls), hydroponics and terrariums. We researched different kinds of plant groups like ferns and mosses, that can grow well in terrariums that are a part of indoor environment. We attempted to make the use of dynamic interactions between plants and people to be incorporated into urban environmental system. Most of these interactions were successful in creating a great platform for future research in the field of urban design and sustainability using plants. This primary author of the research (Gabrielle Pouncil) graduated in May Spring, 2016 and the presenting author has continued research.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): National Science Foundation HBCU-UP Implementation awarded to Dr. Dwayne Smith, Harris-Stowe State University.

Faculty Advisor: Anbreen Bashir, bashira@hssu.edu

Role: Most of the research was accomplished by Gabrielle Pouncil who graduated in Spring, 2016. I continued the research and worked on growing different plants in terrariums in the indoor environment.