1. COMPONENT RELATIONSHIPS 



Environmental Design 



All living organisms modify their 

 environment and leave their imprint 

 on it. This imprint leads to environ- 

 mental change. The uniqueness of 

 the human imprint is in its scale and 

 tempo. Both by accident and by con- 

 scious intent, man has been and con- 

 tinues to be engaged in environmental 

 modifications that are extensive, in- 

 tensive, and rapid. His interventions 

 in and manipulations of the processes 

 of the planetary life-support system 

 (ecosystem) have produced a set of 

 complex problems — the problems of 

 environmental design. 



The entire planet has become man's 

 niche. He is reshaping the world. 

 The natural ecosystem is being trans- 

 formed into a human ecosystem. Just 

 as the development of a natural eco- 

 system can be characterized by a con- 

 tinuum of serai stages ranging from 

 primitive to climax (see Figure IX-1) 

 so can the transformation of natural 

 ecosystem to human ecosystem. A 

 continuum of anthroposeres com- 

 prises the stages of succession. The 

 primitive stage includes a collection 

 of shelters, a discrete cultural tradi- 

 tion, and hunting and gathering to 

 support subsistence. The most recent 

 stage consists of an interlocking web 

 of subsystems each of which includes 

 the city, its satellite towns and vil- 

 lages, a diversity of cultural tradi- 

 tions, a complex of communication 

 links to areas of agricultural produc- 

 tion, pools of wild plant and animal 

 genes, natural resources, depots for 

 wastes, and recreational sites. In- 

 creasingly, man is drawing on the 

 resources of landscape and allocating 

 them to the fulfillment of his own 

 needs and requirements. Perhaps the 

 climax stage will be the total trans- 

 formation of the natural ecosystem 

 to a human ecosystem. As the human 

 population multiplies, this process of 

 transformation accelerates. Man in- 

 tervenes more and more in ecological 



Figure IX-1 — SERAL STAGES OF A DECIDUOUS FOREST 



MANAGED FOREST 

 upto20t/ha 



BUILDINGS 

 UNPRODUCTIVE 

 OF CRYPTOGAMS 



FIELDS 

 5-25 t/ha 



This figure is a schematic diagram of the successional sequence in a deciduous 

 forest. The rectangular areas indicate where man has arrested the successional 

 sequence to create other systems. The numbers indicate annual dry-matter produc- 

 tion in metric tons per hectare (1t/ha = 100g/m-). Cryptogams are plants — ferns, 

 mosses, algae, and the like — which reproduce by spores and do not produce 

 flowers or seeds. 



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