For reasons discussed below, we must start by acknowledging that our topic, ‘smart green spaces’ is fraught with controversy. Certainly, as a landscape architect, I am aware that many colleagues feel that a beautiful natural landscape should show no trace of the hand of man, let alone come embedded with its own networked array of high technology, however responsive!

Consequently, I feel obliged to preface our overview of this purportedly troubled relationship of technology and nature with a brief paean of praise for Mother nature at what, many feel, is her darkest hour: Forests burn, seas swell with plastic, biodiversity plunges and the pandemic rages across the face of the globe.

Moreover, if man is to class technology as ‘smart’, then he also needs to acknowledge that nature is ‘super smart’. Janine Benyus, Scientist and author of ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’ believes that most of the problems that have ever existed have already been solved by nature. Flowers for example, can be seen as nature solving a propagation problem whilst delighting the birds, bees and even flies, which have been known to engage in a form of insect pornography, whilst under the influence of this ‘supernormal stimulus’:

‘So effectively are the fly’s mating instincts hijacked by this sexual mimicry, that he ejaculates on the flower, all the while loading himself with pollen.’ (1)

Awesome Awe

To further acknowledge nature’s genius, whilst also indicating how technology might augment this innate capacity, I would like to point to the mind-altering qualities of natural awe:

‘Awe is so powerful, it alters your sense of self, connects you with humanity and boosts your mind and body.’ (2)

And there’s a surprising way to acquire more awe, have you ever been arrested by a sublime view, or overwhelmed by the vastness of the night sky? Or have you ever orbited the earth like the astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who had an epiphany, that changed his life and transformed his outlook, after witnessing the ‘irreplaceable preciousness’ of our blue planet. He is on record as wanting to take politicians by ‘the scruff of the neck’ and force them to undergo the “overview effect” in the vain hope that such an experience might transform environmental policy!

This is where technology can step in and bring the overview effect within reach of the man in the street or rather the man or woman who has access to an isolation tank, and a waterproof VR headset. Such an experiment is currently being carried out at Missouri University, in the avowed hope that ensuing epiphanies will encourage a growing body of environmentally friendly policies, as well as pro-social and pro-planet states of mind and being.

“There’s a lot of division and polarisation and disconnection between people,” said Steven Pratscher, a psychologist and principal investigator in the trials at the University of Missouri. “We’d like to see if we can recreate the overview effect on Earth to have an impact on those issues.” (3)

It is at this juncture, that we need to recognise that our brains are not exclusively fixated on the direct experience of nature, but rather we readily respond to images, videos and virtual representations of natural scenes too. The difference in response is yet to be fully established, though it may relate to the degree of individual immersion.

In this respect, it should be noted that scientists have traditionally preferred to carry out their investigations into human responsiveness to nature under the controlled conditions of a laboratory to ensure accuracy, predictability of context and hence validity of their experimental results. However, using a more subjective and practical research approach, the impact of awe-inspiring imagery has been studied by professor Melanie Rudd in an actual retail setting, where she confirms that ‘awe’ can indeed induce pro-social behaviour and as part of a more generous pro-social outlook, it encourages a willingness to purchase more consumer items than might normally be the case!

Case Study: Tech augments the reality of climate change!

A significant development in the ‘troubled’ but increasingly symbiotic relationship enjoyed by tech and nature is their mutual ability to dramatically raise environmental awareness. It is considered by many to be key to the process of successfully persuading mankind to step back from the brink of climate change catastrophe.

As environmental artist Thijs Bierstecker claims, in his TED-talk on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, science has given us compelling evidence of the climate emergency for the past 50 years, but we have stolidly paid little or no attention to it so he has concluded that we must be made to ‘feel the facts’.

Technology, he argues, has the power to perform this sleight of hand and with the help of scientist Stefano Mancuso, from the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology in Florence, he has created an artwork called the ‘Voice of Nature’ which is exhibited in the gardens of the Fondation Cartier in 2020. The artwork speaks directly to the impact of mankind on the nature of the city: Pollution levels from daily traffic jams and droughts generated by the heat island effect in a major city, combined with other factors influential to the growth and development of trees, are painstakingly monitored by 12 separate sensors. The collected data is then displayed as evolving tree rings of light, projected as an incandescent aura to the rear of each tree.

Bierstecker also adopts a technological approach to highlight the problem of plastic waste deposited in our oceans in the installation ‘Plastic Reflectic’: The installation reflects its audience in plastic pixels made from ocean plastics from around the world:

‘The pixel grid of 601 waterproof engines under the bio-based water are controlled by motion sensors that capture the movement and outline of its spectators.’ (4)

The artistic outcome is a portrait of the individual visitor with a digital record of his every movement writ large in plastic.

In a similar vein, environmental artist and social impact designer Daan Roosegarde uses immersive tech to effectively engender the illusion of inexorably rising sea levels, causing our cities to drown before our eyes. As well as alerting us to the imminent danger of climate change, Daan also offers a proactive solution to pollution which he dismisses as merely ‘bad design’!

His smog free tower cleans 30.000 m3 of contaminated air per hour as well as transforming the resulting carboniferous ‘gunge’ into diamonds by a process of compaction.

One cannot but agree with Daan that so many intractable societal problems could be resolved by a thoughtfully constructed collaborative design process with nature.

It is in this spirit that my colleagues and I, at the Design Charity have designed a global impact garden that employs high tech responsive stepping stones to interrogate potential solutions to issues underpinning climate change and global warming.

Designed as a digital game, this global impact garden questions personal and societal policy as well as the decision-making process that has led us to the brink of natural catastrophe. On a more optimistic note, the garden also explores the prospect of alternative future natural worlds that may lie beyond the barriers standing between us and our conception of a ‘promised land’.

It is the ambition of the charity to develop the processes and principles outlined in the global impact garden on a broader scale as part of our environmental education programme within vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in the City of London.

This project is in its beta phase, but key components will be:

Firstly, sensor readings of local environmental factors such as air pollution, storm water runoff, as well as social and communal data from the residents and their communities. This data will be fed back to the public via a series of high-tech digital beacons inspired by the bonfires of old which alerted the citizenry to impending attack and disaster.

Secondly, using web-based software, we are developing a digital game that crowdsources pressing environmental issues and the barriers to their resolution. Prospective design solutions to these outstanding problems in the form of ‘Promised Land Gardens’ will then be selected by vote from an online citizen assembly.

According to James Lovelock, environmentalist, futurist and proponent of the concept of Gaia, tech has a role to play in the preservation of nature, in fact its role is decisive. Now a centenarian, Lovelock embraces the rapid development of AI which, within the near future, he feels will acquire life and consciousness far in advance of mankind. Thus, according to Lovelock, the Anthropocene will give way to the Novacene and super intelligent AI will have the common sense to save the planet!

Case study Access to Nature: Smart Parks and Plant Hunters

The importance of access to nature is well recognised in the 21st century. It has been shown to reduce aggression and anxiety, improve mood and reduce mental fatigue. However, access to nature is inequitable, limited by social and economic inequality with a concomitant impact on wellbeing indices. A recent study carried out by CRESH at Edinburgh and Glasgow universities showed that the inequalities in mental health that are associated with low income could be reduced by 40% through offering greater access to green space, rather than with the greater provision of shops, public transport and cultural facilities. (1)

It is research data like this, that have prompted Lancaster University to form their concept of the ‘Smart Park’:

‘A national or urban park whose operations are enhanced by effective use of the Internet of Things (IoT) for the (social and welfare) benefit of its stakeholders.’ (5)

Professor Edward Truck, author of a report on this issue argues that Smart Parks will be an ecological necessity for Smart Cities around the world. In particular, he claims Smart Parks could prove an educational resource for a broad cross section of society, becoming a space for education and learning through smart devices, for different citizen groups, such as ‘senior silver potentials and youngsters in Generation Z.’ (5)

The Smart Park could also prove invaluable to societal health and well-being, providing: ‘…salutogenic spaces and Mind Zones for Health, such as those evolving in Japan, into futurizing spaces as Wise Places through combinatorics innovation bringing together IoT and Old Zen culture.’ (5)

An example of such a development is the alliance between Lancaster university and Myatt’s park. Situated in an area of predominantly social housing, Myatt’s park services the needs of disadvantaged multicultural communities in south east London. Their current initiatives range from Wi-Fi connected smart bins and the environmental monitoring of air, water, waste, climate, and carbon footprint calculation, to smart phone apps for issues of personal safety while in a park and booking spaces for community gatherings.

Access to nature can be negatively impacted by technology in another respect, as research has shown, it can play a profoundly negative role in the over exposure of children to screen time, many reportedly spending up to 7 hrs per day on their various devices leaving little or no time for traditional play in nature with growing rates of obesity, diabetes and even A.D.H.D that have all been attributed to such habits.

Plant Hunters

In answer to this dilemma, the Design Charity resolved to repackage technology to persuade children to return to the awaiting embrace of mother nature.

Inspired by research into the dopamine effect — seek and collect — reward system, we designed and prototyped Plant Hunters, a digital game for smartphones and tablet devices. Similar to Pokémon, users of the App assume the role of the ‘plant hunter’ and visit various progressively widening geographical areas in search of virtual specimens. Plants are found by solving visual clues, audio clues, and puzzles, or by collecting information, integral to the game App. When collected, plants are added to a virtual repository within the App and can be used to create virtual gardens individually, or in collaboration with other users. Plant Hunters is a stand-alone digital game, whose predominant focus is to use technology to reverse youths retreat from nature. Its themes and technologies can be adapted or extended to add educational and social value to almost any setting, including community gardens, public parks, and AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).

Case study farming, food and feeding a burgeoning urban population

“Every day there is a new confirmation of how destructive, inefficient, wasteful, cruel and unhealthy the industrial agriculture machine is. We need a total rethink of our food and farming systems before it’s too late.” (6)

As we continue to probe technology’s chequered relationship with nature, we must acknowledge that so many of mankind’s efforts to bring efficiency to food production have ended in threatening the balance of nature and ultimately the welfare of the human species.

Industrial farming, it seems, is now a ‘threat to all life on the planet’! In the US, for example, campaigners identified the world’s largest ever ‘dead zone’, an area in the sea where pollutants from farms create algal blooms that kill off or disperse marine life and singled out the US’s heavily industrialised factory farm system as a major cause. (6)

Yet advances in digital tech can be used to promote our natural world. Two developments that are worthy of note: First the ‘smart cow’ who strides onto the stage, her every movement tracked by a pedometer clasped to her ankle which, together with six other sensors, collectively feed into an app called ‘Ida’ that monitors seven different behaviors of every cow in the herd.

‘Ida can predict problems ranging from health and oestrus to feed, which accounts for 70% of most farms cost’. (7)

Even on small farms, return on investment can be up to 5 times greater when Ida can identify whether a cows’ consumption is reflected in milk production and if not, such cows can be culled as part of a selective breeding programme.

Clearly efficiency and profit margins are optimised under Ida’s all-seeing supervision, however it remains to be seen whether digitally inspired selective breeding programmes can accommodate the popular movement towards small scale organic farming:

“Breeding a dairy cow super-race by killing off under performers sounds chillingly reminiscent of dystopian science fiction,” says Kierra Box, a campaigner specialising in sustainable diets and land rights with Friends of the Earth, the conservation charity.

By contrast, our second example of high-tech farming seems to have squared the circle of providing copious quantities of affordable fresh food whilst assuaging the doubts of the most environmentally principled observer. Come meet the vertical farm, embedded in the heart of the big city:

‘Say hello to an amazing, vertical hydroponic farm that produces ultra-fresh and highly-nutritious crops. What’s even more exciting is that Square Mile Farms have set up in Paddington Central, London’s busy work and social hub.’ (9)

Designed to optimise space and reduce waste, vertical farming ‘miraculously’ grows fresh food out of a substrate of recycled plastic bottles:

‘Water and nutrients are fed in from the top of the tower and dispersed by gravity.’ (9)

The plants receive no sunlight, just light from hanging LED lamps. But of course, the magic is supplied by the software and the IOT technology:

‘There are thousands of infra-red cameras and sensors covering everything, taking fine measurements of temperature, moisture, and plant growth.’ (9)

In sum, vertical farming ticks most environmentally friendly boxes whilst boasting praiseworthy efficiency in the production of nutritious fresh food on the doorstep of their consumers.

In summing up the current state of smart green spaces, we have acknowledged that Technology enjoys a ‘troubled relationship’ with nature especially where economic efficiency has been prioritised over other systemic design criteria; a conclusion which would confirm Daan Rosengard’s hypothesis that many ecological problems are simply the result of ‘bad design’.

On the other hand, we have found that technology can be a positively transformative force when synthesized and truly allied with the innate intelligence of nature. In particular, its immersive and seductive power can be harnessed in the impactful delivery of environmental education, from ‘feeling the facts’ of climate change to heightening the attraction of parks and other healthy green open spaces. Furthermore, on a more fundamental survival level, tech facilitated farming appears to be able to solve the problem of feeding an ever-increasing population without destroying the planet whilst virtual reality offers the possibility of altering, i.e. widening and deepening our collective psyche, turning humanity into a more generous prosocial species. Whether these developments lead to the ‘Novacene’, a healthy biosphere and a much-diminished role for mankind, as currently constituted, remains to be seen.