| dc.description.abstract | Anthropogenic influenced problems have caused significant challenges for the ecological assemblages of cities. At the same time, current maintenance, horticulture, and landscape care regimes are based on systems that have room for improvement. Utilizing various theories and literature, this master's thesis aims to address how to improve ecological quality in urban landscapes, particularly in Oslo, with a test location at Østre Parkdrag meant to examplify how. The goal is to improve ecological quality using Joan Iverson Nassauer's theory of Cues to Care, which aims to frame more complex vegetation systems to match a locations landscape care language or the preferences of its people.
This thesis uses different methods to answer research questions, including a semistructured interview with NMBU's park manager and former park manager in Oslo. This method revealed that maintenance work in Oslo focuses more on public health than on diversity and ecological function, that there has been a shift in what is seen acceptable in maintenance practice outcomes with more diversity, and that the NMBU campus has its own identity that the park manager must consider when using environmentally friendly maintenance techniques and potentially CTCs. A literature review was done to examine which types of vegetation hold the highest ecological quality in cities, with adaptive and spontaneous species assemblages in cities showing the most potential. The literature review also examines alternative landscape care regimes, focusing on Parker Sutton's "A New Aesthetics of Care" as a possible way forward, which fits well with Nassauer's theories. An other subsection of the literature review focuses on Oslo's landscape care language, and reveals that neatness and order may be a more universal indicator of attractive landscapes and therefore something CTC interventions should strive to meet. Various forms of CTC are then presented. An document analysis of an Operation and Maintenance Performance Description document suggests that Nassauer's landscape care language theories may be relevant in Oslo. Observations of the test location identified more complex vegetation systems and existing CTCs using photogrammetry. Modeling and action research allowed for testing potential CTCs digitally and physically, showing that small interventions can effectively "frame" the novel. | |
