1.2.1 PRINCIPLE ONE: A BALANCE WITH NATURE
There must be a balance between nature and human endeavor! We must understand the difference between exploiting nature and utilizing nature! There is a level of human habitation wherein the resources that are consumed will be replaced, through the replenishing cycles of the seasons, creating environmental equilibrium. So long as nature can resurge each year; so long as the biomass can survive within its own ecological system; so long as the breeding grounds of fauna and avifauna are safe; so long as there is no erosion and the tree coverage is maintained…we are only utilizing nature.
But there is a fragile line that we cross when the fauna, which cross-fertilizes the flora that sustains the soil, which supports the hillsides… is no longer there! When the soil is washed off the land faster than it can be replaced; when the river silts up faster than the natural currents can wash it clean; when the river basin widens and we have to artificially contain the edges… then we have destroyed the natural balance. There is an imaginary threshold…a kind of line that we will cross over… from where we cannot come back. At that point of no return utilization of natural resources will outpace the natural ability of the eco-system to replenish itself. This is when we are exploiting nature, exploiting our city and exploiting ourselves! From there on degradation accelerates and amplifies. Deforestation, desertification, erosion, floods, and landslides all incessantly increase.
Blatant acts against nature include cutting of hillside trees, quarrying on hill slopes, dumping sewerage and industrial waste in the natural drainage system, paving and plinthing excessively and construction on steep slopes. Intelligent Urbanism proposes that the balance of nature can be maintained when fragile areas are reserved as preservation, conservation, or as low intensity habitation precincts. Primary education must include instruction in the theory of ecological and urban balance, including practical fieldwork in the threatened areas.
Intelligent Urbanism operates within the balance of nature.
Intelligent Urbanism aggressively protects and conserves those elements of the
ecology that nurture the environment. Therefore, the first principle of Intelligent
Urbanism is that urbanization be environmentally sound!