Sasaki Principal and Chair of Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Ecology, Michael Grove, ASLA, PLA, participated in the 2020 ULI Mainland China Summer Meeting via Zoom in early July, presenting to a live audience in Shanghai. Grove’s presentation topic was “Post-Pandemic Cities: 4 Strategies That Will Position Cities to Adapt and Thrive” in which he outlined ways cities can plan to redesign themselves to be more resilient to future pandemics.

Michael presented these four strategies for cities to consider moving forward:

1. Building Dense + Limiting Sprawl – it has been shown that urban and suburban sprawl can actually worsen the impacts of a pandemic’s spread, and dense urban environments show no link to higher infection rates with Coronavirus
2. Establishing a Conservation Economy – emphasizing the importance of biodiversity and habitat conservation now more than ever, because destroying habitats destroys the systems that support human life
3. Investing in Open Space – the benefits of accessible green space affect our physical, mental, and emotional health, and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital importance of access to the outdoors
4. Cultivating Food Security – the global pandemic majorly disrupted food supply chains, starkly highlighting the inefficiencies inherent in the commercial agricultural systems we largely rely on today. With impending impacts of climate change on the horizon, the need to diversify food sourcing to include urban agriculture and localized food is more critical than ever

Read more of Grove’s perspectives on the risk posed by unchecked sprawl and the role landscape architects have to play in preventing future pandemics from propagating.