When it comes to businesses in the West Midlands, many would not think of themselves as an integral part of the landscape. But businesses provide not only economic benefits to the area but are also an intrinsic part of the urban scene, helping to define the character of the region. Now their role in the wider landscape is being explored in a two-day event on the 3rd and 4th of October called Towards an International Landscape Convention – Rethinking Land Use.
The event forms the centrepiece of the Urban Thinkers Campus led by Kathryn Moore, Professor of Landscape Architecture at Birmingham City University’s School of Architecture and Design. She said ‘The two-day multidisciplinary event, held online and in person, will establish the case for an International Landscape Convention. The event aims to provoke, challenge and inspire different behaviours and attitudes from businesses towards the land, enabling us to better deal with global challenges in urban regions.’
The climate impacts alone on the local economy were laid bare in a recent climate report published by the West Midlands Combined Authority. It stated the affects on businesses and industry in the region could include:
- Increases in climate-related health problems affecting productivity.
- As our population grows more people will be deemed vulnerable to climate impacts, resulting in a strain on health and social care resources.
- Income inequality may grow as access to utilities such as water and energy become more expensive (to cope with damaged infrastructure) which will particularly affect those already on a low-income.
Kathyrn added ‘The critical significance of the infrastructure of landscape in tackling the interrelated and accelerating problems of the climate emergency, pollution, urbanisation, health and well-being, food and water security and loss of biodiversity is slowly becoming more apparent but continues to be a blind spot in regional and national economic strategies. Just like people businesses have been severely impacted by these landscape changes, so it is important they play their part in rethinking land use.’
It has never been more important to facilitate this shift in approach. Disquiet about current development practices raised by UN Agencies at the 2022 World Urban Forum was confirmation that business as usual is clearly not an option and that more radical change is needed. We need to be braver, more ambitious and more determined to deal with the global challenges we face, and businesses have a critical role to play.
Aligned with the UN’s City We Need Now! Initiative, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and using the experience of developing the West Midlands National Park, the Urban Thinkers Campus 2024 will see some of the world’s leading landscape and city thinkers and practitioners come together in Birmingham, to discuss how best to increase international awareness of:
- the cultural, economic and ecological significance of the infrastructure of landscape and its immense restorative capacity
- our dependency on landscape for everything we need – clean air, soil, food, water, biodiversity, identity and culture
- the contribution the infrastructure of landscape can make to social, environmental and spatial justice across all seventeen Sustainable Development Goals