Measured impacts of engaging community with floating wetlands and eco-art in Seattle, WA, USA

Abstract

The Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle, Washington has a strong human-dominant history as an industrial landscape. This Sweetgrass Socio-Ecological Study analyzed relationships between people and the environment to understand the role community engagement has in connecting humans to more-than-human elements such as vegetation, water, air, and wildlife. Participatory action research was supported by a landscape biography focusing on the site’s environmental history. Design interventions were then used to create awareness of and help address injustices to more-than-human elements in the landscape. Finally, a post-occupancy evaluation was conducted to examine the landscape literacy, ecological literacy, and place attachment of site users. This study demonstrated the importance of a participatory action process that considers both human and more-than-human elements. Post-occupancy evaluation responses indicated that engaged community members considered more-than-human elements and showed a greater desire for proenvironmental behaviors. They highlighted the role community engagement can play in strengthening relationships between humans and more-than-humans. This study suggests that community engagement in landscape restoration interventions is important in cultivating meaningful connections with the land and is necessary to restore system relationships between humans and more-than-humans. It also suggests that expressing narratives—sometimes called “storytelling”—through design and ecorevelatory practices should be more widely implemented for people to understand and steward landscape systems around them. A holistic lens to design is vital to improving the relationships between people and the environment and to promoting landscape stewardship practices.