Resilience capacity
Introduction
Resilience is the term used in the ecology of communities and ecosystems to indicate their ability to absorb disturbances, maintaining their structure, dynamics and functionality characteristics practically intact; being able to return to the situation prior to the disturbance after its cessation.[1] As a general empirical rule, it has been observed that more complex communities or ecosystems—which have a greater number of interactions between their parts—tend to have greater resilience, since there is a greater number of self-regulatory mechanisms.
The resilience capacity of an ecosystem is directly related to the richness of species and the transfer of ecosystem services. That is, a system in which its members have more diversity and number of ecological functions will be able to recover better from a specific disturbance "Disturbance (ecology)".
Resilience is defined as the ability of a system to return to the conditions prior to the disturbance.[2][3][4] To calculate it in a given time interval, the quotient is made between the measurements before and after the disturbance of any descriptive variable of the ecosystem.[5].
Resilience in landscape design
Landscape design is understood as the intentional design of buildings, landscapes, communities and regions, being aware of the vulnerabilities they present. For the Institute of Resilient Design, taking resilience into account in designs means focusing on the practical, on grounded solutions (that have been working well on the ground for some time).[6] For landscape design it is common to apply the analysis of the elements that make up the system we call cultural landscape[7] taking into account both the environmental and social-cultural variables that modify them, since we understand the landscape as something dynamic.
Although culture is what shapes the planet by transforming borders, territory is the means by which these human cultures are consolidated, according to Carl O. Sauer.
Since the 1970s, the Scottish landscape architect, Ian L. McHarg, rethought landscape design and planning with the recovery of genius loci[8] linked directly to the valuation of elements subject to change, to temporality.
For the Resilient Design Institute, these elements are measured in principles that serve as the guideline that the designer follows to identify, know and apply this type of design in their methods to carry out something that provides an environmental and social benefit.