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“The forgotten landscapes” is a research-design project that raises awareness of the Australian alluvial landscapes of chain-of-ponds, and presents evidence-based strategies and design interventions to sustain the Cumberland Plain. It highlights an understudied, yet highly important landscape typology, especially for future climate resilient developments within suburbs in close reach of accelerating threats: increased temperatures, extreme droughts, floodings, extensive urban sprawl and biodiversity loss.
The project aims to address historical and temporal land practices which repeatedly fail to acknowledge the deeper nature of the chain-of-ponds systems. As a part of this, it includes a transparent design process, communicating the gaps within its methodologies and recommendations for further research projects. Drawing from the extensive field work and ecological learnings from Peter Ridgeway, Team Leader for Biodiversity at Greater Sydney Local Land Services, “The forgotten landscapes” proposes three strategies for resilient land management. The strategies apply not only to the human populations living in Sydney’s western plains, but also to non-human species as well as ecological forces in play within the landscapes.
Creating gathering spaces through walkways to invite residents into the landscape as an educational component, turning such spaces into functional ones. Landscape resilience will be promoted through reintroducing plant species and removing invasive weeds. This will assist the pond landscapes to recover, preventing the further degrading processes. Lastly, the creation of water-holding capacity basins (ponds) will allow for a decrease in the severity of future droughts and flooding, where a fully functioning water cycle will positively affect landscape productivity and climate resilience.
