Sustainable Landscape Arch.
Arid Landscapes
Planning and Design
Conceptual and sketch designs for a Negev Desert Botanical Garden
Native plants alongside a desert wadi - The intensive use of exotic species need only
be conisidered where there is intensive use and the need for artifice
The planning and design of the landscape and townscape in arid areas is often misplaced and relies on unsustainable inputs, which result in detrimental outputs. Most landscape schemes rely on the use of the subsidised water, where water is an extremely scarce and an expensive commodity. The introduction of foreign plants detrimentally alter the landscape and ecological balance. Benz Kotzen Sutainable Landscape has devised methogologies and treatments where function, amenity and ecological/natural interests are properly balanced. The need for different strategies in arid areas is needed not only on the macro level but on the micro level as well, where a small change in the landscape conditions may influence the survival of plants.
With regards to urban design, towns and cities are planned and designed with little regard paid to microclimate and how open space areas function in hot arid areas. People in these areas rely on air conditioning in their homes and in their cars. This state of affairs and is not sustainable where alternative planning and design solutions are available.
Benz Kotzen Sustainable Landscape Arch. offers many years of experience of work and research in arid areas.
Tamarix trees in desert sands planted for shade and Helianthemum vesicarium (type of rock rose)
which carpets the desert floor
Dr. Benz Kotzen
Sustainable Landscape Arch.
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