Although green spaces are integral to the concept of liveability, the linkages of biodiversity to liveability are not explicitly understood. This is an issue even in urban ecology, where our understanding of biodiversity’s contribution to ecosystem services (nature’s benefits to humans) is lacking. As our team is diverse with design, liveability, urban ecology backgrounds, we decided to take on the task of outlining the linkages between biodiversity and liveability and present them in a paper. The objective of this paper is to clarify the concepts and ways these ideas are linked together, facilitating better understanding and future interdisciplinary collaborations.
As we worked together on the paper, we came to realize the challenges in interdisciplinary collaboration and communication. Our brainstorming sessions involved a lot of questioning and rephrasing, so we could communicate information from our respective fields to ensure we were all on the same page. Although our progress at this point after each meeting is not visible as tangible goals and results, we all felt that the discussion was fruitful and enlightening which help us to better understand the others’ field and point of view, as well as look at our own fields in a new light. Currently, our collaborative efforts have culminated into simplified mind-maps of Biodiversity and Livability concepts. Our next steps are to link the concepts together to see how they are relevant to the lived experience of the elderly.
To learn more about the research site led by Concordia University in Montreal, click here.
