Page 20 - XITE Magazine 2019

Annual Magazine The 'urban wilderness' refers to the inclusion of biodiversity in urban neighborhoods. The

ANKITA
Assistant Professor, XITE

Encounter the Wilderness: URBAN WILDERNESS

wilderness is high on the urban agenda as a response to dierent challenges: biodiversity and
human experiences of nature are being lost in increasingly dense cities, while at the same time wild
areas are developing in cities that are undergoing post-industrial transformation. Yet there is
confusion around the definitions and the functions of urban wilderness and how humans can be
incorporated therein. A unifying framework has proposed urban wilderness as a social-ecological
system; major components being- the demand for wilderness in urban societies, which diers
among sociocultural groups as a function of underlying values and experiences.
There is global interest in increasing the complexity of urban ecosystems to benefit both people and
nature in cities. However, to successfully plan for and manage more complex landscapes greater
attention is needed on understanding the complementary role of dierent types of green spaces in
cities. Wild spaces occur in many forms across the landscape. Wild spaces are spatially and
temporally diverse, and can act as refuges when other green spaces are not available.

Wilderness is mostly seen as embodying a dualistic vision in which the human is entirely outside the
natural, with wilderness then being defined as those natural areas untouched or unmanaged by
humans. The present reality is, however, that wilderness is used as a much broader concept,
referring even to areas that are situated in urban areas, but have lower levels of human interference
as compared with the heavily controlled and artificial environments that dominate our cities. Thus
areas such as urban woodlands can be defined as wilderness, for example when they have emerged
naturally on abandoned industrial sites.
One way of conceptualizing our relations to urban nature is to apply theplace-space continuum.
'Space' is a common symbol of freedom. Space lies open, suggests the future and invites action. On
the negative side of this, space also can hold a threat, as open and free can also mean exposed and
vulnerable. In contrast to space, place can be characterized as enclosed and humanized space, as
the calm center of established values. In brief, place is security and home, and space is freedom and
the unknown.

Many woodland areas, especially when they are wilder and less managed, can act as 'space' for
urban dwellers, encouraging exploration and adventure, and oering an escape from urban society.
Wilderness experience has been associated with a range of spiritual and transcendent experiences
that provide benefits such as greater self-confidence, sense of belonging to something greater than
oneself and renewed clarity on 'what really matters'. There already is sucient evidence pointing at
the need for wilder green spaces for this aspect to be incorporated into urban planning. When
developing urban green structures, part of the green spaces in the city should be wilder and less
managed. So-called 'urban wildscapes' do not have to be large or spectacular, but represent a wide
spectrum of spaces that emerge as a result of abandoning and lack of control, areas that have
evolved rather than having been designed and planned. These wildscapes are needed as contrasts
to controlled urban life, as places for coming of age. Moreover, it would be wrong to think of a strict
dichotomy of regulated and wild urban places; rather there is a continuum ranging from 'wilderness'
to apparently ordered spaces, with dierent levels of wildness existing at multiple dierent scales at
each locality.

18 Volume-VII, 2019 "The most important thing is transforming our minds, for a new war of thinking, a new outlook;
we should strive to develop a new inner world." - Dalai Lama