Ecological Aesthetic Practice and Water Sensitive Design in Landscape Studies

In recent years, the concept of water sensitive urban design has received considerable attention as an efficient approach to solving problems caused by conventional surface water management in Australia. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) contributes to natural water cycle restoration in urban development. The technics proposed by this approach, in relation to optimal planning and management, improve the quality of runoff and reduce its volume, expand green space, and integrate the natural process with the city landscape. As the WSUD approach concentrates on technical-based scopes of environmental (ecological) interventions, it cannot be used as a comprehensive solution for environmental interventions. Therefore, it is assumed that WSUD can be used to develop a landscape model for environmental intervention by employing ecological aesthetic design principles. The extant study reviews the relevant literature to find the gaps in this technical approach. This study was conducted to analyze and match the components obtained from research literature by using logical argumentation regarding the position of water sensitive approach in the development. Besides, necessity of ecology aesthetic was taken into account for a sustainable landscape. Since water-sensitive technics follow the natural processes to be matched with varying environmental conditions, these technics have a natural beauty. It should be mentioned that the beauty of nature has been proved while its relationship with culture has remained undefined. As the mediating element between ecology and culture in landscape design, ecological aesthetics outlines the process of landscape design using WSUD solutions and measures to improve the mental and human aspects of the landscape.