Pre-Columbian Tropical Urban Life: Placing the past in designs for sustainable urban futures (TruLife)

面对日益城市化的挑战，未来城市发展的战略没有考虑到漫长的城市过去。研究古代城市的考古学家认识到，长期的城市进程可以教会我们不同的人类与环境的相互作用。因此，TruLife的核心研究问题是：以哥伦布玛雅之前的热带城市为例，研究长期城市传统的多样性能否有效地为可持续城市未来的设计提供信息？研究活动根据当前的跨理事会调查重点通知，TruLife将创建一个以人文学科为主导的研究人员网络，融合环境和社会科学。他们将召开三个研讨会，专门讨论建设可持续城市普遍存在的关键问题：A)粮食安全B)腐烂和废物管理C)空间实践TruLife的研讨会为与相关主题相关的比较参考框架、相关术语、数据和分析奠定了具体基础，并将广泛传播。背景考古学家正在记录最长的时间跨度和最多样化的城市发展路径案例。这一显着扩大的城市情景证据基础目前并未用于可持续城市生活的设计。缺乏可比较的参照系(包括可公度的方法和数据表示)导致缺乏直接的、相互提供信息的对话。通过关注玛雅新热带城市传统2500年的良好记录历史，可以在广泛的研究和创新设计应用方面取得可行的、高潜力的结果。玛雅都市主义提供了一个说明问题的案例。它的繁荣没有旧世界城市发展所依赖的“人-动物放牧综合体”。这种对比提出了关于人与环境相互作用中的关键差异的关键问题。玛雅的日常城市生活和发展在不同于全球化温带气候模式的城市生态关系和新陈代谢过程中蓬勃发展。欧洲的殖民主义用这样的模式取代了玛雅的城市配置，导致了关键做法的丧失，包括其对变化的长期适应性。对放牧动物的依赖导致土壤肥力下降、土壤侵蚀、大规模砍伐森林和错误的投资(例如种植农作物饲养牛)，所有这些都对人类构成全球威胁。城市设计和环境工程致力于平衡城市的生态关系，以实现更可持续的社会生活。从TruLife的跨学科接触中得出的想法的可用性源于更好地欣赏学科外的考古贡献，并允许环境和城市社会科学影响考古调查。TruLife将审查长期玛雅热带城市的相关性，为当前关于城市未来战略的讨论提供关键背景和替代方案，在一本国际期刊的特刊上传播结果(TruLife有到都市主义和生态学与社会杂志的链接)，并在现有研究网站上提供简短的方法论指导。为设计想法竞赛制定一个概要将测试在共同关注的领域中新见解和参考框架的能力。竞赛和由此产生的展览将与非学术项目合作伙伴一起组织，创建一个强大的研究和影响后续研究领域的知识交流和影响的舞台。该网络包括一个具有战略意义的英国基地的国际成员(在6个国家有12个)、专家受邀者(6个)和非学术项目合作伙伴(2)。不同的成员，包括相关非政府组织、指导小组和外部合作伙伴的链接，确保了TruLife的产出的质量和广泛的影响力。影响活动涉及城市人口、城市专业人员、学生和公众。

Facing the challenge of increasing urbanisation, strategies for future city development are not considering the long urban past. Archaeologists of ancient cities recognise that long-term urban processes can teach us about diverse human-environment interactions. Thus, TruLife's core research question is: Can studying the diversity of long-term urban traditions, exemplified by pre-Columbian Maya tropical cities, effectively inform designing for sustainable urban futures?Research activitiesUnder the current Cross-Council Enquiry Highlight Notice, TruLife will create a humanities led network of researchers that incorporates the environmental and social sciences. They will convene in three workshops dedicated to pivotal concerns ubiquitous to building sustainable cities: A) Food Security B) Decay and Waste Management C) Spatial PracticeTruLife's workshops establish concrete foundations for comparative frames of reference, associated terms, data, and analysis relevant to pertinent topics, which will be widely disseminated.BackgroundThe longest time span and most diverse cases of urban developmental pathways are being recorded by archaeologists. This significantly expanded evidence base of urban scenarios is currently not used in designs for sustainable urban life. A lack of comparative frames of reference (including commensurable methods and data presentation) causes the absence of direct, mutually informing dialogues.With a focus on the well-documented 2,500 year history of the Maya Neotropical urban tradition, workable, high-potential outcomes for wide-ranging research and innovative design applications can be achieved. Maya urbanism offers an elucidating case. It flourished without the 'human-animal grazing complex' Old World urban growth relies on. This contrast asks crucial questions about critical differences in human-environment interactions. Maya everyday urban life and development thrived in different urban ecological relations and metabolic processes to those of globalised temperate-climate models. European colonisation replaced Maya urban configurations with such models, causing the loss of key practices, including its long-term adaptability to change. Dependence on grazing animals results in declining soil fertility, soil erosion, massive deforestation, and misdirected investments (e.g. growing crops to feed cattle), all of which pose a global threat to humanity.Urban design and environmental engineering aspire to balance ecological relations of cities to attain more sustainable social life. The usability of ideas derived from TruLife's cross-disciplinary encounters follows from both a better appreciation of archaeological contributions outside the discipline and allowing environmental and urban social science to influence archaeological investigation.Dissemination and ImpactTruLife will examine the relevance of long-term Maya tropical cities to offering critical contexts and alternatives to current discussions on strategies for urban futures, disseminating results in a special issue of an international journal (TruLife has links to Journal of Urbanism and Ecology and Society) and abridged methodological pointers on an existing research website.Developing a brief for a Design Ideas Competition will test the ability of new insights and frames of reference in areas of shared concern. The competition and resulting exhibition will be organised with non-academic project partners creating a powerful arena of knowledge exchange and impact, both of research and impacting subsequent research scopes.ReachThe network comprises an international membership with a strategic UK base (12 in 6 countries), expert invitees (6), and non-academic project partners (2). Diverse membership, including links to related NGOs, steering group, and external partners ensure the quality and broad leverage for TruLife's outputs. Impact activities concern urban populations, urban professionals, students, and public.