Design Dialogue with Vanessa Lee

Design Dialogue: Resolving Tradeoffs Between Biodiversity and Human Health Support in Native Planting
Speaker: Ying Chik (Vanessa) Lee
How to approach native planting design in urban spaces that resolves tradeoffs and maximizes benefits between human health and urban biodiversity support? The talk will share insights from the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI)’s newly released Ecology for Health guide, which is based on an extensive review of ecological literature on the potential of cities to support native plants and wildlife, as well as research exploring the health benefits of access to biodiverse greenspace, to help local plant experts, landscape architects, and planners create urban spaces that are healthy for both people and nature.
Ying Chik (Vanessa) Lee is an Associate Environmental Scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI). With an interdisciplinary background in environmental planning, landscape architecture, and arboriculture, she delves into research exploring pathways and science-based approaches to maximize the ecological and ecosystem service potential of urban greenspaces. She dedicates significant research efforts to understanding how to resolve tradeoffs between different benefit maximization goals across native biodiversity and human use functions.