Designing Nature’s Half:
The Blog
News and education about landscape conservation and design.
AI Is Infrastructure: From Project Planning to Landscape Design
Artificial intelligence is often described as software, but a new United Nations University report argues that it is also physical infrastructure. If AI will reshape our landscapes through its demands for energy, water, transmission, and land, are project-by-project decisions still enough? This essay explores why the future of conservation may depend on moving from project-by-project planning to intentional landscape design.
The Planet Has Already Changed. So Must We.
The United States has just experienced the second-warmest winter on record. Viewed over a longer time horizon, however, this moment is part of a much larger story. Within a single lifetime, winter temperatures across the country have risen dramatically, illustrating the accelerating pace of environmental change. As the planet’s ecological systems shift, the institutions historically responsible for conservation are also coming under strain. These converging trends raise a critical question: what kinds of regional institutions and planning approaches will be needed to design and steward sustainable landscapes in the decades ahead?

