Downtown Easton

VAST 214 Class

Vast 214 -Mapping Urban Ecology of Easton, PA

Our planet is increasingly urban, with almost 50% of the world’s population living in urban areas. Urban ecology is an important interdisciplinary approach to environmental science and sustainable development. People throughout the world practice urban ecology, motivated by a desire to create healthy human ecosystems and livable communities. In this course, we studied some of these people, projects and places, as well as the interactions between each.

Our class went on several “Jane’s Walks” in Easton, Philadelphia, and New York. Some of our experiences are presented in and online magazine, found here. “Jane’s Walks” refers to a specific style of walking through a city. The renowned urban ecologist Jane Jacobs described the act of walking through a city as a “ballet,” and called on pedestrians to notice as many details as possible and their emotional responses to them. We were asked to take a walk through these cities and try to engage in such a “ballet.” For further information on Jane Jacobs and her ideas, click here. Our experiences in these cities gave us an idea of what Easton strives at, and what Easton is weak in.

With all of this knowledge, we put ourselves to good use and went out into Easton and mapped what we found. The result is a map of the Urban Ecology within the West Ward section of Easton. Click here to be linked to the map page. We hope to have another map of Easton, showing environmental features of the city, up soon.

We hope the Easton Map will be a central clearinghouse that connects Easton residents and the Lafayette College community through the exploration of ecology.