Nature+
Monash University is creating campus ecosystems that support nature, contribute to positive biodiversity outcomes and mitigate and adapt to a changing climate. Decisions with regards to masterplanning, landscape, built form and systems connectivity planning will play a key part in realising the broader and specific goals outlined in the Nature+.
It aims to bring into focus the complex web of natural systems which exist on our campuses, understand the many layers which used to and currently exist, and help strategise future projects to help bring forgotten layers back to life by expressing them in the landscape in a way which furthers the end of increasing ecology on our campuses and helping us better understand Country and bring us closer to nature.
This strategy endeavours to re-frame the relationship between non-human and human stakeholders on our campuses and tries to make evident how designing more with and for nature benefits humans on a plethora of levels, and in so doing, renders us all healthier, happier and more connected to the world around us.
Monash’s Nature+ Goals
Monash’s Nature+ Plan is synthesized into six key goals:
- Urban Forest — Create and sustain a resilient, healthy and diverse urban forest to respond to climate and urban pressures while enhancing campus character, user experience, and ecological and socio-cultural life.
- Soil Health — Restore and protect living campus soils so they can cycle nutrients, filter and retain water, support vegetation, and keep ecosystems healthy.
- Connection to Country — Embed Indigenous knowledge into campus planning by supporting Indigenous thinking and employment.
- Biodiversity & Habitat — Strengthen biodiversity and habitat on campus through targeted enhancements and connected nature corridors, while managing invasive species in urban conditions.
- Ecosystem Experience — Design campus places, indoors and outdoors, that connect people to nature, build understanding and appreciation, and move the campus design beyond user-experience design principles to place-experience design.
- Urban Water management — Conserve and manage campus water systems to support soil and vegetation health, microclimate and livability, while responding to disrupted urban water cycles and climate change.
Together they strive to set out a series of targeted goals and a series of actionable projects to enable the Nature+ goals to be met, which look to promote the conservation of nature on our campuses and create an environment loved by staff, students, the broader community and most importantly, the ecosystems inhabiting them.
