Design for Urban Biodiversity: Applying research on biodiversity of urban lawns into landscape design practice

The lawn is a complex ecosystem where turf - the unique phenomenon - plays an essential role. Recent climatic changes and pandemics call for new thinking and approaches to the research on lawns. This chapter discusses and compares the results of implementations from two transdisciplinary projects on alternative lawns in Sweden (Ultuna SLU campus) and Western Australia (Nedlands campus UWA) using experimental Living Labs. The development of successional patterns in Swedish tapestry lawn and meadow plant communities during five seasons and the dynamic of different lawns and their alternatives in Western Australia are discussed. The research on lawns and their alternative in Uppsala and Perth, cities of different climates, cultural, social, and planning histories confirmed lawns’ dominant position in urban green spaces and their complex character as urban biotopes. Because of the unified technique of lawns’ establishing and maintenance, they share similar structure and composition and thus lead to homogenisation of urban ecosystems. Grass species are dominated, but other herbaceous species can appear in lawns and increase their biodiversity. In both cases, the group of herbaceous representatives of legumes, such as clover (Trifolium) and Medicago, were among the most successful species. The major difference between Europe and Australia is the absolute domination of exotic species and a very small percentage of native plants that are capable to colonise Australian lawns. Australian vision of lawns and their alternative is more complicated than in Europe due to the uniqueness and fragile character of native ecosystems and their reaction to urbanisation and changes to the environment. Theoretical and empirical research on lawns and implementations of alternative solutions in demonstration sites reveals that successful implementation of biodiverse lawns requires the knowledge of local native ecosystems and careful use of landscape design principles.