The realization that nature is ubiquitous, a whole that embraces the city, has powerful implications for how the city is built and maintained, and for the health, safety, and welfare of every resident….The city must be recognized as part of nature and designed accordingly.... Nature in the city must be cultivated, like a garden, rather than ignored or subdued.

There is a common tendency to focus on natural features (e.g. rivers and trees) rather than the processes that shape and structure them (e.g. flow of air, water, and materials; plant reproduction and growth). Ignoring natural processes leads to harmful consequences, including the failure of planners to accommodate dynamic change, their failure to make connections among seemingly unrelated issues and phenomena and to realize opportunities.

It is time to employ one of the greatest human talents, the ability to manipulate the environment, to transform an environment that has become hostile to life itself into a humane habitat which sustains life and nourishes growth, both personal and collective.

Solutions to the problems of the city and its region must not be separated, but rather coordinated and undertaken with as much understanding of the urban ecosystem as current knowledge permits…to facilitate a comprehensive plan for the management of the urban ecosystem and to establish a frame within which individual components can be designed, every city should identify its most critical problems, and most significant resources, explore the potential links among them, and establish priorities for their resolution and protection....Every new building and park should be designed to require the minimum input of energy and materials, to generate minimal wastes, and whenever possible, to serve more than one purpose.

Civilizations and governments rise and fall; traditions, values, and policies change; but the natural environment of each city remains an enduring framework within which the human community builds. A city’s natural environment and its urban form, taken together, comprise a record of the interaction between natural processes and human purpose over time. Together, they contribute to each city’s identity.