Ecostructure

The term "Ecostructure", "ECO-Structure" or "Eco-Structure" is a neologism, and in some cases a commercial name, that has three general meanings:
* As a description of natural eco-systems by making an analogy with humanly built and designed infrastructure
* As a trade name of various private companies, websites or magazines involved in Green construction or Green buildings
* As a partnership between EMC, CISCO and Oracle to share a common IT infrastructure blueprint
Ecology as infrastructure

"Ecostructure as a word and concept was published and seemingly coined independently in 1992 by Andrew Lemer (in the Journal of the American Planning Association) and Stewart Brand (in Whole Earth Review). Others have subsequently adapted the term to their own purposes.".
MATRIX LLC defines ecostructure as follow:

"The discovery, development, and application of environmentally advantageous practices that support human settlement for a sustainable high quality of life. The concept of "ecostructure" includes cultural, social, and economic elements as well as technological-- places, institutions, physical facilities, and related services that have come to be called infrastructure. These elements provide the underlying structure and essential support for our economy and society."
In 1999, prof. Haiki Tane defines ecostructure in analogy to infrastructure:

" The key structures sustaining settled landscapes are both geospatial:
* Infrastructures: These are the networks of roads, railways, telecommunications, social services, utilities, facilities and buildings. They are designed and built by architects, engineers, surveyors, technicians and politicians.
* Ecostructures: These are the networks linking sites, habitats and landscape ecosystems into catchment ecosytems. They are mapped and studied by biogeographers, catchment ecologists and environmental designers. It may help to visualize infrastructure as engineering networks and systems built of concrete and steel and natural ecostructures as habitats and ecosystems."
The same year the term was used in a paper titled "Infrastructure, suprastructure and ecostructure : a portfolio of sustainable growth potentials" by Peter Nijkamp
Businesses, websites or publications related to green construction
* Eco-Structure: A magazine published by Hanley-Wood Corp., about "Advancing the green building movement through environmental performance and sustainable design"
* ECO STRUCTURES Australia is a manufacturer of pre-fabricated modular Eco Kit Tents, Eco Kit Cabins and Eco Kit Villas:
* A Canadian website which appears to be a news directory of "Green" construction projects
EMC, CISCO and Oracle common IT infrastructure blueprint
* A partnership between EMC, CISCO and Oracle to share a common IT infrastructure blueprint, as described in the following article:

"The ECOstructure alliance comprises engineering personnel and products from each company and is dedicated toward ongoing testing and validation of existing and new e-business solutions based on the Oracle Internet Platform; EMC's Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems and software; and the Cisco 7000 Series routers, Catalyst 6000 family switches, Cisco LocalDirector, Cisco Content Engine and the Cisco Secure PIX firewall. ECOstructure is part of Oracle's E-Business Continuity program of highly available, securely managed computing solutions."

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu