Through my dissertation, I want to develop a new model for urbanisation - one that is more ecologically viable. As cities balloon in population and sprawl, they draw in more resources from farther away to sustain the growth. And so, the natural resources used up by a city are merely part of a transaction, not tied intrinsically to the landscape and ecologies around the cities.

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The "Valley Section" is a concept put forth by biologist, philosopher and town- planner Patrick Geddes in the early 20th Century. It is an organisation of people in the "ideal valley", linking their profession to their location along the landscapes. Which this is a concept of socio-economics and planning, for the purposes of my thesis, I have interpreted this as a guideline for sustainability: how do we live in harmony with nature, building our settlements around the natural resources we use? 

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In the image below, you can see my delineation of the peoples' of the "ideal valley" as per Patrick Geddes's Valley Section, and how they depend on the landscape for sustenance and the economy that forms when spread over an entire valley.