Is it possible for progress and the planet to thrive side by side?

So far representatives of the issues that frame this debate—thorny matters like roads, business, and the environment—have tried to answer that question individually. But without a plan to coordinate their efforts, little has changed. An upcoming national conference will address this needed framework, offering helpful advice and practical anecdotes to help communities create regional plans that will benefit both humans and the environment.

The 2008 National Conference on Urban Ecosystems: Nature & the Network will be held May 29-30 at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Florida.

Studying how the human network and natural elements interact and affect each other can help leaders construct a regional vision of programs and strategies that support both the environment—and the economy. Speakers at the conference will address transportation, engineering, business, planning, and environmental concerns.

Featured speakers include:

Michael Gallis of Charlotte, North Carolina, is a nationally recognized expert on melding nature and the human network. He will discuss regional frameworks—and the national policy implications of a framework that seeks to restore the environment as it allows humans to continue to progress.

Emil Frankel, a former Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, will discuss ways to build roads that don’t harm and fragment the environment. Frankel is now an independent consultant and director of transportation policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC.

Michael Flaxman, an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will discuss his digital model for analyzing community development. His model, which describes how the human network and the natural systems interact, has been used to analyze the Catawba River Basin in the Carolinas.

Shelley Lauten, executive director of myregion.org, a planning group in central Florida, will describe the process by which leaders in seven counties learned to work together in dealing with infrastructure, air and water quality, and other economic and environmental problems.

Jeff Danter, state director for The Nature Conservancy’s Florida chapter, will discuss landscape conservation, especially in special places like the Everglades and St. John’s River.

Win Hallett, president of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, will describe his city’s ongoing experiences with melding human needs and natural systems into a sustainable regional framework.

Gary Moll, senior vice president of American Forests’ Urban Ecosystem Center, will describe the natural systems element of the Piedmont Crescent project, which is documenting the region’s changing landscape and helping communities understand how to build the value of trees into their growth and development decisions.