凱特·奧爾夫是SCAPE景觀設計公司的創辦者和美國哥倫比亞大學城市設計項目的主任。她積極地緻力於應對氣候變化等設計實踐中，其作品被多傢藝術機構，政府部門，學界，科學界和社區部門共享和采納。她在2012年被獲得美國藝術傢稱謂（United States Artist）等。

Kate Orff is the founder of SCAPE and Director of the Urban Design Program at Columbia University. Her activist and visionary work on design for climate dynamics has been shared and developed in collaboration with arts institutions, government agencies, and scholars worldwide, bridging design, science, and community participation to redefine the role of the landscape architect in the age of climate change. She is the co-author, with photographer Richard Misrach, of Petrochemical America. She was named a United States Artist in 2012.

對於我們的世界，凱特·奧爾夫有著樂觀和變化的啓示：我們能夠將社會和生態係統聯結在一起從而可持續地再造我們的城市和景觀。《麵嚮都市生態》的內容包括學術探討，專業指南和宣言。書本重新構思瞭都市景觀設計作為行動主義的一種形式，來證明如何超越於我們熟悉的，日漸過時的環境、都市和社會問題分離的思考模式；並且倡議通過實踐的綜閤性來創造真實的都市生態。

在純粹的實踐中，SCAPE已經革新瞭許多工具和技術，使得設計師，政策製定者和社區參與者能夠運用於此來解決當代最迫切的問題：生物多樣性的喪失， 社會凝聚力的喪失以及生態退化。《麵嚮都市生態》選取瞭SCAPE的多個代錶性項目和研究，傳達瞭一係列的策略來創造一個更加彈性和包容的人居環境。

Kate Orff has an optimistic and transformative message about our world: we can bring together social and ecological systems to sustainably remake our cities and landscapes. Part monograph, part manual, part manife¬sto, Toward an Urban Ecology reconceives urban landscape design as a form of activism, demonstrating how to move beyond familiar and increasingly outmoded ways of thinking about environmental, urban, and social issues as separate domains; and advocating for the synthesis of practice to create a truly urban ecology.

In purely practical terms, SCAPE has already generated numerous tools and techniques that designers, policy makers, and communities can use to address some of the most pressing issues of our time, including the loss of biodiversity, the loss of social cohesion, and ecological degradation. Toward an Urban Ecology features numerous projects and select research from SCAPE, and conveys a range of strategies to engender a more resilient and inclusive built environment.