Building on the legacy of historic greenway planning in the U.S., several new initiatives have been taking shape and gaining recognition in the past decade. One is 'Green Infrastructure' planning which is a 'must have' inter-connected system of green spaces. Another is 'Smart Conservation'-the counterpoint of another planning initiative that preceded it known as 'Smart Growth'. This is the establishment of critical green corridors that should be preserved and maintained for predominantly ecological functions, in advance of or in conjunction with new development. 'New Urbanism' has focused on bringing order and coherence to escalating 'Edge Cities' on the urban fringe, based on walkable, mixed-use towns, villages and neighborhoods with integrated open-space systems. Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) are transportation plans for accommodating regional growth around clustered 'pedestrian pockets' linked by transit systems. Both New Urbanism and TODs have applied similar principles to 'brown sites' and declining city neighborhoods.

Proceedings of the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning, 2019

Carroll Elizabeth, cited Archana 2010 Rethinking greenways design in context of sustainable development:towards landscape synergism Proceedings of Fabos Conference on Landscape and Greenways Planning : 347-364, under “References” in Carroll, “Civilizing ecological landscape through assimilation of urban parks and vacancy: a case study Baltimore, Md” in Fabos,J.G., Lindhult, M., Ryan, R., Jacknin,M.(ed). Proceedings of 2013 Fabos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning: Pathways to Sustainability, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2013 April 12-13, pp 527-535, pg 218

WIT Transactions on State of the Art in Science and Engineering, 2015

Metropolitan areas have a growing need for better connections with inter-urban green areas, which are better dissected by large infrastructure networks. This chapter analyses the planning process of the green Craailo bridge in the Netherlands, the world's largest artifi cial and a very expensive nature bridge. The planning process appears to have been far from linear. In fact, many incidents, sudden changes and unexpected opportunities were evident during the planning process, not described in common planning literature. The complexity perspective and planning process of the Craailo bridge were analysed based on several policy documents that were scrutinised, along with 19 interviews conducted with key players. A new perspective on highly complex planning processes in the spatial planning practice was introduced as a fi nal result of this research.

William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, 2020

During the early and mid-twentieth century the automobile captured the imagination of the American public. Superhighways, which were the vision, became the reality with the promise of speedy and safe travel. During this visioning, little attention was given to the impacts the highway system would have on urban America. Of course, by the end of the century the impacts were quite clear and distressing. Traffic congestion and air pollution became, and now are, among the most challenging aspects of life in American cities. In contemplating measures to alleviate the negative effects of these twin challenges, federal, state, and local agencies, encouraged by the environmental movement and transit advocacy, have promoted transit-oriented development ("TOD") as a potential remedy. Paralleling efforts in foreign cities like Munich and Singapore, U.S. cities including Denver, Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Somerville (MA) have all invested themselves in urban development projects built at public transit nodes aimed at building walkable, bikeable communities that provide mobility from home to work and recreational sites without the use of automobiles. In the process, TOD has had to deal with its own set of issues from funding and value capture to zoning and low-income housing. This Article provides an in-depth study of five American and two international TOD projects in an attempt to discover the variety among approaches to TOD and some of the issues TOD raises.

Nature Environment and Pollution Technology, 2023

Urbanization is intrinsically connected to economic progress. India's rapid economic and population growth has increased its carbon footprint and traffic congestion. A long-term strategy is essential to preserve the balance and alleviate the issues arising from the expansion. Integrating land use and transportation planning has been acknowledged as a means to achieve sustainable urban development worldwide. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is one such strategy. TOD is a planning and design strategy for promoting urban development by clustering jobs, housing, services, and amenities around public transport stations. This strategy can help achieve sustainable communities and improve the quality of life. This research paper assessed the land use characteristics of an urban fringe area in Trivandrum city and completed a land suitability analysis using GIS software tools. A potential node for redevelopment was identified by looking at various traffic, demographic, and land use parameters. Detailed TOD recommendations for the area surrounding the transit node were proposed based on its development potential.

Sustainable urban design offers a dynamic, creative and collaborative process strengthened by a number of different disciplines in order to generate ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible transformations in urbanized areas. Through thoughtful evaluation of viable alternatives and meaningful implementation of key design concepts, principles, and strategies the sustainability of urban areas can be tremendously improved. Sustainable design efforts should emphasize the importance of balancing conservation and new developments, minimize sprawl, integrate mixed-use infill re/developments, and allow for a multiplicity of mobility options for residents.

Green Corridors are an essential component of the cities' ecological networks; they are a strong response to environmental problems. They have a dual purpose. In addition to their ecological role in creating a pure vision, and helping people to live in better communities, they provide access routes, and improve the quality of life, particularly social life. Therefore, they should be viewed as part of the overall network of habitats throughout the city. Green Corridors' designs produce a subsidiary network of greenways to actualize and complete the green infrastructure framework. Alexandria city, Egypt, has many of those corridors, which give a good opportunity to create local Green Networks of high quality. The development of Mahmoudeya Canal, which is the main Green Corridor in Alexandria, may be the main axis to increase the number of open spaces, and to create an attractive urban environment. This paper aims to apply such corridors to unify and actively connect all parts within the city's fabric and beyond. This will create new channels for population-distribution, provide more economic opportunities and increase the potential value of land potential. It will also present a conceptual design for a Green Network inside the urban form of Alexandria city. Main nodes at the existing canal will be created as the central pivots to run the Green Network into the different parts of the city, and form many areas encircled by greenways. Thus, it will ease the development procedures of these areas to have adaptive green areas and enhance their environmental context. The paper concludes that Green Corridors have a pivotal role in increasing environmental quality, so planners and decisions makers should incorporate Green Networks in the urban form of the new communities, and plan to develop the existing corridors through good management and maintenance.

IJIRMPS, 2018

As cities age and change, certain areas begin to physically decay and suffer from the flight of both its residents, as well as socioeconomic activities. The means by which these areas are regenerated remains an issue for many cities, who are unable to reconnect these places with opportunities needed to thrive. In response to this challenge, transit-oriented developments have become a more recent, sustainable form of urban growth that allow people to navigate a city’s socioeconomic activities and opportunities through well-established modes of transportation. This has the potential to create cities in which people are able to have a ‘live, work, play’ lifestyle, supported by various modes of public transportation that also connects them to the broader urban context.

Land

The UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for the provision of universal access to: (a) safe, inclusive, and accessible green and public spaces, and (b) safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable transport systems for all. The Barcelona green axes plan aims to transform one third of the streets within its 19th century extension grid, increasing the tree cover and the vegetation, adopting sustainable urban drainage systems, limiting motor traffic, and providing a safer and more comfortable environment for pedestrians, cyclists, and other social activities in healthier environments. These transformations become even greater at the intersection of the axes, where former traffic junctions are becoming squares and urban gardens. This study gives an in-depth analysis of the origins of the superblocks plan, the rationale behind the transformation, and the implementation process. The GIS-based analysis shows how the green axes and the new square gardens (a) transform the ci...

AI

Logistics and Transport, 2017

Greenways as linear open spaces in the landscape, planned for multiple usage, can perform significant ecological and social functions as for example: increasing biodiversity, protecting water resources, urban flood damage reduction, wildlife protection, serving as recreational, easy accessed public spaces. Their linear configuration provides an opportunity to unify parts of metropolitan regions dispersed as a result of urban sprawl. Greenways constitute linkages across landscape patches in different planning scales (city, suburbs, exurbs and hinterland scales) for various uses compatible. They help to assist in the revitalization of urban derelict lands, and to change former industrial centres into mixed-use public open spaces oriented to tourism and recreation. The objectives of the paper are: to explore the concept of multi-function of greenways through studies of selected examples of metropolitan areas and to present opportunities to implement urban greenways in local and metropo...

Sustainability, 2021

Greenways (GWs) can play a key role in the context of policies and strategies for sustainable territorial development because they contribute to the development of integrated plans and interventions for environmental safeguarding and socio-economic growth. As is generally understood, in their modern conception, GWs are not only develop soft mobility, but they also represent supporting elements of a new concept of development and use of territory, attentive to its particular characteristics and the needs of resident populations. Beginning with a critical analysis of the most significant case studies of greenways, the authors propose a system of design and evaluation guidelines useful in identifying specific GW-related actions. The identified actions are divided into two categories, which are tangible and intangible actions. The first category corresponds with concrete actions that are directly implemented through different design and construction phases; the second category corresponds with processes activated in the design phase and are concretized after the "commissioning" of the path and has repercussions on the sphere of place identity. These categories are often difficult to distinguish between because many actions can be considered to be both tangible and intangible.

Landscape Architecture, 2010

With the greenway project in Sofa City of Bulgaria as an example, this paper explores the development potential of greenways in the emerging cities. It proposes the master plan of green ray and green identity axes and the" 8+ 1 Strategy Vision" on the basis of the initial ...

ARCHITECTURAL SCIENCES AND ECOLOGY, 2022

This study briefly explores the global landscape of Transit-Oriented Developments and presents a concise summary of the principles behind successful TOD projects worldwide. The research explores various definitions for Transit-Oriented Developments and focuses on a single definition that is most commonly cited. A set of design and implementation principles for ecologically successful and sustainable transit developments is established based on the research and the literature review. Transit-Oriented Development is about creating and exploiting “synergies between the community and the region, between jobs and housing, between levels of density and levels of transit service, between people and a vibrant community life, and among different generations, income levels, and people” (Dittmar & Ohland, 2004).

2013 Proceedings of Fabos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning, 2013

As development pressures and urbanization continue to creep into the remaining highly valued natural spaces across the globe, the demands communities place on their ecological systems increase. The predominant environmental planning strategies practiced in the United States focus on ecological issues, and though many demonstrate success, these strategies fail to capitalize on a more comprehensive framework to include a broader range of resources beyond ecological, such as social and economic. Green infrastructure planning, a relatively new comprehensive planning approach which focuses on ecosystems and environmental networks, has the existing techniques and capacity to provide a more inclusive framework for applying systems-thinking to a broader range of networks beyond natural or ecological systems alone. Given a thoughtful and interconnected strategy to the planning process, grounded in an asset based context, social and natural systems can operate together to sustain healthy, functional environments.

Cities are becoming more and more crowded, but they remain as the commercial and business centers. Therefore, developers are continuing to create new urban developments to cater for growing population of cities, however, they usually lack mixed-use opportunities for new residents to work and do business, so constant travel to the main city center is needed. The lack of proper access to public transportation to these areas increases the need for automobile infrastructure to support its continued growth. A transit-oriented development (TOD) integrates various land uses around transit areas for economic growth and pleasurable travel experience, while protecting and conserving the environment. TODs for urban developments will increase integrated green spaces, green infrastructure development, and better connectivity between urban developments. The study elaborates on a tool (The TOD-Suitability Index (TSI)) that empowers planners, decision makers, and designers that integrate public transportation access, land-use planning and zoning, place-making, and green infrastructure, therefore improving quality of life and human well-being, better use of the public transportation system, improved streetscape, and public space conditions. Case studies were done in three scales of transit-areas (neighborhood, city, and regional). The case study areas have either a prominent residential area, commercial zone, or is a central business district that have access to multiple modes of public transportation. The results of the case studies showed that all areas failed because they scored low in Place Value and Market Potential even though they had average to high Node Value scores. Recommendations generated by the TSI provide basis for items that need to be developed to improve transit areas which allows the project prioritization, budget allocation, and comprehensive development plan integration.

The urban book series, 2023

The strategy for sustainable mobility of December 2020 by the European Commission defines the alignment of the transport sector with the European Green Deal, for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions related to transport by 2050. This involves linear infrastructure of sustainable mobility in our cities. The research has a focus on strategies to increase sustainable travel, with a view to improving the quality of public space and reducing the weight of heavy transport. A coordinated planning directs actions toward mitigation tools and sharing of public spaces through necessarily systemic interventions, which identify a common scenario, involving increased use of city greenways connected with urban node. Working on the level of cycling in Pescara case study (IT) means to act to a systemic approach involving different kind of action on infrastructure and on active participation of inhabitants. Among all a focus was developed on the urban greenway on the riverfront, crossing stretches of great environmental and landscape quality with its seven kilometers, which potentially could connect peripherals part of the cities, currently in a state of semi-abandonment. The Biciplan guidelines, meeting the objective by a project involving youth activism, could help achieve sustainability objectives and improve environmental performance, starting from its integrated enhancement, developing the axis in an urban sense, reconnecting the city and improving the peripheral mobility of the city. The consequence of coordinated planning and directing actions toward mitigation tools are followed in the reduction of emissions at the local level, contributing to proximity of travel.

china-up.com

2009

The Woodbridge neighborhood lies two miles from downtown Detroit and is home to a diverse community of students, artists, young professionals, families, and empty nesters. In February 2008, participating Woodbridge residents completed a community design process led by the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) that resulted in a master plan and development strategy to guide future growth in the neighborhood. Our master's practicum was to further develop the design of a greenway through the Woodbridge neighborhood and plan a system of bike routes that connected the neighborhood to local and regional biking and greenway efforts. Research strategies included a literature review regarding greenway history and benefits, previous local attempts at greenways, design elements, site inventory and analysis, and a community meeting and survey tool. Observations conclude the neighborhood infrastructure emphasizes vehicular traffic and lacks pedestrian elements, and residents appreciate the naturalistic areas of the neighborhood but desired more recreational amenities. The Woodbridge Neighborhood Greenway and Bike Plan Design Guide is a booklet that communicates the design intent, program and features to community members and to the client, Woodbridge Neighborhood Development Corporation. The Design Guide strives to improve and enhance the pedestrian and non-motorized transportation experience throughout the Woodbridge neighborhood, connecting it to local amenities and greenways, and identifying it as a unique community within the City of Detroit. Methods

Ecosystem Health and Sustainability

Objectives: (1) to explore what kind of green infrastructure (GI) meets the demand for urban ecological security of rapid urbanization areas; (2) to figure out how to determine the specific function and configuration of GI from ecosystem service requirements of urban ecological security. Methods: (1) Through the literature review, this article summarizes the function and structure evolution of GI in order to adapt to urban growth. (2) Standing on the imperfect ecological functions and unreasonable spatial configurations, this article builds up a conceptual model for the optimization of green infrastructure ecosystem services to meet the demand for the green infrastructure pattern needed by urban growth. Results: The optimization framework consists of four central function modules and its regulating and controlling mechanisms, including: (1) Balancing supply and demand of GI's ecosystem service; (2) Measuring and evaluating GI's ecosystem services; (3) Elevating and optimizing GI's ecosystem service; (4) Building urban ecological security pattern with high efficiency of GI's ecosystem services. Moreover, this framework provides guidance for the planning and design of GI and the urban ecological security pattern building in rapid urbanization areas based on balancing supply and demand of GI's ecosystem services. The conceptual model of GI's ecosystem service optimization based on balancing supply and demand shows a new path to meet the needs of urban growth and build a city's ecological security pattern through upgrading and optimizing GI.

Sustainability

Rapid urbanization in China has been accompanied by spatial inefficiency in patterns of human activity, of which ‘ghost towns’ are the most visible result. In this study, we measure the density and diversity of human activity in the built environment and relate this to various explanatory factors. Using the Pearl River Delta (PRD) as an empirical case, our research demonstrates the distribution of human activity by multi-source data and then explores its dynamics within these areas. This empirical study is comprised of two parts. The first part explores location information regarding human activity in urbanized areas and shows density and diversity. Regression models are applied to explore how density and diversity are affected by urban scale, morphology and by a city’s administrative level. Results indicate that: 1) cities with smaller populations are more likely to be faced with lower density and diversity, but they derive greater marginal benefits from improving land use efficien...

Sustainability

In the quest for more sustainable urban landscape development, the concept of "green infrastructure" (GI) has become central in policy documents and as a multifunctional general planning tool. GI is not, however, a simple and unambiguous solution. While in policy documents there are claims for more and connected GI, actual urban development takes another direction. The densifying imperative is hard to combine with an increased and more connected GI. This paper argues for a critical and diversified approach to the concept of GI, in order to facilitate its implementation in urban planning and management. Any kind of GI will not deliver all ecosystems services in any place, not without land use conflicts, investments and long term operating costs. This calls for a GI concept linked to actors and mediating conflicting values. Linguistic as well as spatial definitions of the two relevant dichotomies of "green-grey" and "public-private" are crucial in GI location, design, construction and management, it is argued. Overarching representations of GI will be needed, but not only pictured as a separate system, but also displayed with necessary integration to the whole urban landscape. Development over time will need an intersectorial implementation and management program. Some of the GI intentions may be implemented in planning processes, some through reorganization and redesign of public space, and some by agreements with landowners. To reach out to implementation in ordinary urban development, GI needs to be described in a way that establishes points of connection to a variety of relevant actors and organizations taking part in implementation of GI.

Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions

Nature-based-solutions' (NbS) aim to use nature in tackling challenges such as climate change, food security, water resources, or disaster risk management. The concept has been adopted by the European Commission in its research programme Horizon 2020 to promote its uptake in urban areas and establish Europe as a world leader of NbS. However, the concept has been defined vaguely. Moreover, its relationships with already existing concepts and approaches to enhance nature and its benefits in urban areas require clarification. Notably, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), urban green infrastructure (UGI) and ecosystem services (ESS) have gained prominence in academic debates and are increasingly referred to in policy-making. In this chapter main features of each of the concepts, as well as overlaps and differences between them are analysed based on a review of key literature. NbS is the most recent and broadest of the four concepts. Therefore, it may be considered as an umbrella to the other concepts but with a distinct focus on deployment of actions on the ground. EbA is a subset of NbS that is specifically concerned with climate change adaptation via the use of nature. As a planning approach, UGI, on the other hand, can provide strategic guidance for the integration of NbS into

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering

The growth of urban populations causes cities, and their suburbs, to spread, expand, and replace natural lands by agricultural. Urbanization brings land-use change, altering the relationship between human societies and environmental resources. Therefore, the management of natural resources connected to urban expansion has become one of the most important challenges in attaining sustainable landscape. Quarrying is a crucial component of local socioeconomic development providing key materials for infrastructures and buildings. However, like many other human activities, quarrying causes a significant impact on the environment. In Mediterranean countries, quarrying activities exert increasing pressures on limited soil and water resources, thus accelerating erosion processes and subsequent destruction of existing arable lands. Quarrying operations can profoundly alter pre-existing ecosystems and perturb hydrogeological and hydrological regimes. They can profoundly modify the substratum, change landscape patterns and integrity, destroy natural habitats and interrupt their natural succession, as well as alter genetic resources. The resulting situation is seriously compromised by anthropic regeneration processes on degraded sites after the end of quarrying activities, which are not focused on potential natural vegetation which these sites could develop, considering the surrounding ecosystems. In this work, we propose a landscape regeneration project which was developed as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure on quarrying activity located in the municipality of Lecce, South Italy. This project aims to integrate environmental and landscape aspects with the economic and social ones in order to guarantee the sustainability of the proposed intervention. The new project modifies the one presented at the start of the quarrying activity which planned planting of trees directly on the bottom of the quarry, (about 40 meters deep from the ground level and three meters above the groundwater level). The new project foresees the partial filling of the quarry using waste materials according to the environmental legislation. This allows to protect the groundwater better and to create a microclimate more suited to the development of natural vegetation. The quarry filling activity represents an economic activity for the company and therefore can guarantee the development of jobs for at least 5 years. In addition, the proposed project aims to reconstitute the pre-existing vegetation, consistently with the surrounding ecosystem. This will allow the development of the

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering

The scale of the potential impacts of climate change is uncertain but, concurrently with other demographic, land-use, socioeconomic changes, it is affecting water availability and demand and increasing competition for water. As temperature increases, evaporation increases, resulting in droughts and devastating effects on fresh water supplies. Water will be one of the key resources for a sustainable urban development. Making clean water available in the next forty or so years will require the extending of the service to 3.7 billion more residents in urban areas. Therefore, it is necessary to promote an engineered redistribution of fresh water in space and time. This problem must be solved in a sustainable way using an innovative Green Infrastructure (GI) able to increase the water provision in urban systems realizing the recovery of rainwater and domestic water and reusing the same for irrigation and non-potable uses. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop a project idea of GI focused on the reuse of water resource in a condominium of 40 housing units located in Lecce, south Italy. In particular, the project will exploit the free areas on the roof of the building, accounting a total surface of about 900 sqm. The project involves the construction of a green roof to develop the ecological functions linked to the purification of wastewater like in a Constructed Treatment Wetland (CTW) that represents a low-cost alternative to conventional secondary or tertiary wastewater treatment. This green roof allows the reuse of wastewater on site for sanitary, garden activities and other uses in the building, reducing the exploitation of the already scarce regional freshwater resources. The project idea also includes the possibility of using aromatic and medicinal plant species for phytoremediation, with potential applications in phytotherapy and cosmetics. CTWs produce ecosystem services like ones provided by wetlands and, therefore, act as sinks of CO 2. Moreover, it is widely recognized that the green roof reduces the heating of the buildings caused by the solar irradiation, thus reducing the consumption of energy necessary to cool the apartments. So, the green roof turns from an unused cemented roof into a source of ecosystem services related to both the reuse of water resources and the development of potential economic activities. The cost of the work can be reduced by government incentives for the development of gardens in condominiums or for energy efficiency of the building. At the municipal level, the replication of this project on many buildings could reduce the water demand for residential areas as well as can mitigate the island heat effect that afflicts urban area during the summer and improve the quality of life in the city. This approach offers many opportunities for integration of water resource conservation, economic development and public health promotion.

Socio-Ecological Practice Research

Concepts such as green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and ecosystem services gained popularity in recent discourses on urban planning. Despite their recognition as innovative concepts, all of them share a degree of ambiguity. Fuzziness can be a weakness but also an opportunity to shape novel concepts together with the stakeholders that are supposed to implement them in the planning practice. The paper traces concept development processes of green infrastructure through transdisciplinary knowledge exchange in three different projects, a European and a national research project and a local city-regional project as part of an EU regional cooperation project. In all projects, the green infrastructure concept evolved in different stages. Stakeholder involvement during these stages span from consultation to co-creation. The cases reveal two different approaches: concepts that are developed “for planning practice” might be based on a plethora of insight via consultation, while tho...

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2016

Driven by rising income and urban population growth, China has experienced rapid urban expansion since the 1980s. Urbanization can have positive effects on the urban environment; however, improvement of urban environment quality, especially its divergence between relatively developed and undeveloped cities in China, is currently a rather rudimentary and subjective issue. This study analyzed urban environmental benefits among China's prefectural cities based on their structure of urban land use in 2000 and 2010. First, we divided 347 prefectural cities into two groups, 81 coastal and capital cities in the relatively developed group (RD) and 266 other prefectural cities in the undeveloped group (RP). Then, we defined three areas of urban environmental benefits, including green infrastructure, industrial upgrade, and environmental management, and developed an assessment index system. Results showed that all prefectural cities saw improvement in urban environmental quality in 2000-2010. Although the RD cities had higher income and more population growth, they had less improvement than the RP cities during the same period. We also found that demographic and urban land agglomeration among RD cities restrained green infrastructure expansion, making green infrastructure unsuitable as a permanent solution to environmental improvement. It is therefore urgent for China to promote balanced improvement among the three areas of urban environmental benefits and between the RD and RP cities through regional differentiation policies.

Bulletin de l'association de géographes français

En France, depuis la loi de 2009 dite Grenelle 1, les projets d'aménagement de trames vertes se multiplient. Ce phénomène est visible sous de multiples formes à différentes échelles territoriales, du national au local. Nous formulons alors la problématique suivante : les trames vertes : entre discours et matérialité, quelles réalités ? La thèse, mobilisant les concepts de la géographie, s'intéresse à l'articulation : du discours des aménageurs, des politiques mises en place, des formes de gestion existantes, de la matérialité des trames vertes et ses représentations sociales. Tout en s'inscrivant dans une démarche multiscalaire du national au communal, les recherches s'attachent à étudier la notion de trames vertes à l'échelle de l'intercommunalité en espace périurbain, à travers un site de référence : l'agglomération angevine. Mots clés : Trame verte, politiques publiques, système paysage, représentations sociales, planification.

Kent Akademisi, 2020

As a result of urbanization, qualified green-blue spaces are decreasing, and fragmentations occur in natural landscapes. Greenways are a strategic solution in creating sustainable and liveable cities and conserving fragmentation in landscapes. From this point on, in this study; it is aimed to planning a route that has natural and cultural resource values as a greenway that contribute to the green area system of the city, offer recreational activity areas to city residents, and protect historical-cultural values. An approximately 17 km waterfront corridor located in Arhavi district of Artvin city has chosen as the study area. Goal of the study is to support the existing urban ecosystem by offering different ecosystem services to both its users and the city because of planning a greenway by integrating a blue area with a green area. The study was carried out in 4 stages. In the first stage, field studies were carried out, SWOT analysis was made in the second stage, and in the third st...

Sustainability, 2019

Green infrastructure (GI) is planned at various scales, including a regional one: city-regions. Strategic GI planning included in the city-regions spatial development policy can contribute to their sustainable development through, among others, providing a range of ecosystem services. In order to meet the challenge of planning GI on a regional scale, the authors present the Method of Landscape-Functional Units (Method LaFU), which is used for the planning and evaluation of such systems. This method was tested in the Wrocław Functional Area (WFA), which is characterized by many negative processes, primarily uncontrolled development of built-up areas, fragmentation of landscape, and declining natural and semi-natural areas. The presented results show the effectiveness of the Method LaFU in GI planning and, above all, in its assessment, which makes it possible to identify problem areas that are at risk but still important for the functioning of the GI system. This allows for quick deci...

Sustainability, 2021

Green spaces have a positive influence on human well-being. Therefore, an accurate evaluation of public green space provision is crucial for administrations to achieve decent urban environmental quality for all. Whereas inequalities in green space access have been studied in relation to income, the relation between neighbourhood affluence and remediation difficulty remains insufficiently investigated. A methodology is proposed for co-creating scenarios for green space development through green space proximity modelling. For Brussels, a detailed analysis of potential interventions allows for classification according to relative investment scales. This resulted in three scenarios of increasing ambition. Results of scenario modelling are combined with socio-economic data to analyse the relation between average income and green space proximity. The analysis confirms the generally accepted hypothesis that non-affluent neighbourhoods are on average underserved. The proposed scenarios reve...

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2020

Green infrastructure (GI) has grown in acceptance as a sustainable means to manage stormwater in urbanizing landscapes, while providing a multitude of additional benefits that range from improving community health to protecting local ecosystems. The mandated use of GI for the management of stormwater is arguably more prevalent in the Pacific Northwest, where GI is a required practice per municipal stormwater regulations in western Washington State, and the City of Portland OR. However, adoption in the region has faced several challenges. A regional summit to elucidate some of these successes and challenges was organized in Oregon and drew attendees from western Oregon and Washington. Six challenges that impact GI adoption, and six themes that emerged as possible strategies to overcome these challenges, were identified. The six challenges that were identified were: the lack of coordination, traditionalism, site-specific scales, environmental costs, a lack of expertise, and little consideration for maintenance. The six emergent themes identified were: the need for adaptive design and maintenance, the placement of GI for maximum impact, the concept of collective impact, valuation of GI, equity and GI, and the intersection of GI and community health.

Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2019

Applying ecological approach in the planning and design of urban fringe areas has gained significant attention in the current decade, and a myriad of research has been conducted using these principals. However, integrating these principles with socioeconomic criteria has been discussed loosely. This could be due to two different realms of thinking which are associated with disciplines of ecology and social-economical sciences making a successful coexistence between these them quite challenging. The purpose of this paper is to achieve sustainable built-natural environment interactions in urban fringe areas by taking socioeconomic factors along with ecological principles into account. In this study, change detection analysis from 1994 to 2016 is conducted to show the trend of urban construction and the natural environment's reaction to urban expansion. The structural elements of the urban fringe area including river systems, green patches, and landform are extracted to analyze their behavior in interaction with urban construction through looking at all segmentations of each element's continuity from north to south. Socioeconomic factors influencing these changes are also discussed and analyzed. The results show broad changes between the southern and northern parts in terms of the continuity and function of structural elements. Finally, considering structural and functional improvement potentials and restrictions, short-term and long-term strategies for rehabilitation and improvement of the structure and function of the urban fringe areas are provided.

Land, 2020

Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas, including green and blue spaces and other ecosystems, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services at various scales. Apart from the ecological functions, green infrastructure, as a planning tool, contributes to social and economic benefits, leading to the achievement of sustainable, resilient, inclusive and competitive urban areas. Despite recent developments, there is still no consensus among researchers and practitioners regarding the concept of green infrastructure as well as its implementation approaches, which makes it often difficult for urban planners and other professionals in the field to develop a robust green infrastructure in some parts of the world. To address this issue, an integrative literature review was conducted to identify which green infrastructure planning principles should be acknowledged in spatial planning practices to promote sustainability and ...

Acta horticulturae et regiotecturae, 2020

With the number of urban dwellers expected to rise from 54 to 69% by 2050, or 6.3 billion people (United Nations, 2018), the pressure in urban areas and populations is increasingly critical. Individual and community ill-health and loss of wellbeing of city residents is escalating with rapid urbanisation. Forecast increases in urban population are similar both globally and locally in Wellington, Aotearoa-New Zealand. The next 30 years will see a 10-15% increase (United Nations, 2018) in people living in cities around the world and in Wellington, the city's population is projected to increase by approximately 20-36% over the next thirty years (Wellington City Council, 2020). As places become more urbanised, the compact urban forms compete with green space. Urban green spaces are generally characterised by small, isolated, or unevenly distributed lots, appearing in different shapes and sizes. Intensification associated with urbanisation destroys natural landscapes and devastates rich indigenous ecologies (Kamiryo, Sakashita and Matsumoto, 2011). The juxtaposition of housing and related built infrastructure with minimal interstitial space can also pose a significant threat to biodiversity and human health. In the face of rapid densification in urban areas, the need for multi-functional green spaces, and the associated services derived from them, is critical. These green spaces play a vital role in supporting the human-nature interaction (Kim and Coseo, 2018; Kim and Miller, 2019; Kim, Miller and Nowak, 2015), urban sustainability, environmental quality and human health and wellbeing (Kaplan, Kaplan and Ryan, 1998). Research demonstrates a positive relationship between access to nature and natural processes and human health and wellbeing (Hartig et al., 2014; Kuo, 2015; Seligman, 2002) as well as the role of nature in restoring cognitive processes in people (Kaplan and Rogers, 2003; Kaplan, Kaplan and Ryan, 1998). Biophysical attributes such as water and greenery are seen as highly restorative to our health and wellbeing and contribute to how we experience a place (Kuo, Bacaicoa and Sullivan, 1998). A strong sense of place increases place attachment and develops a stronger sense of use and care, contributing to an enhanced sense of community (Marques, McIntosh and Campays, 2018). Similarly, many studies report comparable results on the positive effects that blue spaces, such as rivers, lakes or the sea, have in the health and wellbeing of individuals both through views and sounds of water (

Urban Ecosystems, 2019

Three quarters of the European population live in urban areas, which is expected to increase to over 80% by 2050. The well-being of urban citizens appears to be closely linked to the correlation between the growth of urban areas and to the availability of green spaces. The conservation and the enhancement of the Green Infrastructure (GI) can be considered a Nature-Based Solution (NBS) to improve the sustainability of urban development. From this perspective, it is important to identify priority areas close to existing GIs suitable to be preserved from further urban encroachment. Our study aims to draw up a methodology to identify priority areas and, accordingly, to expand the GIs. The main objectives are: (i) to identify the most sensitive areas of the GI to be preserved from urban encroachment; (ii) to locate arable lands in the vacant border territories between GIs and built-up areas, that, if converted into connected elements, would enhance the connectivity of the existing GIs whilst limiting land take; (iii) to define an index of priorities for increasing the GI territory by means of NBSs, taking into account the variability of GI coverage and level of legal protection for nature conservation across different neighborhoods in the city. This approach is applied to the GIs of the 15 administrative units of the municipality of Rome (Italy) as a case study. First, we focus on Urban Atlas classes to map the GIs in the municipality. We then use Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis, implemented by a free software toolbox GUIDOS, to identify the key components of the GIs, such as hubs (core areas) and links (bridges). Then, a simulated new scenario is provided by including within the current GIs the agricultural lands outside protected areas, but within a buffer zone of 300 m from the land take. If the aforementioned agricultural lands, amounting to about 8000 ha, were converted into GI elements, they could lead to the improvement of connectivity and limit land take. Finally, in order to expand the area of the GIs, priority areas are selected within each administrative unit using an index based on the budget allocation process. The proposed methodology could be used: (i) by decision makers, looking for NBS in the design and planning of sustainable development of the city; and (ii) to enhance GI connectivity.

URBAN DESIGN International, 2013

Current landscape ecology reports, 2016

Effective planning for biodiversity in cities and towns is increasingly important as urban areas and their human populations grow, both to achieve conservation goals and because ecological communities support services on which humans depend. Landscape ecology provides important frameworks for understanding and conserving urban biodiversity both within cities and considering whole cities in their regional context, and has played an important role in the development of a substantial and expanding body of knowledge about urban landscapes and communities. Characteristics of the whole city including size, overall amount of green space, age and regional context are important considerations for understanding and planning for biotic assemblages at the scale of entire cities, but have received relatively little research attention. Studies of biodiversity within cities are more abundant and show that longstanding principles regarding how patch size, configuration and composition influence biodiversity apply to urban areas as they do in other habitats. However, the fine spatial scales at which urban areas are fragmented and the altered temporal dynamics compared to non-urban areas indicate a need to apply hierarchical multi-scalar landscape ecology models to urban environments. Transferring results from landscape-scale urban biodiversity research into planning remains challenging, not least because of the requirements for urban green space to provide multiple functions. An increasing array of tools is available to meet this challenge and increasingly requires ecologists to work with planners to address biodiversity challenges. Biodiversity conservation and enhancement is just one strand in urban planning, but is increasingly important in a rapidly urbanising world. Conservation planning . Urban ecology . Patch-matrix . Species-area relationship . Land sparing/ sharing . Green infrastructure This article is part of the Topical Collection on Landscape Design and Planning for Ecological Outcomes * Briony A. Norton

Cities & Health, 2023

Previous research has illustrated the role of urban green and blue spaces in improving the economic, social, environmental, and health-related outcomes of urban populations. The Connswater Community Greenway is presented as a case study to assess the social value of an urban regeneration project. Using real-world data from two time points (2012 and 2017), our analysis focussed on eight key elements: property values; flood alleviation; tourism; biodiversity; climate change; health and wellbeing; crime; and employment and productivity. Using social return on investment analysis, we estimated the value of the Connswater Community Greenway over a 40-year horizon. The total value was estimated to be between £56.8m and £67m. After subtracting the costs (£42.2m), the net present value of the Connswater Community Greenway was £14.6m - £24.8m. The benefit-cost ratio was 1.34 – 1.59, meaning that for every £1 invested in the Connswater Community Greenway, the local economy gains between £1.34 and £1.59. Overall, the Connswater Community Greenway will provide a positive return on investment which will be realised after 30 years. Social return on investment analysis provides a framework for the incorporation of many multifunctional benefits of urban green and blue spaces into economic evaluation, providing a more complete analysis of value.

• Explore
• Papers
• Topics

• Features
• Mentions
• Analytics
• PDF Packages
• Advanced Search
• Search Alerts

• Journals
• Academia.edu Journals
• My submissions
• Reviewer Hub
• Why publish with us
• Testimonials

• Company
• About
• Careers
• Press
• Help Center
• Terms
• Privacy
• Copyright
• Content Policy