URBAN DESIGN METHODOLOGIES

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Topic: Urban green infrastructure

URBAN DESIGN METHODOLOGIES

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Urban green infrastructure

The green infrastructure of a city consists of those parts that contribute to the natural processes of keeping the water and the air clean and recycling of waste. It includes the parks and wild lands, stream corridors, utility corridors and vacant regenerating sites.

These fragments of city property, if considered as a single system similar to transportation or waste treatment, offer opportunities for keeping our cities clean and for providing recreational space.

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Urban green infrastructure

Cities are a complex interaction of the natural and built elements. In order to maintain some degree of balance in the natural systems, we have to introduce engineered systems to create and transport energy, to remove and process wastes, to control storm runoff, and so on.

URBAN DESIGN METHODOLOGIES

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Urban green infrastructure

The green infrastructure of a city is comprised of natural and designed systems and elements of the city that function in ways similar to natural processes in managing air, water, microclimatic and energy resources. The most obvious part of this infrastructure are trees, open spaces of vacant lots, lawns and parks, and stream corridors, that is, all places that have water-pervious surfaces and/or soil to support plant material. Because it imitates natural systems, green structure is holistic and includes waterways and microclimatic systems that vegetation, land and water bodies create.

URBAN DESIGN METHODOLOGIES

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Urban green infrastructure

The green infrastructure performs ecological, recreational and aesthetic functions in the city.

It improves the quality of the urban environment, provides access to natural habitats, avoids damage to the built form, and, in general, keeps all of us healthy.

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Air Quality Improvement

Vegetation reduces air pollution as it filters dust particles and pollutants attached to them. Trees also absorb carbon.

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Microclimate modification
Nonporous urban surfaces absorb and hold heat during warm weather, contributing to the heat island effect, wherein temperatures can be between 810% hotter than the surrounding countryside. Relatively minor green projects can make a significant difference in both pollution control and heat reduction.

The green infrastructure of a city is a natural air conditioner. If strategically planted, trees serve as windbreaks.
Winter wind is responsible for drifting snow patterns. Vegetation can serve as shelterbelts if properly designed, controlling where snow will accumulate.

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Stormwater management
One of the most important benefits of the green infrastructure is in naturalizing the hydrological cycles in a city.

The hard surfaces of the urban fabric increase the intensity of the run-off and the amount of pollutants in urban waters.
Instead of water soaking into the ground, it travels quickly into storm drainage systems that flow into rivers and streams, causing increased flooding and erosion. The green fabric, on the other hands, absorbs the water at the source, recharging the groundwater, filtering pollutants, and slowing down the energy of water travel.

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Biodiversity
The urban environment is home to more than human beings, and one might argue that the more we encourage wildlife in the city at appropriate places, the more varied and enriched will be the quality of daily life. A rich variety of birds and animals is an indicator of a healthy environment.

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Recreational opportunities
One of the most visible and important functions of the green structure is for recreation.

Major parks, with large and diverse ecological systems, provide parks for active recreation and sports fields, but also for passive recreation, bird watching and school field trips for science classes.

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Green infrastructure inventory

To take advantage of urban green infrastructure benefits, an inventory documents where the green spaces of the city exist, what ecological systems are there, and how they are connected. Land use categories that contribute to the green infrastructure include parks, waterways, cemeteries, church and school open spaces, city farms and community gardens, utility corridors, rail lines, quarries, vacant lands and even brownfields, which need to be identified and hopefully remediated. With an inventory, it is possible to change certain planning, design, and construction patterns to increase the green structure at the urban and site scale.

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Reducing paving
Hardscape paving has been implicated in a wide range of ecological problems.

Site planning policies can help to avoid unnecessary paving. Some opportunities include:
Cluster development. Placing several buildings together surrounded by open space, rather than each in the center of its separate lot, can greatly reduce infrastructure costs, including paving. Combined land uses. Zoning that allows residences and workplaces to coexist makes walking, biking, or public transit much easier for workers.

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Reducing paving
Street width limits. Oversized roads also have negative effects on traffic safety and diminish the quality of life for communities through which they pass. Planted islands in turnarounds. Paving the center of a turnaround is of no use to drivers and can be replaced by permeable, planted surfaces as a matter of policy.

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Green walls
Green walls offer effective alternatives to conventional landscape.

A vegetated surface suits many functions and aesthetic preferences: it deadens and diffuses noise, makes graffiti impossible, cuts heat and glare, holds or slows rainwater, traps air pollutants, and processes carbon dioxide, while providing food and shelter for wildlife.
Most greenwalls use small, light elements, installed without heavy equipment.

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Greenwalls
Blockengineered with gaps where plants root through the wall.

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Greenwalls
Crib wallconcrete or wood elements stacked log-cabin style.

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Greenwalls
Frameinterlocking circle-or diamond-shaped units stacked like masonry.

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Greenwalls
Gabionwire baskets filled with stones to provide a strong but permeable wall or dam.

Greenwalls Troughstackable soil filled tubs (retaining or freestanding).

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Meshlike mini gabions, holding a thin layer of soil to a surface.

Cellflexible, strong honeycombs filled with soil. Sandbaggeotextiles wrapped around soil, formally called vegetated geogrid.

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Greenwalls

URBAN DESIGN METHODOLOGIES

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Greenwalls