Fábos Landscape

Planning and Greenway Symposium

March 31, 2007     Amherst – Massachusetts

ABSTRACTS

 

TRACK 1-A    GREENWAY PLANNING - 10:45 am

Moderator: Robert L. Ryan

 

Greenway planning through watershed and river restoration:  A case study of the James River, South Dakota.

 

Jeremy P. Duehr and Richard G. Wiebe, ASLA, PE

Westwood Professional Services, Inc. 7699 Anagram Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344.

Corresponding author:  jeremy.duehr@westwoodps.com

Watershed and River Restoration has taken on increased importance as a result of legal actions associated with the Clean Water Act, recent National Disasters and changing land-use and demographics.  The planning processes associated with successful project development and execution provides opportunities to examine and enhance the existing greenway but can be as complex as the watershed/river system itself.  The James River in South Dakota is currently the subject of a federal Feasibility Study/Environmental Impact Statement to determine potential actions for flood damage reduction and ecosystem restoration.  Agricultural uses predominate in the watershed with the river and its tributaries critically important to the region for drainage, irrigation, recreation, and wildlife and fish habitats.  A suite of analytical tools have been implemented to gather baseline information on the river, floodplain, and watershed.  The baseline information has been used by planners, hydrologists, and ecologists to determine past and present parameters that define the structure and function of the river system including: land uses, floodplain boundaries, hydrology, river geomorphology, public infrastructure, and movement of fish and wildlife.  Technologies include the collection and use of 6-inch pixel aerial photography and LIDAR elevation information of the floodplain, sonar depth sounding of the river, laser scanning to generate 3-dimensional imaging of bridges, GIS to map and model watershed characteristics and determine geomorphic processes and patterns of change, HEC-RAS to map flood prone areas and determine impediments to flow and potential restoration areas, radio telemetry to determine movements of selected fish and wildlife.  Incorporation of technologies into the planning process has allowed quantification of the watershed and the generation of graphics as tools to target and communicate needs and opportunities for restoration to the public.  Armed with knowledge, a balance of watershed uses can be achieved to sustain the local economies while improving water quality and ecosystem function.

 

Fort Circle Parks Greenway

 

David Myers, Ph.D., ASLA, RLA is Associate Professor and Director, Digital Studio,

Landscape Architecture Program, University of Maryland.

 

The Fort Circle Parks Greenway is a proposed greenway in Washington, D.C. which will link historic Civil War fort properties and earth works principally owned by the National Park Service. It also serves as a central unifying open space element in the current comprehensive planning of Washington, D.C. To defend Washington D.C. from Confederate attack during the Civil War forty eight forts were established along the perimeter of the city by April 1861. These locations were strategically selected in order to secure the high ground and provide protection of the capital. In 1902, the McMillan Commission’s Plan proposed the Fort Circle Drive as a unifying element to unite historic Civil War features and lands were purchased for this effort over the next century. The

Fort Circle Drive was not implemented and in September 2004 the National Park Service completed a Final Management Plan for a pedestrian oriented Fort Circle Parks trail. The specific objectives of this project were to 1) research and document the inventory, programming information, and composite analysis, 2) to inform and create envisioning design and planning products that could be used by the National Park Service, and 3) to assist in the overall initiative of the Fort Circle Parks Greenway. This student service project utilized a GIS approach for providing the inventory and analytical information for the creative production of envisioning alternatives. The general approach to envision the greenway was to divide the proposed greenway into eighteen Greenway Neighborhoods.

Each student was assigned a segment and the surrounding one to one and one-third mile block around his or her segment of the trail. The proposed Fort Circle Parks Greenway offers an opportunity to celebrate cultural and natural resources as a unified pedestrian trail system and embrace Washington D.C.’s social, economic, and environmental diversity.

 

Landscape Planning and Ecosystem Protection

In a Rapidly Urbanizing Environment

 

Dr. Jon Rodiek, FASLA

College of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

 

The U.S.D.A. Forest Service Deputy Chief of Research and Development has identified six major themes that have emerged as future drivers of their research and management programs (Burtuska 2005).  In a survey of six universities, seven land management agencies and six communities that all deal with urbanization problems within their arena of responsibility it was discovered the major themes identified in Burtuska report had surfaced as problems in their environments (unpublished 2005). The difference in the magnitude and scale of the problems varied for specific sites but generally speaking the themes identified in the report did occur on these sites as well.

 

These six themes included:  Restoration and recovery-managing with change; capturing value in ecosystems; linking land use and water; understanding social dynamics and resource use; considering the effects of globalization, and finally providing urban natural resource leadership.

 

The problem of providing leadership in developing and protecting natural resources in an urbanizing environment has been taken head on by various community leaders in and around the greater Houston metropolitan region. Independent communities and the Houston Parks, Precinct #9 have focused in on Cypress Creek in the northern section of suburban Houston as a test case study. In the spring of 2005 our graduate studio in the landscape architecture program at Texas A&M University, joined the effort. Since that time the studio has spent two fall semesters (2005, 2006) in assisting Spring, Texas in preparing landscape planning documents to acquire lands. The purpose of these lands would be to protect, maintain and restore ecosystems in the Cypress Creek watershed, to provide for 4.5 miles of hike and bike trails and build four connected parks for citizen use.

 

The purpose of acquiring these lands will help in securing a healthy environment in a rapidly developing urban landscape. This effort is viewed as one way to reduce the pressure of human use of wild lands and help prevent the continuing loss of open space. In addition, it is hoped these plans will guarantee the protection and restoration of riparian lands, wetland forest, upland forest and freshwater wetlands associated with Cypress Creek.

 

References

Bartuska, A.M. 2005. Research and Development Highlights for 2004. U.S.D.A., Forest Service Annual Report 2004, 42 pages

 

Designing Seattle's Green Infrastructure for the Next Century

 

Nancy Rottle, ASLA, RLA,

Brice Maryman, ASLA, LEED

 

In the last decade the term "green infrastructure" has been used to describe landscape networks, initially applied to green spaces in rural and wild areas but increasingly seen as a viable concept that encompasses park systems, urban forests and ecological utilities in urban areas. (Benedict and McMahon 2006, Girling and Kellett 2005, Condon and Isaak 2003). Using this fused definition, in 2006 the University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture and its coalition partners convened professionals, students, citizens and City staff in a 2-day charrette to design Seattle's green infrastructure for the next century. (Rottle 2006, Rottle and Maryman 2006b). The Green Futures Charrette was the result of a year-long "Open Space Seattle 2100" process that included coalition building and development of urban open space principles, precedents and tools to provide common ground between professional and lay participants during the collaborative event. Outcomes of the charrette and student follow-up work were GIS Green Infrastructure spatial plans for 2025 and 2100 and a framework of strategies to dramatically expand the city's open space network, addressing future challenges of population growth, climate change, peak oil, environmental hazards and ecological function.  The framework of sixteen strategies encompassed low-impact transportation networks, natural drainage systems, high density centers with civic space, continuous greenbelts, stream and shoreline restoration, and self-sufficient, zero-carbon emission neighborhoods.

 

Since publication of the Green Futures Charrette report (Rottle and Maryman, 2006a), the City of Seattle has adopted the framework as a tool to evaluate the city's environmental agenda and has been charged with developing initial implementation steps.  This paper describes the year-long process of building a broad-based coalition and preparing for the charrette, illuminates strategies and examples for development of integrated urban green networks, reflects upon initial implementation measures, and proposes a new working definition for urban green infrastructure.

 

References

Benedict, Mark, and McMahon, Edward.  2006. Green Infrastructure, Linking Landscapes and Communities.  Washington, D. C.:  Island Press.

 

Condon, Patrick and Isaac, Katherine. 2003. Green Municipal Engineering for Sustainable Communities.  Municipal Engineer 156, March.

 

Girling, Cynthia and Kellett, Ron. 2005.  Skinny Streets and Green Neighborhoods. Washington, D. C.:  Island Press

 

Rottle,  Nancy.  2006. Collaborative Visioning for the New Normal: Designing Seattle's Open Space for the Next Century.  Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Proceedings 2006.

 

Rottle, Nancy and Maryman, Brice. 2006a. Envisioning Seattle's Green Future:  Visions and Strategies from the Green Futures Charrette.  Seattle, University of Washington:  Self-published.

 

Rottle, Nancy and Maryman, Brice. 2006b. Strategies for a Greener Future.  Landscape Architecture Magazine, November.

 

TRACK 1-B    LANDSCAPE PLANNING - 10:45 am

Moderator : Jack Ahern

Bear River Greenway Master Plan / Bear River Ecological Corridor Restoration

Peter Kumble, Utah State University

Goals and Objectives
At the heart of Cache Valley in Utah, the Bear River offers a remarkable opportunity to preserve and improve the best attributes of the region.  It is undeniably the region’s most valuable resource as a working, natural and recreational landscape.  The Bear River Greenway / Blueway Master Plan initiates a real process for maintaining vital connections to the river for present and future generations.  The plan consists of two sections.  The first section develops a regional greenway plan for the Bear River, composed of recommendations and implementation strategies the region and five treatment zones; ecological, rural, urban, county-wide and riverfront.  The second section addresses landscape-scale wildlife planning issues within the study site by developing restoration and management recommendations for a section of the Bear River corridor.

Inventory and Analysis
The inventory and analysis of the study area were approached comprehensively, identifying resources related to people, places and the environment.  An ecological inventory was conducted to identify relevant natural system components such as water quality, soil suitability and wildlife habitat issues.  A landowner survey was administered to identify current land use, ownership patterns and landowner concerns.  An inventory of all existing and possible open space network components identified possible greenway links, hubs and sites.  Existing GIS data from the Logan City and Cache County were compiled to identify areas that could be used to construct a framework of hubs, links and sites.  Each element was mapped separately in order to easily identify and emphasize the importance of connecting these resources as the population of Cache Valley continues to grow.

Next Steps / Implementation
The planning process also outlined regional next steps including the completion of a regional land use analysis for Cache Valley to assess the suitability of all potential land use types in the valley.  The Bear River Greenway / Blueway is the green infrastructure or green space component of the valley-wide regional master plan.

New River Parkway, West Virginia – A Scenic Highway/Greenway Case Study

 

Lee R. Skabelund, Environmental Planner & Designer

Kansas State University

 

In the mid-1980s the West Virginia Department of Transportation, Division of Highways (WVDOH), National Park Service, and New River Parkway Authority, proposed to create a two-lane road and protected greenway corridor within the southern portion of the New River Gorge National River.

 

Called the New River Parkway, this project was envisioned as a public-private partnership that would improve access to the New River and its recreational resources, conserve the area’s cultural, scenic, and ecological resources, and encourage compatible economic development within and near the project study area. 

 

The project study area extends from the intersection of Raleigh County Route 26 and West Virginia 20 near Hinton, West Virginia north to Interstate I-64 where I-64 crosses the New River near the Raleigh-Summers county line. The proposed parkway would parallel the New River for roughly ten miles within the boundary of the New River Gorge National River. As a result of Parkway implementation, it is hoped that Historic Hinton will be more readily accessible and thus see increased economic development.

 

Although several draft New River Parkway Land Management System documents (LMS) were produced between 1994 and 2002, work on the LMS has continued during 2006. An enforceable land management plan is viewed by many local, state, and federal agencies as essential to the long-term success of the Parkway.

 

Due to WVDOH highway planning priorities, various environmental concerns, and a measure of opposition to both physical Parkway construction and land management proposals, the environmental assessment process was not formally completed until February 2004, when the New River Parkway Record of Decision was signed and released. On July 1, 2004 final design for the first 3.5 mile section was initiated.

 

This paper will review important lessons learned from this greenway planning process. The usefulness and caveats associated with technological applications will likewise be discussed.

 

Niagara River Greenway

 

Mark V. Mistretta, RLA, ASLA, Wendell Duchscherer, NY

 

The proposed Niagara River Greenway, which runs approximately 30 miles between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, encompasses an incredible variety of significant resources, including Niagara Falls. The Niagara River Greenway Plan is the beginning of something very significant, in that it forces communities along the river to think regionally. It will have a profound influence on quality of life. The case study describes the process of planning the Greenway.

 

There have been many challenges in planning the Niagara River Greenway:

 

Consensus building

The project is unusual in that dedicated funding for the Greenway, created as part of the package of compensations under the relicensing of New York Power Authority, predated the Plan. The definition of the boundary for the Greenway was very contentious: many political leaders preferred a broad boundary to maximize flexibility in the use of the funds, while environmental groups preferred a narrow boundary to focus resources on the river’s ecological resources. Finding common ground has been a major focus of the planning effort.

 

Structural

The Niagara River Greenway Commission has no authority or funds, and the dedicated funding for the Greenway is controlled by others, although all projects and state agency actions must strive to be consistent with the plan. Each of the 13 municipalities that fall within the boundary must individually approve the plan before it takes effect.

 

Flexibility

The plan, which covers a 50-year time frame, sets the framework for evaluating and prioritizing over 100 municipal and stakeholder projects already identified, while being flexible enough to address projects and challenges not yet developed.

 

Other challenges included a legislatively-mandated need to complete the plan in less than one year. The Plan is currently under public review, for ratification by the March 23, 2007 deadline.

 

 

TRACK 2-A    INTERNATIONAL GREENWAY PLANNING – 2:00 pm

Moderator: Julius Fábos

 

Greenway planning in Greece: a new beginning in land use / landscape planning springs a National Vision Plan

 

Alexander Kantartzis

Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture         

Technological Educational Institute of Epirus, Greece

 

Over the past twenty years, greenways as a relatively new sustainable land use strategy have steered considerable academic research and a great deal of public attention globally. By most, the merits and virtues of greenway planning are profound and undisputable: environmentally cleaner, physically healthier, socially more cohesive and economically more viable physical planning for today’s ever growing and space stringent societies. By some though, greenways are considered overambitious and futuristic projects whose implementation is utopian.

 

In the USA the idea of greenways were extensively implemented on abandoned railroad tracks or disused canal towpaths of the American industrial era. However, greenway planning in Europe, often cited under the term “ecological network planning”, has a short history since 1998 with a different developmental approach, and greenways in Greece are barely at its infancy stage.

 

This paper aims to delineate the origins, present situation and future course of greenway planning in Greece, through a historic context analysis of the country’s recent greenways development.  Greece, like other southern European countries offers many natural and cultural/historical sites that could potentially be linked via greenway planning improving dramatically the quality of society’s modern living, but faces problems of a) intense land fragmentation that hinders both greenway continuity and connectivity of open spaces and b) lack of essential governmental and administrative knowledge on the benefits of greenways.

 

Greenway planning in Greece is tackled strategically on two different sets of levels: a) on the local-regional-national scales (administrative and institutional opportunities/constraints) and b) on the urban-urban fringe-rural typology (physical landscape character, population density, settling patterns).

 

Finally a proposed “National Greenway Vision Plan” for Greece underway is presented, one that creates links with neighboring countries, the wider Mediterranean region, Europe and the Globe.

 

Keywords: Greenways, Greenway planning in Greece, National Greenway Vision     Plan for Greece, Greek Greenways Association.

 

GEENWAYS FOR PORTUGAL: A Contribution to a European Network

 

João Reis Machado, Ph.D. 1

 

Greenways are an international movement emerging as an answer to many human needs. In a expanding urban world good examples of natural lands still need to be protected and designed providing access to scenic, historic, recreational or natural places that visitors can use and enjoy.

 

Many environmental policies are recommended or even are issued by the EU as obligatory. So, many Directives pave the way to a balance between urban sprawling and nature conservation. Natura 2000 is the main contribution to the protection of natural resources in Europe being at the same time a stimulus to the design of Greenways as a multipurpose concept.

 

A Portuguese National Greenways Vision Plan is proposed. It is a Plan that aims at contributing to a national spatial non motorized structure, giving rise to discussions and guidelines at national, regional and community levels. The final results of this process can be integrated into an European Greenway Network. 

 

The European Program INTERREG 2 offers good opportunities for cooperation between Countries. According to it, Regional Authorities must be responsible for coordination and other entities like national railways companies can be associated.

 

Some regions in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal have already been involved in a cooperation that will lead to an international green continuum. In the scope of this project the Alentejo Region was selected. It is a region about 26 000 km2 large and within its limits 190 km of rails are abandoned and 200 km of scenic old roads are proposed to be part of an unique integrated multipurpose network.

 

At local level many projects are already working, not only in Alentejo but also in other Portuguese regions.

 

1- Professor at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the New University of Lisbon.

2 - INTERREG: European Program pursuing  cooperation between near-by regions involved in joint development projects. These projects obtain funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

 

Landscape and Greenway Planning in Hungary

 

Tamás Dömötör

Corvinus University Budapest

Faculty of Landscape Architecture

Department of Landscape Planning and Regional Development

 

Hungary is in the european Carpatian valley, with excellent agroecological conditions. of XXth century’s political changes made dramatical changes in landscape, but only end of the century rised up needs of greenway planning.

Our methodological structure in planning is based on settlement planning and often stop by the cityborder. Regional level is underdeveloped, national and local government have too much power to make decisions. Needs of fast development also put into the shade ecological interests. After all there are some projects to create greenways, to follow european tendencies and integration. There was not exact method before to prove importance of greenways, as a structure of biologically active surfaces. Initiation of „biological activity index” will be a tool of planning in the near future.

Potential land use categories in greenway planning are usually water bodies, mostly water flows. Dramatical changes of agricultural areas give many possibilities to integrate new elements into ecological system.

We have to analise our greenways as a part of eurasian structure. Tendences in Europe show us two ways: concentration of cities with highways, trainlines and large green areas, and/or deconcentration with small properties, diffuse landuse. We have to count on all of these procession in greenway planning.

 

 

Relationship between greenways and ecological network: a case study in Italy

 

Prof. Alessandro Toccolini (alessandro.toccolini@unimi.it)

Dr. Natalia Fumagalli (natalia.fumagalli@unimi.it)

Institute of Agricultural Engineering, University of Milan, Via Celoria 2 – 20133 Milano Italy

 

In the USA greenways have become a great focus of land conservation programs nationwide: these natural corridors maintain biological diversity, improve water quality and provide area for recreation. In contrast with the situation in the USA, in Europe the accent has been placed on the individual infrastructure, which, in order to be defined greenway, has to present modest gradients, be physically separated from the ordinary  road network and be accessible to the greatest number of potential human users.

 

Everywhere, in agreement with Fabos, greenways can be divided into three major categories: ecological greenways, recreational greenways and greenways with historical/cultural value and when we plan and design an ecological greenway we need to minimized human-wildlife conflicts.

 

This paper has three objectives:

-         to understand relationship between greenways and ecological network in the Italian rural landscape;

-         to define a methodology useful for planning a greenway with ecological value;

-         to validate the application of this methodology to a case of study: the Naviglio di Bereguardo greenway, near Milano in the Po Valley.

 

TRACK 2-B    LANDSCAPE PLANNING VISION and PRACTICE – 2:00 pm

Moderator: Mark Lindhult

 

The New England Greenway Vision Plan: Updating the Changes.

Stella Lensing, MLA Candidate
Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

 

The main goal of this project is to measure and explore the
green spaces and greenways the changes since the New England Greenway Vision
Plan, focusing on significant connections between the six states of New
England, namely Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
Rhode Island.

 

Invented Urban Greenways:  Design and Practice

Daniel Bucko
Senior Planner / Project Manager, SMWM


Greenways are being introduced into urban development projects which have neither the indigenous landform, hydrology or biology to support them.  As a design element, "invented" greenways can offer the same benefits of naturally based greenways: open space, enhanced habitat, riparian zones, stormwater filtration, recreation, and connections to other green spaces.  These greenways also provide a strategy for the inclusion of sustainable strategies into a project. As a design element, they allow the introduction of regional or creative greenway elements that may relate to the local geomorphology, flora and fauna, or cultural/historic features. This presentation will look at several case studies to examine how invented greenways have provided urban developments environmental and open space benefits and also introduce unique design elements that have expanded the function and user experience of greenways.

 

Presentation Title: Landscape Planning for Cultural Ecosystems

 

Peter Flinker, Dodson Associates, Ltd.  Ashfield, MA

 

Planning for cultural landscapes as complex systems -- analogous to natural ecosystems -- provides a powerful tool for analysis, conservation and growth management.  This approach provides a unifying paradigm that can inform planning across scales from the site to the region.  It captures such intangibles as “sense of place” and “rural character” and allows them to be described and evaluated objectively.  This in turn allows local planners, board members, residents, landowners and developers to work together to preserve the character-defining features of their community while building the homes and businesses that communities need to remain viable.

 

This presentation will review the ecosystem approach to cultural landscape planning as exemplified by several recent projects at Dodson Associates.  The Rhode Island Greenspace Program demonstrates an approach to identifying and conserving cultural ecosystems at the regional scale.  The Saratoga Battlefield Viewshed Protection Project shows how to plan for preservation of historic resources within a larger scenic context at the municipal scale.  Finally, an open space planning project for a small Massachusetts town shows how a town-scale plan can provide guideance for site-scale design decisions.

 

INTEGRATING SMART GROWTH INTO TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR PLANNING TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ACTIVE LIVING

 

J. B. Walker, Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Mississippi State University

G.W. Wilkerson, Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Mississippi State University

F.S. Barbour, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Landscape Architecture, Mississippi State University

J.P. Dumas, Assistant Research Professor, GeoResources Institute

 

The implications of transportation corridor design and planning are garnering much interest from government agencies and planners.  The United States Highway 49 transportation corridor from Florence to Wiggins, Mississippi is instrumental in linking the Jackson metropolitan area with the Mississippi Gulf Coast, connecting two of the state’s economic engines and serving as a primary hurricane evacuation route.  While the transportation corridor links two metropolitan areas, it also transects the largely rural landscape and small communities of southern Mississippi.  Hurricane Katrina, and the resultant funding pouring into the state, offers the opportunity to wisely plan for population growth while maintaining the integrity of the Mississippi landscape.  Likewise, planning that promotes active living is a high priority due to Mississippi’s obesity epidemic.  This project, part of a larger study funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, investigates innovative planning techniques that offer viable alternatives to traditional corridor by-pass development and design.  Specifically, the goal was to identify data types and analysis methods that would best suit development alternatives to transportation corridor planning projects.  Furthermore, planning and design principles comprising the “Smart Growth” theories of community development, including active living, present enormous potential for integration into the transportation corridor planning process.  Methodology consists of background research and on-site reconnaissance paired with GIS data and aerial imagery.  Results from this study present the development of an objective system to assess the potential for rural communities located along a major transportation corridor to integrate Smart Growth development alternatives into the economic development patterns occurring along their town-corridor interfaces.  The results are intended to serve as planning tools to identify, categorize, and analyze the development opportunities and constraints of rural communities located along a major transportation corridor by developing a selection matrix based on transportation related criteria derived from Smart Growth principles.

TRACK 3-A    INTERNATIONAL GREENWAY NETWORKS – 3:45 pm

Moderator: Nedim Kemer

 

The green-cover network for Chennai city

A.Meenatchi Sundaram

Selection grade lecturer, Faculty of Architecture, MIT, Manipal.

 

The shrinking green spaces deteriorated the urban environmental quality (air, water, and micro climate); as a result these days’ people are suffering by numerous health problems, such as heat strokes, asthma and bronchitis, respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, stress and psychological problem etc. That brought down the quality of life manifold in most of cities. Of late, the concept of networking the green spaces come-out as one of the solution, to improve the quality of urban life. In short, the connected green spaces could support the urban wilds, maintain the ecological processes, and sustain the cities critical resources like air and water. Because of these benefits, the networked green spaces gaining the status of urban infrastructure. Despite that, on account of rapid population growth, establishing this infrastructure is the cumbersome urban task, particularly in the developing countries.

 

Chennai is one such metro city, located in southern India; its population increasing at the rate of 25% per decade. During the last decade, the non-vegetative surfaces increased as much as 88% in some part of the Chennai city. Consequently it’s environmental problems up-surged many fold, in terms of increased runoff, fall in the subsurface water level, water scarcity, as well water logging and flooding during the rainy seasons. Besides that, within the city the heavily built-up areas are experiencing 3oC to 4oC more temperature than areas that having vegetation. Therefore it has been suggested that developing network of green space could improve the Chennai city’s environmental condition subsequently its ‘Quality of life’.  On the other hand, having 6,000,000 people within the area of 170.5 Sq.Km, the Chennai city is posing major challenge to establish the green network. This paper elaborates the method to establish the green infrastructure in the densely build urban milieu, through proposing the green-cover network for Chennai city.

Key words: Green space, quality of life, environmental quality, Green-cover planning, natural process.

 

 

Ecological Network Creation at Landscape Scale:

A Case Study in Zir Valley, Ankara/Türkiye

 

Şükran Şahina, Ülgen Bekişoğlua and Cemil Bilgilia

aAnkara University, Faculty of Agriculture

Department of Landscape Architecture, 06110, Ankara, Türkiye

 

Ecological networks are the linear landscape components served for ensuring the favorable conservation status of the ecosystems, habitats, species and landscapes. Meier et al. (2005) states that “an ecologically compensating areas network is a hierarchical system with the following levels: (i) core areas, (ii) buffer zones of core areas, (iii) corridors and stepping stones, and (iv) nature development and/or restoration areas that support resources, habitats and species”. Basing those statements, in this paper, a method is suggested to create an ecological network by the help of landscape ecology knowledge which simplify to understand the keystone processes and structures what form a landscape. The ecological network creation work is conducted in the example of Zir Valley in Ankara/Turkey using recent information technologies

 

The paper was systematically constructed with the following contents: (1) The importance of Zir Valley in Ankara City Valley System from ecological point of view; (2) Landscape analysis through ecological knowledge in Zir Valley: Landscape function and structure; (3) Ecological impact assessment of forces and pressures which transform the landscape; (4) Ecological network creation within the framework of landscape planning and management practices. As a result, ecological network created for Zir Valley was evaluated for ecologically sound landscape development decisions within the context of Landscape Planning and Management concepts.

 

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE - INNOVATIVE LANDSCAPE PLANNING FOR MULTI-FUNCTIONAL ENVIRONMENTS?

 

Ian C. Mell and Maggie Roe

Department of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

 

The role of Green Infrastructure planning as a mechanism for positive landscape development is being widely debated in the UK as a result of recent interest in the concept shown by government agencies and planning authorities. As a landscape planning process that encompasses the ideas and ideals of social and ecological connectivity and multi-functionality Green Infrastructures are seen to hold the potential to provide a panoply of ecological, economic and social benefits.

 

The purpose of this paper it to outline the recent development of the Green Infrastructure concept in the UK and to provide an insight onto the underlying influences acting upon this development. Through an examination of the debates relating to landscape connectivity and the development of functional landscapes this paper will describe how the principles of environmental conservation, Greenways, landscape planning and Landscape Ecology have provided the basis for Green Infrastructure development.

 

The paper discusses the role of Green Infrastructure as a part of the broader urban and urban-fringe renewal in the UK and the move towards planning policies that aim to achieve multi-functional green spaces.  This becomes increasingly important when considering a variety of landscape scales with a focus on sustainability issues.   Analysis of the results of a number of research projects undertaken by Newcastle University and the North East Community Forests (NECF) partnership will be presented to provide an indication of the current theoretical and practitioner context for Green Infrastructure planning.  Finally, the paper speculates on the future development and potential of Green Infrastructure planning in the UK.

 

Keywords: Green Infrastructure, multi-functionality, connectivity, decision-making, landscape scale planning

 

TRACK 3-B    TECHNOLOGY IN GREENWAY PLANNING – 3:45 pm

Moderator:  Julie DelVecchio Savage

 

Steps in the Right Direction:

Improving Techniques for GIS-based Greenway Allocation

 

C. Dana Tomlin, University of Pennsylvania,

 

The use of geographic information systems (GIS) in greenway planning often involves optimal routing algorithms that cast the greenway (or its centerline) as a path to be traced from one location to another in a manner that minimizes a set of predefined costs along the way.  When such a path is to traverse a field (as opposed to a network) of such costs, this field is generally represented as a checkerboard-like grid.   Here, each square grid cell is characterized in terms of the cost of traversing that cell.  These incremental costs are then accumulated in a cost-minimizing manner that effectively simulates the propagation of waves as they refract and diffract through media of varying density on their way from one path terminus to the other. 

 

One of the fundamental problems of this approach is the fact that simulated motion from any given cell to its adjacent neighbors must be limited to no more than the eight particular directions associated with those neighbors.  As a result, cost accumulations in other directions tend to be overestimated, and cost-minimizing paths can therefore often be mis-directed. 

 

The paper proposed introduces a promising new approach that overcomes this problem.  It also discusses the particular implications of this approach for greenway planning.

 

High Performance Greenways: using a green building framework to strengthen landscape planning

 

Christine Scott Thomson, Plunkett Raysich Visiting Professor

University of Milwaukee – Wisconsin

 

The application of a green building framework to large development projects is bolstering landscape planning, policy and enhancing greenway design. As green building projects work with green corridors and public spaces to maintain a large site and region’s natural systems function, new planning techniques are being developed to ensure integration of the landscape with the built environment. 

 

This paper will profile how urban designers are new allies in the efforts to broaden opportunities for and implementation of landscape and greenway creation. It will look at the increasing focus on landscape elements in large planning projects and new tools that are being used to ensure landscape planning around performance functions, addressing concerns about stormwater as well as energy.

 

Using two case studies, it will reveal new tools around low impact development and green building that create opportunities for broadening the scope of landscape planning. The Concord-Alewife Planning Study, a redevelopment plan for over 200 acres currently occupied by light industrial uses and located between critical water resources, envisions a civic realm inspired by stormwater as part of a larger strategic plan for the area. In addition to the community planning process, illustrations, and resulting zoning changes that work together to promote the development of a green network, new regulations include a “permeability requirement” to ensure the expansion of greenways that provide important stormwater infiltration functions.  The University of Mississippi master plan, a plan for 158 acre site that will contain needed new research facilities, shows that a desirable new campus expansion must include complimentary natural landscapes to not only conserve open space but to also directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new buildings.  In addition to the master planning process, a LEED green building rating system feasibility analysis was conducted to demonstrate landscape planning’s critical role in reducing energy consumption.