scholarly journals Re-designing urban open spaces to act as green infrastructure - the case of Malta

2022 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 148-155
Author(s):  
Sarah Scheiber
Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Yacamán Ochoa ◽  
Daniel Ferrer Jiménez ◽  
Rafael Mata Olmo

Green infrastructure (GI), as a concept and as a tool for environmental land-use planning at various scales, has burst onto the academic, political, and policy-making scenes in the last two decades. This tool, associated with strategic planning, offers integrated solutions for improving the ecological connectivity and urban resilience of open spaces, especially those affected by processes of urban sprawl, the abandonment of agriculture, and the territorial fragmentation of habitats and traditional agricultural landscapes. In spite of the advantages of GI, its design and implementation face a range of challenges and limitations. In this context, this paper has two objectives: Firstly, to address a critical review of recent literature on the subject, which, among other things, highlights the lack of references to the role of peri-urban agriculture in GI planning, and the positive contribution made by peri-urban agriculture to the local food supply and other regulatory and cultural services. Secondly, to propose a methodology to contribute to integrating practical GI planning in metropolitan regions to maximize the activation of traditional agricultural landscapes and the improvement of landscape connectivity in metropolitan regions for the reconnection of rural-urban relationships.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Tóth ◽  
Axel Timpe

Abstract Using ‘Urban Atlas’ as a data source, the authors present and critically discuss in this paper the application of figure-ground plans in combination with complex land-use maps as a tool for spatial analysis of urban agriculture in European cities and their multifunctional green infrastructure. The selected cities and metropolitan areas (including Dublin, Ruhr Metropolis, Geneva and Sofia) represent different regions in Europe from the Northwest to the Southeast. Urban fabric, agriculture and non-agricultural open spaces have been analysed and compared as the main land-use components. Agricultural open spaces include arable land with annual crops and permanent crops, such as vineyards, fruit trees and olive groves; pastures; as well as complex and mixed cultivation patterns. The results reveal the scale and land-use diversity of metropolitan regions and different spatial patterns of urban agriculture at the regional level and in central urban areas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazlina Mansor ◽  
Ismail Said ◽  
Ismail Mohamad

The study explores the significance of residents’ experience with an array of green infrastructure in Taiping, a small town in central Peninsular Malaysia. It argues that the existence of a composite of greenery and open spaces in a town that has diversity contributes to sense of well-being of residents. Green infrastructure network is a composite of various types of greenery and open spaces linked by streets, waterways and drainages encircling and connecting urban areas, at all spatial scales. In Taiping, the green infrastructure network consists of a town park, street planting, open spaces of public buildings, pocket spaces between shop-houses, school playfields, neighbourhood open space, home gardens, and river corridors. Questionnaires (n=335) and semi-structured interviews (n=33) explored the diversity of the green infrastructure in the town and the causal relationship to well-being—physical, cognitive and social. The data suggested that green infrastructure afford residents diversity of experience. Diverse experiences of green infrastructure network, physically and visually attract residents to participate in active activities, to socialize and to perform other transactional activities outside their homes. Therefore, the effects from the participation trigger many positive moods such as serenity, relaxation, comfort and satisfaction. Moreover, in physical and social terms, experiencing urban green spaces such as parks and gardens afford town residents active living, and community participation and harmony. There were modest relationships between the dimensions of diversity with the well-being dimensions, suggesting that residents felt diversity affect their sense of well-being. Hence, the results implicate that urban green spaces are essential amenity for towns and cities that afford an individual and a community physical, cognitive and social well-being. Keywords:     Green infrastructure, Small town, Diversity, Well-being © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, Malaysia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 07006
Author(s):  
Aji Uhfatun Muzdalifah ◽  
Maryono Maryono

Park is one of the spot green infrastructure. There are two major characteristic of park, first Active parks and second passive park. Those of two open spaces have been significant on the fulfillment of urban environment. To maintenance the urban park, it is very importance to identify the characteristic of active and passive park. The identification also needs to fostering stakeholder effort to increase quality of urban park infrastructure. This study aims to explore and assess the characteristic of urban park infrastructure in Semarang City, Central Java. Data collection methods conduct by review formal document, field observation and interview with key government officer. The study founded that urban active parks infrastructure resilience could be defined by; Park Location, Garden Shape, Vegetation, Support Element, Park Function, and Expected Benefit from Park Existence. Moreover, the vegetation aspect and the supporting elements are the most importance urban park infrastructure in Semarang.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karsten Rusche ◽  
Mario Reimer ◽  
Rico Stichmann

Urban green infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important concept for sustainable urban planning. In the past, planning practice and research have worked on defining principles and suggesting relevant indicators to promote the concept. While there has been a focus on multifunctionality of green infrastructure elements, the connectivity principle is underrepresented, especially in urban research. Therefore, this paper suggests land use indicators to map and assess the degree of connectivity of open spaces within the urban realm. Empirical results are presented for three European case studies. The relevance of connectivity indicators for urban green infrastructure planning is highlighted and linked to future needs for improving strategic urban planning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-213
Author(s):  
Suci Senjana ◽  
Nunik Junara ◽  
Elok Mutiara

Urban areas have the character of increasingly dense buildings and less land that can be used for green infrastructure. So that the option to increase green open space is increasingly difficult. Along with the population growth in Kampung Arab and the low number of public facilities, the environment became very crowded and have less adequate public open spaces for the residents who lived here. Kampung Arab itself is a settlement dominated by Muslim residents who have been in this area for a long time. This study aims to analyze the feasibility of applying the pocket garden concept to Islamic residential kasawan which is currently in a congested condition. The first step is to collect data from observations, surveys and literature selection. Then, the method used to analyze is discourse analysis and selective criteria. These two processes show the results in the form of the benefits of the pocket garden concept in settlements, a map of the location at a point in Kampung Arab which can be used as a pocket garden and a map of the distance from the pocket garden to the surrounding house. These findings explain that the concept of green open space for narrow land can improve the quality of life for urban communities, especially those in Kampung Arab. Therefore, the application of the concept as a concept that is suitable for use in the future both in planning and designing in Kampung Arab, urban areas of the population. There are related professions that can work using this system such as spatial policy makers, planners, and architects.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang W. Weisser ◽  
Thomas E. Hauck

ABSTRACTBiodiversity underlies many of the ecosystem services demanded by humans. For cities, the design of ‘green infrastructures’ or ‘nature-based solutions’ has been proposed to maintain the provisioning of these services and the preservation of biodiversity. It is unclear, however, how such green infrastructure can be implemented, given existing planning practices that generally ignore biodiversity. Urban open spaces are normally designed by landscape architects with a primary focus on plants, aesthetic design and functionality for human users. As a consequence, conservation of species only plays a minor role, in fact, protected animals are often considered detrimental to the design, e.g. when the need to conserve a protected species demands modifications of a building project. Conversely, conservationists are often in favor of protected areas, also in cities, with little access for humans and no human design.We propose ‘Animal-Aided Design’ (AAD) as a methodology for the design of urban open spaces, to integrate conservation into open space planning. The basic idea of AAD is to include the presence of animals in the planning process, such that they are an integral part of the design. For AAD, the desired species are chosen at the beginning of a project. The requirements of the target species then not only set boundary conditions for the design, but also serve as an inspiration for the design itself. The aim of AAD is to establish a stable population at the project site, or contribute to population growth of species with larger habitats. AAD thus allows a combination of good urban design with species conservation. We illustrate our approach with designs for urban spaces in Munich.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6047
Author(s):  
Carla Ana-Maria Tudorie ◽  
María Vallés-Planells ◽  
Eric Gielen ◽  
Rosa Arroyo ◽  
Francisco Galiana

Universities are showing a growing interest in becoming green institutions and improving campus open space management. Well-designed urban landscapes guided by green criteria integrate eco-friendly infrastructure which may be effective in facing urban challenges in the context of climate change. Student preferences and uses of campus outdoor environment should draw the attention of campus landscape planners. This study aims to analyse how the university community perceives landscape services provided by the Spanish Universitat Politècnica de València’s campus open space. An online questionnaire was sent to the university community to check its opinions, level of satisfaction, and their demands related to the current situation of the outdoor areas. Campus open spaces with different urban green infrastructure have a high potential to provide cultural, provisioning, and regulation landscape services. Respondents perceive the main benefits provided by campus open spaces to be that they are a place to relax, meet friends, and pass through. Their needs related to the welfare of outdoor areas and their preferences differ according to age, occupation, and time spent at the campus. This paper intends to help the university to meet environmental guidelines and to help other universities in their endeavour to reach sustainability and ensure the university community’s well-being.


Author(s):  
Satpute Rushikesh ◽  
Khare Kanchan

In India, the 2019 monsoon season arrived very late and heavy, following a severe heatwave. This year's monsoons have brought the highest amount of rain in 25 years and with unprecedented spatial variability. In some districts of Maharashtra, higher-than-average rainfall caused massive flooding, which resulted in the submergence of 2 lakh hectares. Whereas remaining states saw the continued drought conditions from monsoon 2018. This unusual monsoon behaviour is considered an example of the impact of climate change and is expected to intensify and worsen over time. The combination of drought followed by heavy rainfall increases the risk of massive flooding, influence on natural and man-made systems, including infrastructure and agricultural production in flooded and dry regions. Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) is an interconnected network of natural and anthropogenic components, including water bodies and green and open spaces, like bio-retention cells, rain barrels, infiltration trenches, and vegetation swales.


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