NEW APPROACHES FOR RESEARCH PUBLIC SPACES AND URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF LIVABLE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Author(s):  
Nina Jančová
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zorana Hrkic Ilic ◽  
Marijana Kapovic Solomun ◽  
Nada Sumatic

<p><strong>Abstract</strong>: Rapid growth of urban population and consequential increasing traffic, construction of buildings, roads, industrial areas, affects urban soils as well as urban environment in general. Urban soils differ from the natural soils by their disturbed structure resulting from waste disposal, construction sites, pollution from atmospheric deposition, traffic and industrial activities. Mismanagement of urban environment can cause severe contamination of green areas in cities, with serious health risk for urban population. To prevail those issues and improve the sustainability of urban green areas, innovative and nature based solutions (NBS) should gain more attention, particularly those easily applied such as tree-based phytoremediation. Unlike traditional remediation techniques that are expensive, very demanding and can cause secondary pollution, tree-based phytoremediation is NBS with wide spectrum of application. It is low-cost technique, based on urban green infrastructure (parks, alleys, community gardens) and has numerous benefits reflected throught sustainable management of urban soils and improvement of general environmental, health, social and economic conditions for urban population. Primarly, urban green infrastructure consist of different tree species capable to mitigate soil contamination, especially contamination with toxic heavy metals (HMs). Regeneration of urban ecosystems based on the role of tree species is connected to ability of trees to retain, uptake and decompose pollutants (including HMs) from contaminated urban soils, enabling their re-use process and turning them into green and environmental friendly areas. Taking into account advantages of phytoremediation technique, the aim of this paper is to present concentration of some HMs (cadmium, lead and zinc) in urban soils of cities accross Bosnia and Herzegovina and look into phytoremediation potential of common urban tree species: horse chestnut (<em>Aesculus</em> <em>hippocastanum</em> L.) and planetree (<em>Platanus</em> × <em>acerifolia</em> (Aiton) Willd.). Results showed high phytoremediation potential of above mentioned tree species, which opens space for further research and introduction of this NBS for remediation of many severely polluted urban soils, drawing attention to better-understood urban sustainability and importance of application of phytoremediation as NBS on local level.</p><p><strong>Key words</strong>: nature-based solutions, phytoremediation, urban soil, trees, heavy metals</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Fronczek-Wojciechowska ◽  
Karolina Kopacz ◽  
Gianluca Padula ◽  
Szymon Wiśniewski ◽  
Anna Wojnarowska

Population ageing and growing awareness of the need for physical activity is one of the most important topics in Europe nowadays. But it should be noted that there is still no interdisciplinary and integrated approach to urban environment planning concerning physical activity of elderly people which would take into account special needs and possibilities of this particular group. Elderly people represent one of the groups which are threatened with social exclusion for different reasons. This article presents a proposal for a method of constructing a spatial system consisting of natural and anthropogenic elements of urban environment which can be interpreted as Inclusive Urban Green Infrastructure, enabling active and healthy ways of recreation, including the needs of elderly persons. It is based on the existing elements of the environment, but to create a well-functioning system in urban space it is necessary to introduce additional elements, both natural and man-created. The method refers to the spatial definition of areas for active recreation which meet the adopted, specific for elderly people, pro-health and functional requirements. Creation of such a system in cities would contribute to inclusion of this group into social life, thus boosting social coherence and integration across generations, and would also bring beneficial health results. Such infrastructure would also be of considerable importance for sustainable urban growth and improvement of the quality of urban space. The paper is based on source materials from the fields of science investigating health in connection with physiology of the process of ageing, influence of physical activity on this process, impact of negative features of the environment on the health of elderly people as well as urban space planning and development. The proposed methodology of constructing Inclusive Urban Green Infrastructure is presented on the example of Łódź, using data from the Geographic Information System (Topographic Objects Database) and population database for cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4699
Author(s):  
Kinga Szilágyi ◽  
Chaima Lahmar ◽  
Camila Andressa Pereira Rosa ◽  
Krisztina Szabó

Historic allées and urban avenues reflect a far-sighted and forward-thinking design attitude. These compositions are the living witnesses of olden times, suggesting permanence. However, the 20th century’s urban development severely damaged the environment, therefore hundred-year-old mature trees are relatively rare among city avenues’ stands. Due to the deteriorated habitat conditions, replantation may be necessary from time to time. However, there are a large number of replanted allées and urban avenues considered historical monuments, according to the relevant international literature in urban and living heritage’s preservation. The renewal often results in planting a different, urban tolerant taxon, as seen in several examples reviewed. Nevertheless, the allée remains an essential urban structural element, though often with a changed character. The Budapest Andrássy Avenue, a city and nature connection defined in the late 19th century’s urban landscape planning, aimed to offer a splendid link between city core and nature in Városliget Public Park. The 19–20th century’s history and urban development are well documented in Hungarian and several English publications, though current tree stock stand and linear urban green infrastructure as part of the urban landscape need a detailed survey. The site analyses ran in 2020–early 2021 created a basis for assessing the allées and the whole avenue as an urban ecosystem and a valuable case study of contemporary heritage protection problems. Andrassy Avenue, the unique urban fabric, architecture, and promenades have been a world heritage monument of cultural value since 2002. The allées became endangered despite reconstruction type maintenance efforts. The presented survey analyses the living heritage’s former renewal programs and underlines the necessity of new reconstruction concepts in urban heritage protection. We hypothesize that urban green infrastructure development, the main issue in the 21st century to improve the urban ecological system and human liveability, may support heritage protection. The Budapest World Heritage Site is worthwhile for a complex renewal where the urban green ecosystem supply and liveable, pedestrian-friendly urban open space system are at the forefront to recall the once glorious, socially and aesthetically attractive avenue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6930
Author(s):  
Shinsuke Kyoi

This study evaluates people’s preferences regarding the proximity of their residence to agricultural urban green infrastructure (UGI), such as agricultural land and satoyama, and discusses the availability of these types of land as UGI. UGI is vital for reducing the negative environmental impacts of urban areas, as these impacts are too large to ignore. In this study, we conducted an online survey and a choice experiment to investigate people’s perceptions regarding the proximity of their residence to agricultural UGI (AUGI). The respondents of the choice experiment were 802 inhabitants of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, which has rich agricultural resources. To examine explicitly the spatial autocorrelation of people’s preferences, in this study, we used the spatial econometrics method. The main empirical findings are that people prefer agricultural land far away from their residence—more than 1000 m, not within 1000 m—which reflects the not-in-my-backyard phenomenon. Meanwhile, people’s preferences regarding proximity to satoyama are complicated and their preferences are positively spatially autocorrelated. The results indicate that policymakers and urban planners should manage and provide AUGI far away from residential areas; otherwise, they must address people’s avoidance of neighboring AUGI.


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