scholarly journals Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Sustainability: An Ecosystem Services Assessment of Plans for Singapore’s First “Forest Town”

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley Anne Tan ◽  
Leon Yan-Feng Gaw ◽  
Mahyar Masoudi ◽  
Daniel Rex Richards
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Modeling Tools ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Future Scenario ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Tropical Cities ◽  
Spatially Explicit Modeling

Rapid urbanization in many parts of the world has increasingly put the environment under pressure, with natural landscapes cleared to make way for built infrastructure. Urban ecosystems, and the services that they provide, can offer nature-based solutions to the challenges of urbanization. There is increasing interest in better incorporating ecosystems into urban planning and design in order to deliver greater provision of ecosystem services and enhance urban liveability. However, there are few examples of built or proposed urban developments that have been designed specifically with ecosystem services in mind–partly because there are few modeling tools available to support urban planners and designers by informing their design workflows. Through using Singapore’s latest nature-centric town as a case study, this article assesses the impacts of nature-based solutions in urban design on ecosystem services performance, through a spatially explicit modeling approach. The proposed future scenario for the nature-centric town was projected to result in substantial declines in the provision of all ecosystem services, as a result of the removal of large areas of natural vegetation cover. However, the future scenario compared favourably against three older towns that have been constructed in Singapore, showing the best performance for four out of six ecosystem services. This simulation exercise indicates that designing towns with ecosystem services in mind, and incorporating nature-based solutions into urban design, can help to achieve enhanced performance in providing ecosystem services. The models developed for this study have been made publicly available for use in other tropical cities.

scholarly journals Urban Design and the Role of Placemaking in Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions. Learning From the Bibliotheca Degli Alberi Case Study in Milan

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judit Boros ◽  
Israa Mahmoud
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Urban Regeneration ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Urban Planning And Design

Nature-based solutions' (NBS) relevance for tackling environmental challenges has been on the frontiers of urban regeneration mechanisms since the beginning of the 2010s. There is an increasing interest in applying NBS in urban planning and design to build support and engagement for sustainable urban development. However, NBS's operational use as deliberate design interventions is not widely reflected in the scientific discourse, more evidence is needed on how functional and viable aspects of urban nature can be conceptualized in urban design. This calls to explore the ways urban design can advance their understanding as part of place-specific, designed urban spaces. Through an ex-post analysis, the authors examined the design and implementation process of an exemplary NBS project, the Biblioteca degli Alberi park in Milan, part of one of the largest, recent urban regeneration projects in Europe. In a synthetic analysis, design drivers, enablers, and deficiencies are discussed, which affect the park's performance both from human-centered and nature-based perspectives. The park's case demonstrates design actions and considerations affecting all stages of the life-cycle of an NBS, from the creative design phase to the development, use, and management phases, and how urban design can create conditions for amplifying the multifunctional potential of urban ecosystems. The results highlight the importance of integrating an urban ecology perspective in the entirety of the design process when implementing NBS, consequently for a successful re-scoping of urban design and planning practices to infuse human-centeredness with “nature-basedness.”

A Crowdsourcing Approach in Urban Design

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisham Abusaada ◽  
Abeer Elshater
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
The Creation

This chapter examines the problem of excessive similarity when designing new cities. It focuses on the generating of innovative ideas through urban design paradigms. The purpose of this work is to support the efforts of planners and designers toward the creation of new cities based on the concept of cities of singularity. This chapter is a bibliographic review of some conventional Western paradigms in urban planning and design. Based on this work, the three initial singularities of cities can be sketched as being architecturally singular (artwork-like/artistic and organic), societally singular (social, economic, and transcultural), or technologically and informationally singular (smart) in nature. The analytical reading depends on content analysis—which follows the potentiality of exploring the meaning of singularity and its characteristics, indicators, and principles. It collects the interrelationships of the old and new paradigms. The outcomes provide a framework for creating ‘cities of singularity' based on a crowdsourcing approach.

Lively Cities

2015 ◽  
pp. 541-570
Author(s):  
Marcus Owens ◽  
Jennifer Wolch
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Global Dynamics ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Age Of Ecology

The study of nonhuman animals in urban ecosystems is a recent but expanding field. This chapter explores the ways in which human-animal relationships in cities have historically been framed and argues that a consideration of nonhuman animals is vital to a robust urban theory in the age of ecology. The places of animals within the urban planning and design professions that shape cities are elucidated, along with contemporary developments in ecology that increasingly inform city planning, design, and management. The chapter then highlights four global dynamics that promise to radically reshape urban animal ecologies, and concludes with a call for lively cities characterized by the coexistence of people and animals.

scholarly journals Urban Design Strategy from the Perspective of Low-Carbon City Planning

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Wei Qian
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Low Carbon City

<p>The economy growth has improved the development of cities. In cities' continuous development and construction process, carbon emissions are also gradually increasing, causing serious environmental pollution and energy shortage. At present, low-carbon urban planning and design has become the demand of contemporary urban construction, and sustainable low-carbon economy has become the inevitable choice of urban planning. Based on this, this article briefly introduces the concept of low-carbon city planning and the principles of urban design from the perspective of low-carbon city. By analyzing the existing problems in current urban planning, this article proposes urban design strategies from the view of low-carbon city planning, seeking to make contributions to the improvement of urban planning levels.</p>

scholarly journals Soluciones basadas en la Naturaleza: estrategias urbanas para la adaptación al cambio climático.

2021 ◽  
pp. 243-262
Author(s):  
Raquel Rey Mellado ◽  
María Teresa Franchini Alonso ◽  
Cristina del Pozo Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change ◽  
Water Vegetation

Cities will suffer the impacts of climate change in the next decades. These impacts will be different according to their geographical features, the distribution and number of green spaces, the characteristics of the exterior surfaces of their floors and the density of population, among other aspects. Given this situation, many cities have begun to adopt adaptation strategies to reduce their vulnerability to the adverse effects of the climate; among which Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) stand out, which respond to ecosystem services and climate challenges, and are classified from the main ecosystems in which they affect: water, vegetation and soil. Within this context, the interest of the SBN in the international field is analyzed and the adaptation measures included in urban strategies developed to respond to this task are reviewed. The review of interventions in cities of the Mediterranean area makes it possible to value the usefulness of the NBS for urban planning and design.

scholarly journals Towards Sustainable Habitats in Turkey

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Derya Oktay
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Identity ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
Natural Ecology ◽  
Urban Places ◽  
Development Practice

Considering the serious environmental and social problems faced during the last few decades and the extensive neglect and devastation of local sources and values, urban development practice cannot be said to be meeting sustainability requirements in most habitats. Urban planning and design are not merely engaged in the visual qualities of urban places but should be recognized as processes through which we consciously shape and manage our habitats with a focus on meeting the requirements of sustainable urbanism. This article firstly explores the logic of sustainable urbanism through a review of its philosophical and practical framework; secondly, it provides a critical assessment of contemporary approaches to sustainable urbanism; and thirdly, it analyses the traditional Turkish (Ottoman) city, which provides valuable clues for sustainable habitats with identity. These evaluations indicate that instead of advocating compactness in all cases, randomly mixing of uses, and promoting car-oriented developments; planners and designers should promote context-sensitive compactness, completeness, and sustainable movement patterns and connectedness. Moreover, rather than relying on standardized urban design guides, practicing ‘green-washed’ architecture and urbanism, creating left-over spaces through planning, and ignoring the peculiarities of the community, practitioners should foster urban identity, promote access to nature and sensitivity to the natural ecology, create sustainable public spaces, and develop social sustainability. These alternative measures are essential for creating sustainability in the urban environment of future habitats.

scholarly journals Emergent Urbanism & Beyond: Times of Transformation and Paradigm Shifts with a Twist on Heritage Urbanism

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Tigran Haas ◽  
Krister Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Urban Heritage ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Urban Planning And Design

This paper is the product of reflections on the consequences of the latest discoveries of Emergent Urbanism that the authors identify as the specific issue dominating today's urban planning and urban design discourse, arguing that urban planning and design not only results from deliberate planning and design measures, but how these combine with infrastructure planning, and derive from economic, social and spatial processes of structural change. In the paper we reflectively also discuss ideas about urban heritage, urban planning & design, and how heritage and planning & design can contribute to urban development. Urban heritage is understood as an infrastructure comparable with other infrastructures that provide an arena for urban planning & design and urban social and economic development. Moreover, the paper includes a remodeled and novel, short discussion and standpoint about five contemporary urban planning & design ideals that dominate the contemporary planning & design discourse, and their different views of the past and urban heritage. The paper concludes that in any given situation and context, the dominating urban planning & design ideal define the specific urban heritage, and, thus, influence how we will understand the past—today and in the future but also the paper maintains that, we must equally recognize how forces of economic, social and spatial structural change contribute to shaping the contemporary urban landscape.

scholarly journals Towards Sustainable Habitats in Turkey: Challenges and Prospects for the Future

2021 ◽  
pp. Derya-Oktay
Author(s):  
Derya Oktay
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Identity ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
Natural Ecology ◽  
Urban Places ◽  
Development Practice

Considering the serious environmental and social problems faced during the last few decades and the extensive neglect and devastation of local sources and values, urban development practice cannot be said to be meeting sustainability requirements in most habitats. Urban planning and design are not merely engaged in the visual qualities of urban places but should be recognized as processes through which we consciously shape and manage our habitats with a focus on meeting the requirements of sustainable urbanism. This article firstly explores the logic of sustainable urbanism through a review of its philosophical and practical framework; secondly, it provides a critical assessment of contemporary approaches to sustainable urbanism; and thirdly, it analyses the traditional Turkish (Ottoman) city, which provides valuable clues for sustainable habitats with identity. These evaluations indicate that instead of advocating compactness in all cases, randomly mixing of uses, and promoting car- oriented developments; planners and designers should promote context-sensitive compactness, completeness, and sustainable movement patterns and connectedness. Moreover, rather than relying on standardized urban design guides, practicing ‘green- washed’ architecture and urbanism, creating left-over spaces through planning, and ignoring the peculiarities of the community, practitioners should foster urban identity, promote access to nature and sensitivity to the natural ecology, create sustainable public spaces, and develop social sustainability. These alternative measures are essential for creating sustainability in the urban environment of future habitats.

scholarly journals Teaching method: ‘Integrative urban design game’ for soft urban regeneration

Spatium ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 57-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatjana Mrdjenovic
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Urban Regeneration ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Urban Planning And Design

Urban regeneration is challenged by contradictory process of globalization. This double-sided process can enrich local communities or leave them at margins of global society. Regarding globalization, most authorities claim that urban planning and design are in paradigm crisis. The crisis is an announcement for paradigm shift that is in contemporary theoretical and conceptual frameworks. They give hope for the ?light at the end of the tunnel?. Their common groundings are: ?soft and hard infrastructure?; ?agencies and structures?; ?power to?; ?new rationality?, ?common sense?; ?communicative action?; and ?integrative development?. The purpose of the research is to discuss possibilities of teaching method ?Integrative urban design game? for soft urban regeneration, elaborating it with respect to the crisis in specific context of building bridges among academia and local communities regarding various teaching approaches. The method was innovated at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade and tested in Bac community. The hypothesis is that the method provides soft infrastructure for urban regeneration in local communities. The research will result in a form of principles the game should be grounded on, using participative mimicry model of present and future place for overcoming paradigm crisis. Methodological approach is based on theoretical comparison, case study, and questionnaires among stakeholders.

scholarly journals Approaching Urban Design through the Analysis of Structural Differences within Three Neighborhood Typologies in Basra City

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qaaid Al-Saraify ◽  
David Grierson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Major Product ◽  
Master Planning ◽  
Neighborhood Design ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Design Attributes ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Design Characteristics ◽  
Objectively Measured

Recognizing the importance of physical environments as a major product of an urban design process for the livability of the built environment, this study focuses on urban planning and design characteristics within three different neighborhood typologies of Basra City. The aim of the study is to support future urban developments in the city based on evidences from the association between the current qualities of neighborhood design and the computed walking minutes of residents. These characteristics are determined from reviewed literature in urban design as reliable physical environmental perceived or objectively measured qualities. The methodology of this study describes four steps of analysis such as: (1) the use of the cadastral maps of the case studies as a source of raw information for objective measurement; (2) the use of objective and subjective measures as defining indicators that are utilized from previous studies; (3) the application of defined indicators for the selected neighborhoods through a comparative analysis; and (4) the conducting of statistical analysis to reveal the influence of the defined indicators on the walking. The findings of this study have led to conclusions on the importance of design attributes to future master planning of neighborhoods especially those of the traditional neighborhood, such as the Al-Saymmar neighborhood in Basra city.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document