scholarly journals Intelligent Urban Planning and Ecological Urbanscape-Solutions for Sustainable Urban Development. Case Study of Wolfsburg

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4903
Author(s):  
Joanna Dudek-Klimiuk ◽  
Barbara Warzecha

Intelligent urban planning and ecological urbanism can be recognized as two of the key solutions to act against urban sprawl. This process is associated with suburbanization, blurring boundaries between the city and suburbs, and the undefined role of open and green spaces within new structures. It has been identified as the biggest and the most common problem worldwide. This non-central planning has a huge impact not only on economic aspects, but—most of all—on the ecological and landscaping balance within the urban area. This study covers not only the recognition of the outlined situation, but also a conceptual proposal to challenge the problems of urban sprawl. The city of Wolfsburg serves as a case study to which the tools of Ecological Urbanism and Intelligent Urbanism were applied. A corrective plan for the study area has been worked out, based on the main approaches in urban planning of the 21st century. The green transformation processes to achieve resiliency within urban areas are inevitable and will have to be conducted due to the rising number of the dwellers, steadily changing climate, and socio-economic conditions all over the world. The main solutions include mainly the system of green corridors, interconnectedness of open spaces, walkability with smart mobile options and social community as a nucleus of a local neighborhood.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10611
Author(s):  
Karolina Kais ◽  
Marlena Gołaś ◽  
Marzena Suchocka

One of the consequences of the constant urban development in numerous countries is a growing concentration of air pollution, which adversely affects both the environment and people’s health. One of the ways of changing this negative trend is to maintain green areas and trees within cities, as they serve many ecosystem functions, including biological absorption of particles and other types of air pollution. This article provides the findings of a study carried out among the residents of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, in order to assess social awareness of air pollution and the importance of trees. The study of the residents’ awareness was supplemented with the assessment of the parameters of the trees’ capacity for pollution absorption in selected locations performed with the help of the i-Tree Eco tool, which allowed the authors to compare the residents’ impressions on the role of trees in the process of absorption of pollution with their actual potential. The analyses showed that the majority of city residents are concerned with the problem of air in the city, but at the same time failing to notice its negative impact on their health. The majority of respondents were not aware of the role the trees play in the process of pollution absorption, suggesting that there is a real need for raising social awareness of functions served by trees and green areas in urban spaces. The comparison of the city residents’ opinions on the importance of trees in the process of pollution absorption with objective data obtained with the help of i-Tree Eco tool shows that the majority of people’s impressions of pollution absorption by trees in urban areas is correct.


Author(s):  
Mozhgan Samzadeh ◽  
Zunaibi Abdullah ◽  
Saari Omar ◽  
Aniza Abdul Aziz

In the past few decades, cities from various parts of the world have faced with unplanned and uncontrolled physical expansion due to inappropriate policies. Among different solutions against urban sprawl, the dominant sustainable cure is the so-called 'Urban Consolidation' (UC). This paper aims to explore urban sprawl characteristics and present its cause and effect on the sustainability criteria of Shiraz city, Iran. It is confined to an exploration of population growth and physical expansion of the city. The data has been collected from governmental organizations and documents. This paper examines UC policy implementation in the inner city of Shiraz to control low-density urban sprawl. As the result, this paper discovers that the policy emphasizes on the higher density housing development in existing urban areas considering the capacity of infrastructures and facilities’ availability prior to calculate housing targets to decrease the demand for Greenfield development. It concludes with a brief discussion on the challenges to achieve sustainable urban development goals in the city through UC strategies.


Author(s):  
Samuel Mössner ◽  
Catarina Gomes de Matos

This chapter critically approaches the role of academic knowledge. This plays a crucial role in the process of development, identification, and evaluation of the so-called ‘best-practices’ of urban planning worldwide. The chapter takes this focus in order to problematise the normative force that academic knowledge can have and argues that it may contribute to the post-politicisation rather than to contest and reframe practices of urban planning. To substantiate the arguments, the chapter draws on the city of Freiburg in Germany. Despite its severe problems and challenges related to social justice and social equality, this city is widely hailed as a best-practice for sustainable urban development in much of the contemporary academic literature on this issue.


Author(s):  
M. S. Gunko ◽  
G. A. Pivovar ◽  
K. V. Averkieva

The current study is aimed at the analysis of local development with a focus on the renewal processes in small cities of European Russia. Renewal refers to the introduction of positive changes trough re-opening and re-imagining existing urban areas. Due to the lack of adequate statistical data, we access renewal using a qualitative approach, through the analysis of the material form the cityscape, which is not only an indicator of the socio-economic situation in the city but also helps to understand the distribution of power relations within it. Empirical data were obtained in three small single-industry towns located remote from major centres Borovichi (Novgorod oblast), Vyksa (Nizhny Novgorod oblast), Rostov (Yaroslavl oblast). The results of the study suggest that the zone of transformation, successful emergence of the new and change of the old in small cities, is each time unique. Transformation occurs since cities are in search of their own way out of the structural crisis, struggling not only to provide the economic minimum but also to change the cityscape and everyday life. The main actors of this process are private from large to small business, as well as the local communities. While the role of the local administration due to the lack of resources is, most often, restricted to creating a functioning communication platform to address the interests of the main actors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mozhgan Samzadeh ◽  
Zunaibi Abdullah ◽  
Saari Omar ◽  
Aniza Abdul Aziz

In the past few decades, cities from various parts of the world have faced with unplanned and uncontrolled physical expansion due to inappropriate policies. Among different solutions against urban sprawl, the dominant sustainable cure is the so-called 'Urban Consolidation' (UC). This paper aims to explore urban sprawl characteristics and present its cause and effect on the sustainability criteria of Shiraz city, Iran. It is confined to an exploration of population growth and physical expansion of the city. The data has been collected from governmental organizations and documents. This paper examines UC policy implementation in the inner city of Shiraz to control low-density urban sprawl. As the result, this paper discovers that the policy emphasizes on the higher density housing development in existing urban areas considering the capacity of infrastructures and facilities’ availability prior to calculate housing targets to decrease the demand for Greenfield development. It concludes with a brief discussion on the challenges to achieve sustainable urban development goals in the city through UC strategies.


Author(s):  
O. A. Kryzhantovska ◽  
◽  
E S. Evstigneeva ◽  

In the last decade, the issue of forming a green framework system during the development and organization of cities, the structure and principles of its formation has been widely discussed. Meanwhile, the concept of a green framework in urban planning and ecology is different, which requires the synthesis and analysis of these concepts in urban ecology. The article is devoted to determining the role of the natural framework in the structure of the modern urban environment, it also highlights key issues related to urban development features of the formation of the green framework in the structure of the city, at the same level with the problems of its organization. This article reflects various approaches to the development of a green framework in an urban environment and the problems in its formation in modern conditions. The role of the green framework as the basis for ecological planning of the territory and optimization of the quality of the urban environment is considered. In the process of analysis, we conclude that the main aspects of compensation in urban areas are the preservation and development of the gardening system, the determination of their size and connectedness, ecological and urban planning functions that provide ecological compensation for the city, as well as the creation of green architecture. The preservation and growth of green spaces in cities is one of the main environmental tasks. The indifferent attitude of citizens to their environment is a serious urgent problem. The article raises the issue of increasing the civic activity of residents of megacities in the field of preserving the green frame of cities. The successful experience in the conservation of natural resources and the development of green public areas is described on the example of 5 European cities. The obtained results can be used by architects for the theory and practice of the formation of green frames in a modern urban environment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Alexandre

The emergence of the modern concept of the sustainable city raises afresh the longstanding issue of the place and role of vegetation in urban and peri-urban areas in Europe. The awareness of biodiversity and the exploration of the services provided by ecosystems both lead to the development of ecological networks based on green spaces in and around the city. The establishment of these networks converges with the control of urban growth and urban sprawl, with the ‘green belts’. Drawing on the development of public policy governing the place of vegetation in Berlin, London and Paris, this article seeks to show the correspondences that have developed in the discussions of urban policy carried on in the major industrialized countries, and also the conflicting goals which these policies are meant to implement.


Author(s):  
Alessandro Portelli

This article centers around the case study of Rome's House of Memory and History to understand the politics of memory and public institutions. This case study is about the organization and politics of public memory: the House of Memory and History, established by the city of Rome in 2006, in the framework of an ambitious program of cultural policy. It summarizes the history of the House's conception and founding, describes its activities and the role of oral history in them, and discusses some of the problems it faces. The idea of a House of Memory and History grew in this cultural and political context. This article traces several political events that led to the culmination of the politics of memory and its effect on public institutions. It says that the House of Memory and History can be considered a success. A discussion on a cultural future winds up this article.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5033
Author(s):  
Linda Novosadová ◽  
Wim van der Knaap

The present research offers an exploration into the biophilic approach and the role of its agents in urban planning in questions of building a green, resilient urban environment. Biophilia, the innate need of humans to connect with nature, coined by Edgar O. Wilson in 1984, is a concept that has been used in urban governance through institutions, agents’ behaviours, activities and systems to make the environment nature-inclusive. Therefore, it leads to green, resilient environments and to making cities more sustainable. Due to an increasing population, space within and around cities keeps on being urbanised, replacing natural land cover with concrete surfaces. These changes to land use influence and stress the environment, its components, and consequently impact the overall resilience of the space. To understand the interactions and address the adverse impacts these changes might have, it is necessary to identify and define the environment’s components: the institutions, systems, and agents. This paper exemplifies the biophilic approach through a case study in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom and its biophilic agents. Using the categorisation of agents, the data obtained through in-situ interviews with local professionals provided details on the agent fabric and their dynamics with the other two environments’ components within the climate resilience framework. The qualitative analysis demonstrates the ways biophilic agents act upon and interact within the environment in the realm of urban planning and influence building a climate-resilient city. Their activities range from small-scale community projects for improving their neighbourhood to public administration programs focusing on regenerating and regreening the city. From individuals advocating for and educating on biophilic approach, to private organisations challenging the business-as-usual regulations, it appeared that in Birmingham the biophilic approach has found its representatives in every agent category. Overall, the activities they perform in the environment define their role in building resilience. Nonetheless, the role of biophilic agents appears to be one of the major challengers to the urban design’s status quo and the business-as-usual of urban governance. Researching the environment, focused on agents and their behaviour and activities based on nature as inspiration in addressing climate change on a city level, is an opposite approach to searching and addressing the negative impacts of human activity on the environment. This focus can provide visibility of the local human activities that enhance resilience, while these are becoming a valuable input to city governance and planning, with the potential of scaling it up to other cities and on to regional, national, and global levels.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document