Landscape and Urban Planning最新文献

In times of rapid urban expansion, urgent demand for housing and simultaneously efforts to minimise the use of urban land are competing objectives. The concept of large housing estates (LHE) has therefore regained interest. This resurgence raises questions about the living conditions within these historically stigmatised complexes. While liveability studies often rely on surveys, we present a globally applicable quantitative approach to assess liveability along the dimensions of walkability, accessibility and built-up morphology. Using geospatial data and a delineation framework based on walking distances, we identify disparities in liveability. We identified three different planning paradigms for LHEs in Germany: the ‘structured and low-dense’ type, the ‘urbanity by density’ type in Western Germany and the ‘socialistic city’ type in Eastern Germany. Our analysis reveals significant differences in accessibility and morphology, that can be attributed to the historical guiding principles. Walkability, in contrast, seems to be influenced more by environmental elements (rivers, forests) and artificial barriers (railway lines, motorways) than by planning paradigms. The ‘structured’ type is characterised by monofunctionality, limited access to urban infrastructure, low building density, but a high proportion of green spaces. The ‘urbanity by density’ type has significantly higher building densities, better accessibility, but less urban green. The ‘socialistic’ urban type could not be clearly categorised, but seems to be a mixture of the other two types. In our analysis, the ‘urbanity by density’ typology predominantly performed the best and, as such, emerges as the most liveable typology, potentially serving as a guiding model for future construction projects.

Raingardens, as part of urban green infrastructure, are being retrofitted in cities worldwide to contribute to urban sustainability and resilience. Technical function is essential, as is aesthetic function to optimise their community acceptance. Unlike technical design guidelines, aesthetic design guidelines for raingardens are limited. Experience of a landscape can contribute to its bio-physical sustainability, however not all landscape aesthetic experiences are pleasurable. Ecologically motivated landscape change might trigger displeasure. Thus, public support for such change depends on understanding how people perceive and experience beauty in that landscape. Four types of aesthetic experience of landscapes have been proposed in a perceptual model of human/environmental transactions, depending on landscape context and the observer’s situational context. These are scenic and ecological aesthetics, and aesthetics of care and effect of knowledge, and attachment and identity. Understanding which type applies to raingardens can inform their design and management to optimise their acceptance when retrofitted into streetscapes. As part of a study into perception of raingardens in four suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, survey data from 139 respondents were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to reveal perceptual aesthetic experiences. The four aesthetic experiences proposed in the model were identified. An additional, fifth aesthetic, related to affordance, emerged from analysis. Drawing on criteria underlying each aesthetic lens, raingardens can be designed and managed to ensure that any aesthetic experience is favourable. Aesthetic lenses need not compete or be mutually exclusive. Design need not mimic natural forms but can draw attention to nature-based processes within the raingardens and foster environmental ethics.

The soundscape approach considers sound as a resource from a user perspective in the planning of public spaces. While this approach is garnering increased research attention, practitioners rarely integrate sound into their practice beyond noise mitigation. Yet, sound design of public spaces has long been a major focus of sound installation artists, who offer creative site-specific interventions to (re)design public spaces. In this study, we present the systematic evaluation and comparison of four temporary sound installations deployed over two consecutive summers in the same urban public space. The sound installations featured compositions by the artist collective Audiotopie using different combinations of ambient music, nature, and vocal sounds. To measure the effects of the sound installations on users’ experience, we deployed 825 questionnaires including soundscape ratings and sound source listings. The results show that all four sound installations improved the public space’s soundscape, with commonalities (increased calmness and pleasantness, decreased perceived loudness) and specificities (increased sense of being-away for one installation, increased extent-coherence and reduced ratings for chaotic for another) related to compositional and contextual factors, such as the intended design goals, users’ location, or the presence of construction noise. As well, three of the four installations distracted participants from other non-dominant sound sources such as construction works, air conditioners, but also birds and human voices. Overall, the results confirm that sound installations can have a common enhancing effect on the experience of public space users, in addition to specific, tailored effects to reinforce the intended design goals in public spaces.

Urban agriculture has garnered increasing attention as a nature-based solution to achieve urban sustainability. Besides producing quality food for urban residents, urban agriculture could provide diverse and non-tangible ecosystem services that still need to be explored. While prior research has investigated direct stakeholders’ (e.g., urban farmers and growers) perspectives on ecosystem services from urban agriculture, the general public’s perception and underlying factors remain less understood. Such understanding is crucial as the broader community, beyond direct stakeholders, will benefit from urban agriculture and influence the policy and planning that determines its development trajectory. This study investigated the general public’s perception of ecosystem services associated with urban agriculture in the Miami Metropolitan Area, a region experiencing rapid urbanization and emerging urban agriculture development. Among 23 services surveyed, community-level cultural and regulating/supporting services were the most recognized. Conversely, individual-level cultural and provisioning services were the least recognized, underscoring the recognized contribution of urban agriculture to a much larger community and society. Respondents’ demographics, personal experience with farming/gardening, and awareness of urban agriculture in their surroundings were the significant factors, whereas geographic factors (e.g., land-use cluster) exerted less impact. Our findings highlight the perceived multifunctionality of urban agriculture from a public perspective and suggest a nuanced understanding of how urban agriculture contributes to social well-being. Our research provides empirical evidence of public support for urban agriculture development and has critical implications for urban regions interested in integrating urban agriculture to achieve urban sustainability.

Most Europeans reside in urban areas. Due to anthropogenic air and noise pollution, as well as crowdedness, urban residents experience lower levels of well-being and life satisfaction. The literature indicates that greening urban spaces can help to mitigate these negative effects on life satisfaction. This study employs a deep learning approach in conjunction with high-resolution satellite imagery and land use data to obtain the distribution of different green space types in the residents’ neighborhood and examine their effect on life satisfaction. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the indeterminate relationship between mixed urban land use and life satisfaction. In both cases, the study considers heterogeneous age group effects. The empirical results reveal that in Switzerland, (1) solely older residents’ life satisfaction is positively affected by a greener neighborhood; (2) trees and grass located in gardens and parks are the primary drivers of this effect; and (3) the positive association between land use mixture and life satisfaction decreases with age, with no association found for older individuals. These findings provide practical implications for future city planning in Switzerland and other European countries and highlight the importance of considering the neighborhood’s age distribution in this process to maximize the positive impact of urban greenery and mixed land use on residents’ life satisfaction.

Driving in urban environments is an essential part of urban residents’ daily life. We still know little about impacts of a wide range of greenness on driving performance in real urban environments, after controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, driving record, and other environmental factors. This missing knowledge prevents policymakers and professionals from using appropriate planning and design of green landscapes to create safe driving environments for numerous urban residents. This study aimed to address this significant knowledge gap by using real-world driving experiments. Each of thirty-four residents performed seven driving tasks so 238 driving tasks were completed in total. Each task lasted one hour and followed a randomly assigned sequence. Road greenness and other environmental characteristics were analyzed using deep transfer learning semantic segmentation based on live videos (30 frames per second), recorded by a camera positioned to capture the driver’s eye view. A serial communication technology, known as Controller Area Network bus (CANbus), was employed to continuously measure driving performance using four parameters. A series of hierarchical regression analyses yielded three major findings: First, an increased mean of greenness was associated with improved driving performance, as demonstrated by all four parameters. Second, an increased variation of greenness was also associated with better driving performance in three parameters. Finally, the mean of greenness displayed a stronger positive relationship with driving performance than the variation of greenness in three parameters. The findings imply that both the quantity and quality of green landscapes are critical for promoting driving performance in urban areas.

Local government is at the forefront of providing communities with urban greenspace, amidst responding to global challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and population growth. Much research has focused on the demands for more urban greenspace; far less has examined issues concerning supply. Better understanding of the dilemmas faced by those charged with the task of providing urban greenspace at the city scale can help policymakers, planners, and aligned professions ensure that municipal resources are appropriately and justly allocated. We aim to address this gap, answering two research questions: 1) what factors shape urban greenspace provision, and 2) how do these factors manifest differently for municipalities of Australia and New Zealand? We surveyed 82 local government officers/officials from mid-size municipalities of nine Anglophone countries about their experience providing municipal greenspace. We expose some of the experiences, challenges, and emerging issues facing contemporary municipal greenspace providers globally, including the drivers and barriers to urban greenspace provision. Findings reveal the complexities of supplying urban greenspace, shaped by multiple factors. While funding, community expectations, and governance tools, are the main factors, funding is the main barrier to providing urban greenspace globally. Moreover, almost all other factors affect availability of sufficient funding. Key differences for Australia and New Zealand reveal a broadening conceptualisation of the purpose of parks: more so multi-purpose than primarily sport and recreation. Revealing challenges greenspace managers face in delivering adequate urban greenspace and facilities, these findings question the efficacy of the current planning approaches embedded in planning legislation, municipal greenspace plans and strategies.

Urban forest management plans (UFMPs) are a key element of the planning process in urban forestry. While we can learn about management intentions by analyzing the content of UFMPs, less is known about happens after plan implementation has begun. This study fills this gap by exploring how is UFMP implementation advancing. To do this we asked municipal urban forest professionals working in Canadian municipalities with a UFMP to answer an online survey. The survey: 1) characterized UFMP development; 2) assessed the level of achievement of UFMP objectives; 3) assessed which municipal characteristics led to UFMP objective achievement; and 4) assessed professional views on the outcomes of having a UFMP. Based on n = 118 responses across Canada, we found that UFMPs have been published frequently in the last 20 years, with a peak during the period 2010–2014. On average, and as shared by the respondents, the level of achievement of UFMP objectives was over 50 %, indicating good progress in UFMP implementation. We found no statistically significant differences in the level of UFMP objective achievement by type of city or language of community (English/French), among other factors. There was a consensus among professionals that increasing financial resources for urban forests was an expected outcome of having an UFMP, although there were also diverse and complementary views about the outcome of a UFMPs. A key finding was that climate change objectives are not being implemented or included in UFMPs at high levels. While focused on Canadian cities, this study also provides guidelines on how to assess UFMP implementation across case studies, as well as insights regarding the management objectives that are being overlooked in plan implementation. This may enable future work by researchers and practitioners working in fields related to nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, urban climate adaptation, and sustainable cities worldwide.

Protecting and enhancing biodiversity in urban areas is critical for meeting international conservation commitments, and has a vital role to play in the health and wellbeing of city residents. Yet, urbanisation can have devastating impacts on biodiversity, with urban development typically delivering landscapes in which habitat remains only as small, fragmented patches, surrounded by an inhospitable urban matrix. As cities begin to plan for urban biodiversity alongside other land use considerations, planners can leverage ecological knowledge and conservation planning concepts to aid decision making to deliver benefits for nature and people. Here we demonstrate how targeted green infrastructure placement can potentially increase the delivery of landscape level benefits for biodiversity by improving connectivity for native species. We measure the change in ecological connectivity when parking spaces are converted to small green spaces across the City of Melbourne, Australia. We test three reallocation scenarios with varying levels of parking space conversion to green infrastructure and varying levels of spatial prioritisation to ecological connectivity. While the scenario that maximised the number of parking spaces converted performed best, we show that targeted greening delivered the strongest connectivity outcomes per unit of area converted. Improvements in connectivity were two times higher per unit effort when conversion was targeted towards locations identified as potentially important barriers to landscape-level movement. Our research emphasises the advantage of strategically targeted green infrastructure investment to support urban biodiversity.