UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & environmental Design
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Green cities for a better future? – A case study from an alpine region: the Town of Trento
Full text linkIn a world where, by 2050, 70% of the population will be living in cities, a “New Urban Agenda” is considered crucial in order to form more sustainable, inclusive and resilient cities. This means cities which are liveable both from the natural and human-environment points of view and where citizens are involved in the realization and management of an attractive urban environment of high quality. Given the process of urbanization occurring in many towns of the Alpine Region, managers and planners need to know the new order of priorities in needs and values expressed by citizens with regard to urban forests and those in nearby areas. This paper illustrates a case study of the town of Trento, in the north-eastern Italian Alps, a typical medium-sized alpine town which, despite recent urbanization, is still in close connection to woodlands. The research has been carried out by means of a questionnaire aimed at investigating the relationship between citizens and their forests. In particular, the points of investigation were the main functions attributed to the forests and visitors’ preferences of forest features. The results show that urbanization and socio-economic changes, with the introduction of an urban lifestyle, are producing a radical transformation in people’s behaviour and attitudes with regard to forests. A survey of this type may be a useful tool in the hands of planners and managers in order to help shape a sustainable urban development
Environment Friendly and Sustainable Transportation in Harare: Is a functional Transportation Tool Box Model the Answer?
Full text linkTransport is an essential part of everyday life and is central to sustainable development. It enables access to employment, business, education, health services, and social interaction. The world’s prosperity and well-being are inextricably linked to transport and the choices made available to them. This paper reviews current thinking about sustainable transportation as part of a broader strategy of transportation and land use planning for sustainability in Harare. Strategies for increasing transportation sustainability include demand management, operations management, pricing policies, vehicle technology improvements, clean fuels, and integrated land use and transportation planning. The transportation toolbox presents a range of sustainable strategies that can potentially address transportation issues within a corridor to provide a systematic approach to develop projects to address corridor transportation needs. As Harare grows, traffic generation is anticipated to increase with significant impact on the transportation system. A lack of sustainable transport infrastructure and affordable services remains a major obstacle to the development of the transport sector in Harare
The Codified Representation of Drawing in Territorial Systems in the Field of Urban Planning Instruments
Full text linkThe design crisis, specifically in the drawing of urban planning, coincided with adecisive state came out at the end of the last century, that is the crisis of place’sdrawings itself. In the past and in the present the most learned intellectuals ofthe architecture and planning shared this statement.In fact, within the institutional system there has been an ongoing loss relatedto the knowledge and understanding tout court of the drawing. The IT systemshave certainly achieved advanced levels of definition and complexity in acquiringand processing the reality datum, and they encouraged new interests whichhave proven to have overcome the ancient time, as well as his thought, made itinsignificant.In this way the frenetic need to combine a mix of participatory variability, addressedto a pluralism, has defined custom paths between hybrid forms, graphicsuperstructures of languages and indistinct modeling. Thus, it was decided toreplace the drawing with extraneous shapes, promoting the suggestions given bythe video modeling or by three-dimensional graphic.These forms of processing the great have paralyzed intuition, the knowledge ofthe space of the few that can be much deeper than the first. The need is first of allto consider drawing as thought, even in its tradition, as a geometric foundation,rather than as a code. Then the drawing, the representation, becomes again ascientific based work tool on which to order and to make linked the intelligiblerelationships in the principle of the Samonian unity of urban architectur
Urban regeneration of Medellin. An example of sustainability
Full text linkThe city of Medellin has suffered a chaotic urban growth since early twentieth century, caused by the echoes of industrialization suffered in its historical fabric and by the migration of people from the countryside to the city. As a consequence, the central areas were abandoned and numerous peripheral pieces were built which drowned the traditional city. In this way, the regular and orderly original city became composed mainly of disconnected peripheral tissues, lacking in organization, infrastructures and minimum services, unhygienic fabrics with inhuman living conditions on which delinquency and marginality also grew, becoming the most dangerous areas of the city.The urgent solution to the problems unleashed brought with it the realization of a series of urban and social reforms. The construction of a new way of transport was a definitive agent in the sustainable regeneration of the city. At this point we have the purpose of this research that aims to highlight the role of metro-cable in the process of urban regeneration, transforming Medellín from being one of the most dangerous cities in Colombia to an example of sustainability
Floods and insalubrity as the trigger for city restructuring in Spain: the case of Burgos
Full text linkIf we want to understand the morphological configuration of the urban space of some Spanish cities, it is necessary to research the different types of cartography that exist in the city. Among the many kinds of maps produced over time, we find a type of cartography that is a direct product of the interests on the structure of the city: the maps of civil engineers.The topographic map of Burgos created by the civil engineers Mariano Martín Campos and Eduardo Lostau in 1894 and their sanitary project are framed within a type of cartography denominated hydrological cartography. These types of maps, which have scarcely been studied, were the result of the approach of bringing water to cities, channelling rivers, or installing sewerage systems.This is the case of Burgos, where the urban planning was a product of the search for a solution to the floods and the insalubrity problems that had existed for decades, and of a desire, therefore, to restructure the city. In addition, as an added value, this map constitutes the first plan proposed at 1: 1,000 scale and with precise altimetry. The accuracy of this map led the civil engineers to propose it as the basis for a plan of alignments. In this way, this map is presented as the beginning of the internal (i.e., sewerage system and channelled rivers) and external (i.e., streets) restructuring of the city and an example for the rest of Spanish cities with the same problems: floods, restructuring of the streets and sanitation
Cycling lanes and Stormwater Management: an integrated project. Montesilvano as a case study
Full text linkThe frequency of flooding in Montesilvano has risen steadily in recent years. Linked to this phenomenon, the research agreement between the Department of Architecture in Pescara and the Town of Montesilvano includes the general objective of verifying whether the network of cycling lanes can help resolve this issue. Legislation, guidelines and best practices in his sector provide no useful indications. They are linked to a qualitative hypothesis whose priority in almost all cases focuses on creating the highest possible number of kilometres of safe, functional and intermodal cycling lanes. To identify operative references to the links between cycling lanes and stormwater management we must look at plans designed to contrast climate change. Many have a specific section dedicated to this theme: examples include Boston, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Ottawa and Philadelphia. Their comparison reveals that improving stormwater management requires multiple actions. Principal actions include: breaking free of sector-specific logics, integrated projects for the spaces of the network and associated areas and the recognition of the importance of the relationship with context. In Montesilvano, marked by two parallel north-south axes (the Parkway and the Waterfront) and its five perpendicular east-west lines (Grandi alberghi, via Strasburgo, via Marinelli, via Torrente Piomba, Palaroma), there is a need to identify areas ready to welcome a project that successfully combines bicycle mobility with stormwater treatment and management. This is the responsibility the research intends to assume in the near future
System of non-forest woody vegetation considered in relation to the landscape character (face) and impact on it
Full text linkNon-forest woody vegetation (scattered greenery, landscape vegetation, landscape greenery) is a common feature in the landscape of the European countryside. In the Czech Republic, it is typical for both agricultural and un-utilised land, comprising floriculture growth (forests, wilderness, uncultivated land, and orchards) and woods which were either purposefully planted or spread spontaneously. They exist in the Czech landscape mostly as lines often existing in the land fund in small area dispositions, or completely as solitaires. In exceptional situations they occur as an area form. Non-forest woody vegetation provides an important ecological service and fulfils specific non-substitutable functions that circulate substances and energy through the landscape. This study examines the indispensability of non-forest woody vegetation in the landscape. As the basis of this research, differences in species composition, space structures, area sizes, and newly proposed elements of non-forest woody vegetation in selected landscape types were explored. Comparing existing elements of non-forest woody vegetation with newly proposed elements, relationships between the area spread of non-forest woody vegetation and the value of the landscape face and the newly proposed elements in regional systems of ecological stability were found. The presented research lists specific local elements of non-forest woody vegetation in selected regional types within the studied area in the Czech Republic
Building common knowledge for co-designing and implementing river contracts: the landscape units of the Simeto River Agreement
Full text linkThe paper discusses the process of building common frameworks of knowledge through a community mapping process that has led to the definition of landscape units for the implementation of a river contract. Authors propose landscape units as sub-bioregions with specific characteristics that serve to improve the awareness of living in a common home. This awareness is a precondition for taking care of landscapes. In this respect, landscape units are tools aimed at increasing stewardship, the sense of belonging, and the act of care within various actors of local communities. Authors present the process of the Simeto River Agreement, a river contract developed in the Simeto River Valley, Sicily, IT. The process started from a community mapping initiative, which led to the identification of landscape units, and finally to the implementation of the Agreement with the aim of identifying enabling knowledge for the care of landscapes. Authors reflect upon the process of engagement in a long-term university-community partnership developed through approaches inspired by the paradigms of action research, and enriched through experiences of service learning
Generations of waterfront regenerations: The Hamburg case
Full text linkThe design crisis, specifically in the drawing of urban planning, coincided with Port cities’ experiences of dismissing of historical and modern port due to changes in capitalist production models and, since ‘80s, have been facing the challenge of waterfront regeneration. Several earliest generations port regenerations have in turn landed in new places of tourist and cultural specialization while the challenge of the third generation plans deals with regional issues and is now called upon to consider, in addition to disused constructions and infrastructure, citizens’ and operators’ local interest along with global challenges of economy and climate change. Within a process of more than 30 years redevelopment plans tend to abandon the project-led and short-term approach in order to integrate waterfront redesign in a city and regional perspective. The port cities and their transformations are observed through the changing relationship between the two components of the city-port: evolutionary models underlines common features of port wasted areas while the Hamburg case describes the evolution of urban and territorial planning processes from a project-oriented approach to an adaptive and territorial vision making strategic, shared and long term planning the institutional framework and planning in which to rethink contemporary port city development and regeneration complex actions
Sustainability: is it too late?
Full text linkUPLanD intend to promote an interdisciplinary approach to town and regional planning, landscape and environmental design as an effective form of the governance - sustainable and eco-efficient - of processes for the protection, enhancement and development of urban contexts. The first issue of third Volume of UPLanD intended to dwell on the subject of resources’ conservation considering that after an era of irresponsible use and that of ideological conservation is the time for an overall rethinking of the strategies with which sustainability is pursued. Because if it is impossible to continue to waste resources, it is often too late to simply protect what is left. Soil, landscape, water, air, biodiversity, climate: in many areas of the planet the level of compromise is such that only a virtuous process of regeneration can bring the system back to a condition of “sustainable” equilibrium. Furthermore the fact that 54% of world population already live in cities and by 2050 two more billion inhabitants will be added, shape this issue in a predominantly urban dimension.Lack of sustainability generates many consequences. Among these, climate change is perhaps the most relevant. Cities, besides contributing to the causes of climate change, suffer its negative effects, with strong impacts on the quality of life of inhabitants. It is here, in fact, that the hazards resulting from the phenomenon, given the high levels of vulnerability and exposure, generate the most significant risks