Welcome to the ECOCITY 2022 Interactive Programme

Abstract Body

Territories in-between (TiB) have gained increased attention over the past decade. These territories are identified as territories somewhere in-between the urban and rural and manifest themselves at the urban fringes of the city. Typical land uses in the TiB are warehouses, sport complexes, allotment gardens and small-scale industrial activities. Because of their unique spatial characteristics, they have great potential for the provisioning of ecosystem services. These places are often considered to be underused, lack spatial quality (sense of place) and are under mounting pressure of urban densification. Therefore, the question arises how we can redevelop these territories in an integrated way that acknowledges and strengthens the social-ecological potentials of these territories.

From an ecological and social perspective there is plenty of reason to soften the boundary between the urban and rural and allow the edges of the city to be a place of ambiguity where man, the built environment and nature can interact. Softening the urban-rural boundary facilitates species movement and interaction between urban and rural biotopes. This accounts for both human and non-human species. On top of that, the rich diversity of land uses and abundance of semi open spaces in the TiB provides unique habitats different from exclusively urban and rural landscapes. Therefore we, as urban planners and designers, should reconsider conventional planning and design approaches towards these territories, instead of merely densifying the TiB in a monofunctional manner and enforcing the urban – rural divide, which is currently main practice.

The aim of the paper is to present an urban design strategy that makes space for the territory in-between and embraces its true unorganized and multifunctional nature as a potential for social and ecological development. The proposed strategy is presented in a design assignment for the city of Rotterdam.

Abstract Body

The assessment of the Green Infrastructure (GI) of a city is interesting to improve its sustainability as GI provides key services for its inhabitants. The GI of Zaragoza city (Spain) was evaluated using an index (NAT&COM) which gives values in the range 0-10 for two aspects, naturalness and complexity. Naturalness refers to the components of the site, natural (plants, soil) and artificial (stone, plastic, metallic, etc.), measured as the percentage of UGI natural area versus the percentage of artificial area in the UGI (area with artificial components). Complexity refers to the hydro-geomorphological and natural dynamic features present in the GI. Ninety GI units (urban parks, community gardens, riparian zones, street trees, roundabouts, green walls, cemeteries, forests and semi-natural environments) were assigned naturalness and complexity (NAT&COM) values in the range 0-10 based on their degree of artificial versus natural components and on their degree of natural distribution of hydro-geomorphological features respectively. A clear separation between low NAT&COM sites located in the urban centre and high NATt&COM sites located in suburban zones was observed, indicating that GI sites in the urban centre are artificially designed and natural peri-urban sites are much less artificially modified. A multivariate analysis; Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed using qualitative and quantitative characteristics (natural versus paved soil, soil depth, artificial components in the subsoil, presence of road traffic, plant cover, plant strata, naturalness, complexity) of the GI of Zaragoza, it was found that 60% of the data variability in the first three components, showing different groups of GI units grouped through natural versus regularly distributed components (first PCA axis, 35% of total data variability) and through presence of artificial versus natural components (second PCA axis, 12% of total data variability). These results indicate a high extrapolation between artificially designed GI sites and natural and complex sites in Zaragoza. Intermediate GI sites which combine naturally distributed components (either keeping their natural features or creating a natural design) and artificial facilities that provide security and comfort to people, would enrich the GI of Zaragoza.

Abstract Body

The amount of greenery in the residential environment has been shown to be beneficially associated with the health and well-being of urbanites. Moreover, this association tends to be stronger for disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Improving access to greenery in such neighbourhoods could therefore help to reduce socioeconomic health disparities. However, it is still largely unknown which type of greenery is most beneficial. This study looks at the effect of having a private garden adjacent to the dwelling, and that of the amount of greenery in this garden. It is hypothesized that urbanites with a green garden are healthier than those without such a garden, also after correcting for their socioeconomic status and the amount of greenery outside their garden. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that if one has a green garden, the amount of residential greenery outside this garden is less strongly associated with one’s health, due to a partial overlap in health-related functions. A database has already been developed that contains detailed data for over a million Dutch home addresses on the presence and size of private gardens, as well as on the amount of greenery that each garden contains. These data will be linked to registry data on health, as provided by family doctors, enabling testing of the hypotheses. During the presentation, first results will be presented. It is already known that multi-family houses (apartments), usually without an adjacent private garden, are much more common in poor neighbourhoods than in wealthy neighbourhoods, and that the private gardens in such neighbourhoods are much smaller on average. Moreover, this more frequent absence or smaller size of private gardens in poor neighbourhoods is not compensated by a higher amount of residential greenery outside the own garden, and the amount of greenery per capita is substantially lower. The outcomes of the study may have far-reaching implications for how to best address the substantial housing assignment facing the Netherlands.