Urban Green Construction and Data-Driven Design: Linkages between Construction, Management and Ecology across Multiple Scales

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Planning and Landscape Architecture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2024) | Viewed by 8997

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Associate Professor, Architecture, Architecture Internationalization Demonstration School, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
2. PostDoc, Architecture, School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, D-80333 Munich, Germany
Interests: green construction; data-driven design; knowledge-based decision support; urban ecology and agriculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Construction is a human activity that is changing the biogeophysical environment and expanding urban land at an unprecedented rate. At present, this land use change is largely driven by urbanization, and produces significant social-ecological effects with consequences for nature, biodiversity, and human wellbeing. At one end of the extreme, these include degraded rural ecosystems as a result of land abandonment; structural collapse; and loss of ecological niches, cultural keystones, and agricultural production. At the other end lie critical disturbances to urban-ecosystem functioning and services caused by soil sealing, challenging abiotic conditions, biocultural bias, urban densification, and architectural demarcation. These effects manifest in diverse conditions including land use conflicts and subsequent loss of, for example, urban food production, biocultural diversity, and spatial heterogeneity altered by land use types; and patterns emerging from, e.g., urban gardens and green roofs and facades, separation, replacement, fragmentation, and homogenization of habitats; surface hydrology and climate gradients; and food insecurity, nature deficit, and physiological stress.

This Special Issue foregrounds the social-ecological effects of the built environment across multiple scales. Especially important are those that are generated and mediated by the linkages between construction, management, and ecology. In doing so, it focuses on the role of data, information, and knowledge in their study, design, planning, and management. We are particularly interested in receiving contributions that help better understand, protect, and shape the multifunctionality, adaptability, and resilience of complex social-ecological urban systems.

Dr. Defne Sunguroglu Hensel
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • social-ecological urban systems
  • urban land
  • ecology
  • architecture
  • landscape architecture
  • urban design
  • decision support
  • trade-offs
  • multifunctionality
  • adaptability and resilience

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3234 KiB  
Article
Conceptual Model for Integrating the Green-Blue Infrastructure in Planning Using Geospatial Tools: Case Study of Bucharest, Romania Metropolitan Area
by Antonio-Valentin Tache, Oana-Cătălina Popescu and Alexandru-Ionuț Petrișor
Land 2023, 12(7), 1432; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12071432 - 17 Jul 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1846
Abstract
A green-blue infrastructure is essential for achieving the European Green Deal objectives and can be used to protect large cities and their metropolitan areas against urban sprawl. Green-blue infrastructure is an important research topic, because green-blue planning networks provide solutions for mitigating contemporary [...] Read more.
A green-blue infrastructure is essential for achieving the European Green Deal objectives and can be used to protect large cities and their metropolitan areas against urban sprawl. Green-blue infrastructure is an important research topic, because green-blue planning networks provide solutions for mitigating contemporary growing urban and climate challenges. Our study aims to create an innovative methodology for defining and analyzing the elements of green-blue infrastructure and their connectivity within Bucharest, Romania and its metropolitan area, to serve as a planning model. The methodology consists of merging European geodata sets with metropolitan and local data, using GIS tools, and analyzing the connectivity within the study area. All connections resulted from implementing the Linkage Mapper tool were operationalized, using high-resolution satellite images and correcting obtained connections, so that deviations from reality were minimized. The results consist of a conceptual model for planning the green-blue infrastructure within Bucharest and in its metropolitan area, embedding an analysis of its connectivity. The study contributes to implementing the concept of green infrastructure in urban and spatial planning, providing tools for planning the green-blue infrastructures of large cities and their metropolitan areas and, implicitly, reducing urban sprawl, improving air quality and mitigating environmental threats due to climate change. Full article
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27 pages, 16473 KiB  
Article
Understanding Urban Green Spaces Typology’s Contribution to Comprehensive Green Infrastructure Planning: A Study of Canberra, the National Capital of Australia
by Maria Ignatieva and Fahimeh Mofrad
Land 2023, 12(5), 950; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12050950 - 24 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2275
Abstract
The urban densification agenda for the Australian Capital Territory announced in 2012 as well as the climate-related impacts (such as flood and rising temperature) have made the role of green infrastructure in this city more critical than at any other time. The Living [...] Read more.
The urban densification agenda for the Australian Capital Territory announced in 2012 as well as the climate-related impacts (such as flood and rising temperature) have made the role of green infrastructure in this city more critical than at any other time. The Living Infrastructure Plan for Canberra was proposed by the local government in 2019 and it is currently being developed. However, there is a lack of understanding of the variety of urban green infrastructure characters, associated urban green space types, and their contributions to the green infrastructure plan. Therefore, this research aims to study the existing types of urban green infrastructure and green spaces in Canberra and investigate their potential sociocultural and ecological contributions that need to be considered in developing green infrastructure plans. To achieve this, we employed a socioecological approach and a mix of methods including a literature review, a review of policy documents, semi-structured interviews with experts, geospatial data, and field observation. Ten main urban green infrastructures were identified in Canberra and associated green spaces and their ecosystem services were discussed. Finally, a framework was delineated to suggest recommendations for the identified urban green infrastructure types with the aim of improving the green infrastructure planning practice by enhancing, preserving, and reinforcing green spaces. The findings provide a foundation for coordinating green infrastructure decision making and suggest a framework for designing high-quality and multifunctional green spaces. The study concludes that further investigation is required to comprehend the diversity of urban green infrastructures and their ecosystem services, co-benefits, synergies, and trade-offs. Full article
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18 pages, 6229 KiB  
Article
Assessing and Comparing the Visual Comfort of Streets across Four Chinese Megacities Using AI-Based Image Analysis and the Perceptive Evaluation Method
by Yuhan Shao, Yuting Yin, Zhenying Xue and Dongbo Ma
Land 2023, 12(4), 834; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12040834 - 05 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1723
Abstract
Environmental perception studies have long been constrained by research scales due to the difficulties in obtaining users’ perceptive data and constructing their relation to environmental attributes. With the help of big data from street view images, this study compares the visual comfort of [...] Read more.
Environmental perception studies have long been constrained by research scales due to the difficulties in obtaining users’ perceptive data and constructing their relation to environmental attributes. With the help of big data from street view images, this study compares the visual comfort of streets across four Chinese megacities with evidently distinct geographical characteristics. A multi-method approach involving traditional comfort measurements, image analysis based on deep learning algorithms and spatial mapping using geographic information systems was used to investigate the visual components of urban streets at the city scale and their influential mechanisms. In general, the four cities ranked by visual comfort were Beijing first, then Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The results also suggested that the spatial distribution of the four cities’ street visual comfort is obviously different. In Shanghai and Beijing, streets with a higher comfort level are mostly concentrated within the central city, while the highly comfort streets are mostly distributed along the coast and rivers in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Thus, it is reasonable to speculate that the streets’ visual comfort relates significantly to their urban planning and construction process. Moreover, seven indicators have been identified as influential to street comfort, among which ‘vegetation’, ‘terrain’ and ‘rider’ are positive indicators, while ‘architecture’, ‘pedestrians’, ‘motorcycles’ and ‘bicycles’ have negative influences. Comparing street comfort indicators of the four case study cities, it was observed that ‘vegetation’ and ‘terrain’ have the most consistent positive influences across cities, while the high visibility of ‘building’ on streets is most likely to lead to a low level of perceived comfort. The research outcomes provide applicable cues for large-scale street evaluation research and illustrate an efficient street design approach that can both respond to local characteristics and human perceptive needs. Full article
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27 pages, 2243 KiB  
Article
Cross-Cultural Comparison of Urban Green Space through Crowdsourced Big Data: A Natural Language Processing and Image Recognition Approach
by Shuhao Liu, Chang Su, Junhua Zhang, Shiro Takeda, Jiarui Liu and Ruochen Yang
Land 2023, 12(4), 767; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12040767 - 28 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2074
Abstract
Understanding the relationship between environmental features and perceptions of urban green spaces (UGS) is crucial for UGS design and management. However, quantifying park perceptions on a large spatial and temporal scale is challenging, and it remains unclear which environmental features lead to different [...] Read more.
Understanding the relationship between environmental features and perceptions of urban green spaces (UGS) is crucial for UGS design and management. However, quantifying park perceptions on a large spatial and temporal scale is challenging, and it remains unclear which environmental features lead to different perceptions in cross-cultural comparisons. This study addressed this issue by collecting 11,782 valid social media comments and photos covering 36 UGSs from 2020 to 2022 using a Python 3.6-based crawler. Natural language processing and image recognition methods from Google were then utilized to quantify UGS perceptions. This study obtained 32 high-frequency feature words through sentiment analysis and quantified 17 environmental feature factors that emerged using object and scene recognition techniques for photos. The results show that users generally perceive Japanese UGSs as more positive than Chinese UGSs. Chinese UGS users prioritize plant green design and UGS user density, whereas Japanese UGS focuses on integrating specific cultural elements. Therefore, when designing and managing urban greenspace systems, local environmental and cultural characteristics must be considered to meet the needs of residents and visitors. This study offers a replicable and systematic approach for researchers investigating the utilization of UGS on a global scale. Full article
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