Greening Cities: Forms and Functions PDF
Preview Greening Cities: Forms and Functions
Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements Puay Yok Tan Chi Yung Jim Editors Greening Cities Forms and Functions Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements Series editor Bharat Dahiya, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13196 Puay Yok Tan Chi Yung Jim (cid:129) Editors Greening Cities Forms and Functions 123 Editors PuayYok Tan ChiYung Jim National University ofSingapore TheUniversity of HongKong Singapore Hong Kong Singapore China ISSN 2198-2546 ISSN 2198-2554 (electronic) Advances in 21stCentury HumanSettlements ISBN978-981-10-4111-2 ISBN978-981-10-4113-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4113-6 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017933066 ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#21-01/04GatewayEast,Singapore189721,Singapore Foreword I Townsandcitieshavebecomethedominanthumanhabitat.Aspeciesthatevolved torunandhuntongrassyplainsnowspendsamajorityofitstimeinsidestructures that modify environmental conditions and largely isolate humans from nature. Yet amongthosestructures,fromthetimeoftheearliestcities,therehaveusuallybeen gardens and vegetable plots. Relaxing or working in such green spaces has long been considered a pleasant and reviving part of urban life. Historically, the green spaces were often just for the elites. They were parts of palace grounds or hidden within the walls of the most prestigious residences. Sometimes,ascitiesgrew,theyincorporatedruralcommons.Someremainedpieces ofcountrysidetowhichalllocalinhabitantshadaccess,othersweremadeavailable later. For example,in Scotland in 1450, Bishop Turnbull gifted the common lands ofGlasgowGreentothetownspeople.Manywalledtownshadspacesforgrowing cropswithintheirwalls,withinthecurtilagesofindividualpropertiesorasashared space where individuals had vegetable plots. Domestic animals were kept within citiesandhorsesandmulesprovidedtransport.Suchsituationshadbothadvantages and disadvantages for human health and well-being. Industrialisation and the accompanying rural to urban migration began to pro- ducerapidurbangrowthinthelateeighteenthcentury.Sorapidwasthemovement of people that housing was built rapidly and cheaply with inadequate sanitation, watersupplyandconcernforhealth.CitiessuchasGeorgianLondonrevealedgreat environmental contrasts between the spacious, leafy squares in wealthy housing areas,andthetenementsofthepoorwherehumanwastespiledupinthestreetsand drained into local streams. Today, the informal settlements of most low latitude cities in many respects replicate those late eighteenth century European contrasts between affluent and impoverished areas. Urban greenspace remains inequitably distributed across cities, wealthy areas enjoying much greater vegetation cover. Intotheindustrialcitiescamepublichealthpioneersandthecityvisionarieswho persuaded powerful city governments to improve living conditions by better water supplies, sanitation and housing standards. The benefits of clean air were extolled andpublicparksbegantobecreated.Intheearly17thcentury,aformerroyaldeer v vi ForewordI park in London, Hyde Park, was opened to the public. In Munich, the royal Hofgarten became accessible to the public in 1780, and a new public park, now known as the English Garden, was opened in 1792. Later, former royal hunting grounds,suchasSt.JamesParkinLondon,theTiergarteninBerlinandtheBoisde Boulogne in Paris became public open spaces. PartlyinspiredbytheeffortsofsuchpublichealthreformerssuchasJamesKay and Edwin Shuttleworth, prominent philanthropic local residents and councillors supported the provision of parks. In British industrial cities, Princes Park was opened in Liverpool in in 1843, followed by Phillips and Queen’s Parks in Manchester and Peel Park in Salford in 1846, and Birkenhead Park, across the Mersey from Liverpool, in 1847. Formal legislation providing for local govern- ments to acquire land “for the purpose of being used as public walks or pleasure grounds” was included in the British Public Health Act of 1875. By such gradual steps, fragments of urban greenspace acquired legal status and provided the first components of urban green infrastructure. Remnants of ancient woodland, from Kenwood in London to Bukit Timah in Singapore, encapsulated in expanding cities became key elements of the green infrastructure.Riverfloodplainswerefrequentlykeptfreeofdevelopmenttoactas floodways. Greenspaces developed along utility line easements, railways and canals, which, together with mature street trees acted as migration corridors for certainspecies.The mosaic ofurban gardens, public and private, becamehost toa diversityofplants,nativeandexotic,introducedandinvasive,thatinturnsupported a food chain from insects to birds and urban mammals. Occasional disturbance, from urban land use change and dereliction to wartime bombing and fires, created newecologicalnicheswhichaddedtourbanbiodiversity.Someoftheopportunities for urban wildlife thus created were exploited by committed enthusiasts to create urban nature reserves where city children could experience nature close to their homes. With the concern about the human impact on the environment rising after the 1960s, the value of urban nature became increasingly recognised, culminating in many countries with the development of urban nature conservation strategies and local biodiversity action plans by many local governments. As the evidence of climatechangebecamewidelyaccepted,urbanstrategiestobothmitigateandadapt to climate change incorporated the use of plants to reduce the urban heat island effect,removesomeairpollutants,andretardthemovementofstorm-waterbecame widely adopted. People concerned with physical and mental health and general human well-being also advocated wider use of varied forms of greenspace for relaxationandrecreation.Comparativestudiesofbirds,mammalsandplantspecies in cities demonstrated how species adapted to the urban environment and took advantage of niches within the built environment. Such knowledge is brought togetherinthisbookwithaparticularemphasisontheecologicalunderpinningsof urban greenspace, the varied functions of urban greenspace from an ecosystem services perspective and the forms of urban greenspace, from blue-greenspaces associated with water bodies to green walls and green roofs. ForewordI vii Urbangreeneryisessentiallyeitherahumancreationorahumanmodifiedform of natural vegetation. It is greatly affected by the extent of care or neglect in the management of particular greenspaces. The same greenspace may be used in dif- ferent ways for different purposes by varied individuals and social groups. Some potential uses may conflict with one another. The components of urban green infrastructurethereforehavetobeseenasmulti-modalsocialspaces,withplanning for opportunities of many different activities, separated sometimes into different localities so that incompatible greenspace uses do not clash. Other forms of uses involve accepting compromises, such as when a football pitch within a grassed flood basin becomes temporarily inundated, or when access is restricted to protect nestingbirds.Urbanfarmersandgardenersmayresentsomeinsectandbirdspecies thatexploittheirfruitandvegetables.Streettreesprovokeargumentsbetweenthose who desiretree preservation atall costs andthose concerned about root damageto pavements and walls, falling branches and potential wind throw hazards. These all-important community contrasts and diverse attitudes to nature are given due attention here, particularly in terms of impacts on household well-being, income and food security. Urban food-growing takes many forms, from a few herbs in a window box, to the cultivation of vegetables as subsistence food on any accessible vacant land, even roadside verges, river banks and floodplain wetlands. There is an enormous difference between hobby gardening in affluent suburbs and urban agriculture practised by poor households in cities such as Harare, Zimbabwe, where around 90% of the leafy vegetables consumed by disadvantaged families are home grown onurbanplotsthathavelittlesecurityoftenureoroccupation.Theopportunitiesfor increasing urban food production are great, but they need to be incorporated into planning and land use management systems. Readers will find ideas about how to improve urban greenspace planning throughout this book. Understanding the local situation,landtenuresystems,traditionalpracticesandpoliticaldilemmasisalways required. Landscape tastes vary. Urban woodland may enchant some people and frighten others. The risks associated with dark shady spaces are very real. Urban green- spacesaresodiverseandoccurinsuchvariedsituationsthatcarehastobetakento plan urban greening in ways that suit particular places, communities and social norms. The social-economic dimensions of urban greenspace planning and man- agement are integrated into individual chapters, with examples from around the world to show how solutions sometimes are significantly different. Many people are now engaged in valuing the ecosystem services provided by urban vegetation and greenspace. This economic approach helps to reinforce the health, human well-being, environmental improvement, climate change adaption, biodiversity, and nature conservation arguments for improving urban green infrastructure. Caution has to be applied, however, in the way these arguments are pitched. The evidence in this book suggests the value of urban wetlands in storm runoff management, but also considers ecosystem disservices, such as the way invasivespecies,forexampleHimalayanbalsam,waterhyacinthandwaterlettuce, canoccupystreams,lakesandreservoirsandimpedewaterflowsandreducewater viii ForewordI storage capacities. This balanced approach is important as overstating the benefits of urban greenery may be as dangerous as not advocating its preservation, enhancement and extension. This book provides a wealth of insights into oppor- tunities, mechanisms and procedures for developing innovative ways of urban greening to enhance the beauty of cities and to make them more sustainable, more resilient to environmental change and healthier, more exciting places in which to live. 18 March 2017 Ian Douglas The University of Manchester Manchester, England Foreword II In greening cyborg cities, be an ecophronetic scholar-practitioner Wemustlearntogreentheearth,torestoretheearth,andtohealtheearth. IanL.McHarg(1996,p.374) “Iwouldlove tobehere whenthisprocess(ofgreening,restoring,andhealingthe earth) is apace.” Wrote the late American landscape planner and educator Ian L. McHarg(1920–2001)inhis1996autobiographyAquestforlife.“Inmymind’seye Iseemyselfwithagroupofscientists,lookingattheearthfromspace,viewingthe shrinking deserts, the burgeoning forests, the clear atmosphere, the virgin oceans, smiling at the recovery, anticipating the day when a successor will announce, ‘the earth is healed, the earth is well’.” (p. 375) Twodecadeslaterin2017,McHargshouldhavebeenfarlessimpressedbywhat hewouldhaveseenontheearthatlarge.Buteuphorichewouldmostdefinitelybe tohavelearnt,fromreadingthisstrikingmonograph,thatnotonlydoestheprocess of greening the earth continue to gain new momentum in the Anthropocene, but also the greening troops have now been advancing to the brutal battleground of cyborg cities, and combatting triumphantly along all frontiers of greening cities. AsastudentofMcHarg’sinthe1980swhoseacademicaspirationhasbeenever sinceinspiredandprofessionalpathilluminatedbyhisidealofdesign-with-nature,I sharethesameexcitement;onbehalfofmycomradesinsidethefronttrenchonthe battleground near Shanghai Disneyland Resort in Pudong, one of satellite cyborg cities of Shanghai,China,I congratulate the editors, Professors Puay Yok Tan and C.Y.Jim,andtheauthorsforthepublicationofthisdelicatecollectionofimportant scholarly works on the ecological practice of greening cities. YetIbecomeevenmoreimpressedanddelightedwhenviewingthismonograph throughthelensofecophroneticpracticeresearch,aperspectivethathelpsbringto lightsomeuniqueandadmirablequalitiesdemonstratedbytheeditorsandauthors. What is ecophronetic practice research? How relevant is it to both the practice and scholarship of ecological planning, design, construction, restoration, and management (For brevity, hereafter, I shall use the umbrella term ecological ix
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