Presentation on planning and design of ecological networks in urban areas (paper by Maria Ignatieva, Glenn H. Stewart and Colin Meurk; published on Landscape and Ecological Engineering Jan 2011)

1. PLANNING AND DESIGN OF
ECOLOGICAL
NETWORKS IN URBAN AREAS
Maria Ignatieva
Glenn H. Stewart
Colin Meurk
Landscape and Ecological Engineering
January 2011, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 1725
First online: 29 December 2010
Presentation
on
Prabal Dahal
2022
Prof. Dr. Sangeeta Singh
Submitted to Submitted by

2. Keywords
• Connectivity
• Corridors
• Greenways
• Greenbelts
• Open space planning
• Stepping stones
• Landscape Architecture

3. Machhu Pichu, Peru
(Source: Pedro Szekely at Flickr)
Imagination of Mesopotamia
(Source: ancient-origins.net)
Florence, Italy
(Source: Suttipong Sutiratanachai/Getty Images)
Lucca, Italy
(Source: Giovanni/colourbox)
ANCIENT
RENAISSANCE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
An English City
(Source: http://historyjk.blogspot.com)
Singapore
(Source: Tuul & Bruno Morandi / Getty Images)
MODERN/CONTEMPORARY
Greone Woud, Netherlands
(Source: landuse.co.uk)

4. Ecological networks
• In urban planning and landscape
architecture, networks relate to visual
connections in broad spatial
(horizontal) dimensions.
• Urban ecological networks, from urban
planning and design angles, establish
physical, visual and ecological
connectivity between built up areas of
the city and surrounding natural areas
and greenspaces (Beatley, 2000)
Central Park, NewYork
(Source: centralparknyc.org)
A variety of terminology is employed to describe green areas. In urban planning and design, terms
such as “urban open space”, “urban green space” and “public open space” are very common.

5. Objectives of paper
• review the evolution of urban ecological network concepts
• analyze the evidence for network functionality
• examine innovative ways of realizing opportunities for biodiversity and enhanced
function (ecosystem services)
Methodology
• Qualitative and comparative assessment of ecological network in urban areas across
various timelines and contexts (Europe, US, New Zealand)

6. Historical Aspects
• In the beginning there were clusters of dwellings,
and then villages and pathways between them and
the fields or woods where the villagers hunted or
gathered.
• With the rise in population and technology,
culminating in the Enlightenment and the
Industrial Revolution, nature was almost swept
aside and only the most intractable ground
escaped development.
• Sometimes commons or woods ended up enclosed
within urban sprawl, and later these were
formalized as parks, gardens, market squares and
cemeteries.
Gunnersbury Triangle Park, London
(Source: google maps)

7. Early EuropeanVisions
• In the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the
generally understood function of green areas
was the “beautification” of cities and the
associated improvement of urban spaces and
public sanitation
• Many European cities also incorporated the
idea of creating tree planted corridors that
accentuate natural features, for example
walkways along riversides in Renaissance
Italian cities. Walkways and public
promenades along rivers and canals in St.
Petersburg and Amsterdam created important
urban corridor systems (Searns, 1995)
Place des Vosges, Paris, France
(Source: google maps)

8. • In Japanese cities, green areas next to temples and shrines were quite an important part of
urban infrastructure, and were accessible to the common people.These areas had important
religious significance and symbolic sacred meaning (Sorensen, 2002)
• One famous example of taking ecological and health values of green areas into
consideration was Elizabeth I of England, who, in 1580, prohibited the construction of new
buildings in a 3 mile wide belt around the City of London in an attempt to halt the spread of
The Great Plague.
• A significant development in the evolution of a modern vision of urban green areas and
green works was the picturesque model for parks and gardens that arose in the eighteenth
century: single trees, groups of trees, and groves scattered across broad expanses of mown
or grazed meadow (Ignatieva and Stewart, 2009).
• Influences of picturesque landscape era of early European visions:
• “rus in urbe” (country in the city)
• “lungs of the city”

9. • Some modern landscape ecology authors reinterpret and appreciate the essential
“linkage” and movement functions of early urban axes and boulevards.They
identify at least three main functions of such “grand corridors”: movement, use
and visual experience (Searns, 1995).
Champs Elysees in Paris
(Source: Guardian/PCA-Streams)

10. US Parkways
• By the end of the nineteenth century, the
influence of Frederick Law Olmsted
(influenced by English picturesque ideology)
had spread through American cities and
initiated the concept of parkways connecting
different urban parks by systems of
landscaped boulevards and roads with tree
lines, sidewalks and bordering lawns
• The Parkway movement was closely related
to the City Beautiful Movement, with its new
boulevard systems, public green spaces with
heroic sculptures and noble architecture
Park in Buffalo, NY
(Source: Christopher Hyzy )
Christchurch, NZ
(Source: newzealandnow.govt.nz )

11. Greenbelt Concept
• The Garden City movements in England (at
the end of the nineteenth century) and in
Russia (1930s) were concerned with social and
philosophical factors and were initially a
socialist approach to the creation of a new
generation of cities where all citizens had an
equal opportunity to access green areas
(Ignatieva and Golosova, 2009)
• In the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991, the
concept of Garden Cities was developed
further into ScienceTowns and the Ecopolis
concept (Ignatieva, 2002)
Letchworth, UK and Canberra, Australia
(Source: google maps)

12. • In contrast, urban grid schemes dominated the planned development of cities in the NewWorld
(Ignatieva and Stewart 2009). In the USA and New Zealand, the city grid model was improved by
including special places for green squares and some public parks.
• After WorldWar II, redevelopment of the urban core and the rapid growth of suburbia characterized
Western cities. Rapid technological development led to environmental crises, losses of valuable
natural habitats, increased air and soil pollution, and soil sealing (Breuste, 2007)
• The growth of ecology as a science (including urban ecology) and the reaction against urban
environmental degradation resulted in a new vision for the planning and design of green areas as a
whole system.
• Ian McHarg’s Design with Nature (1969) explored the opportunities provided by natural ecosystems to
inform urban land planning strategies.This was furthered via the environmental movement of the
1970s to 1980s inWestern countries, where the introduction of concepts of sustainability and green
urbanism (“cities that are green and designed with functions in ways analogous to nature”) called for
new approaches to green urban infrastructure (Beatley, 2000)

13. • Ottawa (Canada)
• St Petersburg (Russia)
• Portland (USA)
• Adelaide (Australia)
• Milton Keynes (Britain)
• Dunedin (New Zealand)
Many cities adopted
the greenbelt idea.
• Helsinki
• Copenhagen
• Stockholm
• Christchurch
Some cities have
developed green
wedges or fingers
which penetrate into
or along the edge of
the urban core
Beijing
Shanghai
Seoul
Ottawa, Canada
(Source: google maps)
Helsinki, Finland
(Source: google maps)

14. Greenways become ecological networks
• A very significant contribution to the
development of urban ecological networks has
been the greenway movement in the USA and
Canada and the green corridors movement in
some European countries in the 1990s.
• From the late 1960s to the early 1970s,
greenways began to be used in the USA by
cyclists and pedestrians as alternative trails to
automobile congested roads and highways.
• From 1985,American greenways were
multipurpose, allowing the maintenance and
enhancement of biodiversity, and providing for
wildlife migration, human recreation, flood
prevention and improved water quality
Salisbury Greenway Bicycle Way/ North Carolina
(Source: intechopen.com)

15. Greenways become ecological networks
• Greenways are viewed as being important for the development of urban
ecological networks, and, together with greenbelts and greenspaces, provide a
comprehensive green infrastructure (Walmsley, 1995)—or ecostructure—that
underpins cities.
• The development of this new ecological networking vision was mainly a reaction
to US urban sprawl and the dramatic loss of natural areas.
• These programmes are based on recent sustainable urban practices such as low
impact development (LID), which incorporates swales, rain and green roof
gardens, pervious surfaces and compact development practices.

16. New Zealand vision of ecological networks
• New Zealand is unique in the world as it is a
subcontinental land mass that was
biologically isolated for much of its history,
retaining many ancient endemic species,
but has suffered a massive loss of
indigenous biodiversity through the
introduction of hundreds of exotic animals
and thousands of exotic plants.
• In New Zealand, virtual corridors are seen
as a linear series of habitat stepping stones
containing indigenous or even benign
exotic vegetation.
• The restoration of “blueways” as ecological
networks in New Zealand cities can be seen
as a significant achievement for
biodiversity and recreational goals (Meurk
and McMurtrie 2006)
Wellington Waterfront
(Source: www.nzedugroup.com)

17. New Zealand vision of ecological networks
The health importance of
these green spaces and
networks is now seen as both
more subtly physical and
especially psychological, in
contrast to the views of earlier
public health engineers, who
saw their primary role as
providing initially open, and
later piped, sewage and
stormwater disposal systems
as well as transport conduits
(Sotoudehnia and Comber,
2010)
Christchurch, New Zealand
(Source: Stephen Fleming)

18. Twenty-first century vision and outlook for
urban ecological networks
• The planning and design of ecological networks at the beginning of the twenty-first century is
seen as multidisciplinary, involving all kinds of “potential” ecological spaces within the city.
• Planted urban woodlands, public parks and gardens, golf courses, cemeteries, waterways,
wetlands, motorways and railways continue to be a focus for urban planners and landscape
architects in their work on ecological networks and green infrastructure at a variety of scales.
• There is growing interest in novel design solutions for sustainable cities, such as green roofs,
living walls, and pervious pavements (Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004, Ignatieva et al. 2008a)
• Modern planning and design processes for creating ecological networks call for the integration
of progressive technology (GIS) (see Natuhara, 2006) and sustainable practices such as LID
(USA) and Low Impact Urban Design and Development (New Zealand) at different scales, from
regional to neighborhood and individual property design.

19. Twenty-first century vision and outlook for
urban ecological networks
Proposal for a street in a new subdivision in Lincoln Village, New Zealand,
2007. Design: S. Moultrie
Rationalising the impacts of human access on habitat and
wildlife on the one hand and visual aesthetics and perceptions
of safety on the other (Colin Meurk: concept for integrating
social and ecological needs in narrow corridors).

20. Twenty-first century vision and outlook for
urban ecological networks
• Private gardens can be very important
stepping stones in an ecological network.
• Urbanized indigenous people have a
particular role to play in sensitively
designing ecological networks in cities that
provide for both spiritual needs and in some
cases cultural harvest (Hoskins, 2008).
• A new multidisciplinary approach to the
planning and design of ecological networks
in contemporary cities requires integration
between ecologists, landscape architects,
urban planners, politicians, and ethnic or
cultural, especially indigenous,
representatives.
Eco-city of Xiaokang, China
(Source: CGTN)

21. THANKYOU