MSc in landscape architecture

Estonian University of Life Sciences Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Ecologically sustainable design approach in Aulla, Italy Master thesis of Landscape Architecture Author: Rea Sepping Supervisor: prof. Simon Bell

Tartu 2013

Kaitsmisele lubatud

“…….” …………………………. 2013. a EMÜ Põllumajandus-

ja keskkonnainstituudi õppedirektor ………………………………………………………… [ees- ja perekonnanimi]

Olen koostanud magistritöö iseseisvalt ja kõik töö koostamisel kasutatud teiste autorite tööd, põhimõttelised seisukohad kirjandusallikatest ja mujalt pärinevad andmed on viidatu

Rea Sepping

Käesolev magistritöö on koostatud ühe osana EMÜ magistriastme õppetööst. Magistritöö hindamine positiivse hindega ei tähenda, et põllumajandus- ja keskkonnainstituut vastutab töös kasutatud meetodite, saadud tulemuste ja tehtud järelduste eest.

Preface I would like to thank the firm of Franchi+Associati for getting me started with my idea and the project, also for giving me deep knowledge about professional urban design. I would like to thank Simon Bell for his inspiring consultations and certainly my family for their support. In addition thanks a lot to my friends Jaana Ahlberg and Ave Kongo for sitting long hours with me in the computer class, Michele Frosini for helping me with the site inspections, and finally all of my course-mates for giving me lots of inspiration.

Tartu, 30 May 2013 Rea Sepping

Table of Contents Introduction ...............................................................................................................................................5 1. What is eco-sustainability? ................................................................................................................6 1.1 History and process of man’s relation with the environment ............................................................. 6 1.2 Problems and possible solutions ............................................................................................................. 8 1.3 The starting point .....................................................................................................................................12 2. Importance of eco-sustainable design .......................................................................................... 14 3. Integrating sustainability ................................................................................................................ 19 4. Strategies for eco-sustainable cities .......................................................................................................20 4.2 Eco-sustainable planning and design principles of urban development .........................................24 4.2.1 Urban governance, participation ................................................................................................................................ 24 4.2.2 Education, research, knowledge ................................................................................................................................ 25 4.2.3 Liveability, healthy communities................................................................................................................................. 26 4.2.4 Density ........................................................................................................................................................................ 26 4.2.5 Sustainable transport ................................................................................................................................................. 27 4.2.6 Renewable energy ...................................................................................................................................................... 28 4.2.8 Zero-waste .................................................................................................................................................................. 29 4.2.9 Food............................................................................................................................................................................ 29 4.2.10 Climate and context .................................................................................................................................................. 30 4.2.11 Cultural heritage, identity ......................................................................................................................................... 30 4.2.12 Landscape, gardens, urban biodiversity.................................................................................................................. 31 4.2.13 Passive design.......................................................................................................................................................... 31 4.2.14 Sustainable materials ............................................................................................................................................... 31

Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 32 Design project ........................................................................................................................................ 35 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................... 36 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 38 References .............................................................................................................................................. 40 Kokkuvõte................................................................................................................................................ 43

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Introduction This work investigates about how to make cities more ecologically sustainable and what is the landscape architect’s role in this. What concepts and principles are topical in improving urban environments to be more sustainable and what kind of practices are used or needed?

I would like to test how and to what extent landscape architecture and eco-sustainability are connected with each other.

Over the last few decades the awareness about ecological living and constructing has been increasing and many new things are already used and continue to develop. My focus is to examine how to incorporate aspects about sustainable planning and handling ecologically sustainable techniques as part of the task of the landscape architecture profession.

Of course, everything starts with the government- if they take the right measures and enable the participation of all kinds of people and professionals sustainable planning and design is easier to achieve.

By definition landscape architects design for both natural processes and for people, so this should be the professional basis for creating ecologically sustainable cities. It is worthwhile studying the main principles and practices in order to ensure urban eco-sustainability.

I have chosen this topic because I am deeply interested in saving the natural and improving the urban environment to increase the quality of life. Landscape architecture appears to have a leadership role to play in the 21st century in creating and improving sustainable communities.

I will start from defining the situation and discussing the meanings of ecological sustainability - what it is, what is its importance and how it is connected to urban design. Then I will discuss the concepts, principles and strategies of eco-sustainable urban planning and design and finally look at the practices and possibilities to use them in improving the city environment more sensitively. My main work will be based around a design project where I practice and test eco-sustainable solutions in the town of Aulla, Italy, then reflecting on this practical project to see what works.

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1. What is eco-sustainability?

1.1 History and process of man’s relation with the environment Nowadays there are several problems to solve concerning the use of land and changing the approach of how we should plan our urban and rural landscapes. Everything depends on how developments are made, because layers of construction comes attached to the environment every day that influences our life, health and happiness.

There has been a lot of discussion about devastating consequences of the current behaviour with the natural environment. With the increase of population occur several problems including recklessness usage of resources and overproduction. Several authors have stated (McLennan, 2004; Dramstad et al, 1996) that it has become clear that with the increase of globalization, cities are importing resources from across the world and exporting their wastes far away from their boundaries, causing negative impact on natural ecosystems. Population growth causes the expansion of urban areas, converting valuable natural and agricultural land into urban areas. Also, social and environmental problems are increasing due to overpopulation, especially in developing countries. There is an urgent need to find solutions and opportunities to live without losing more nature.

More and more people are living in the cities – now over 50% of the global population - and low density urbanization results also in urban sprawl. It is necessary to make the urban environment attractive so that people actually want to live there, offering experiences of nature that provides many benefits starting from its sustainable management and finishing with a better mood that nature offers to people.

Different environments where we live and move in give the main experiences that affect us during our life. If the emotions we experience are positive, the landscape is making us notice beautiful aspects of life, people enjoy being outside and stay healthy then this is the purpose of providing it by urban design. There are also other aspects that in the first sight are not visible but what influence people’s health and long-term well-being. The contact with natural environment is essential to feel well and having the possibility to breathe fresh air. In this case the living environment needs to be ecologically sustainable, that means providing these valuable aspects also for the next generations. There are opportunities to make the environment sustain itself and provide a positive change for our urban landscape by change of an approach.

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The hope of achieving sustainability lies in the possibility of transforming our cities. There is an urgent need to modify and improve the living environment towards a more sustainable essence- first to reduce impacts of households, secondly of districts and finally of all settlement. Ultimately, cities could be a positive force for ecological regeneration. This necessarily requires a more symbiotic relationship between man and nature. (Dramstad et al 1996) It is not only a change in behaviour but a change in perception. It is a long process to understand the background to the existing situation, what came before and what is coming in future due to the current behaviour, analysing the possibilities and opportunities and finally deciding what is the right thing to do. This process contains diverse social understandings and interpretations, though nature has always had certain value and processes. The theme of nature protection has been analysed and discussed since the 19th century when the nascent conservation movement slowly developed, but was still only the concern of few people. The relation between natural environment and people has changed over time.

Michael Laurie (1976) in his book written as far back as 1976 and quotes E. A. Gutkind who was a central figure in the German architectural avant-garde during the 1920s. Gutkind defines four stages of a mutual adaptation between man and nature. The first stage is characterized by fear of nature, of its unpredictable forces from which was necessary to ensure safety. This was inherent in primitive societies that lived by hunting and primitive agriculture where it was necessary to cooperate in order to survive. These societies had a very direct relationship with nature that had deep symbolic meanings and organic interdependence between the landscape and habitation.

The second stage is connected to growing self-confidence about the adaptation of habitation and agriculture in the natural environment that is more realistic and rational by using and respecting the environment and considering man’s limitations in terms of manipulating the processes. Landscape was concerned as a resource that needs management and care in order to receive essential products.

The third stage has taken us to the situation with the society of advanced technology and like Gutkind has said:

“This is the stage of aggression and conquest” (Laurie 1976: 2). The handling of the environment at this stage – which we are slowly emerging from - is characterised by exhaustion and waste of natural resources. This is the time that was automobile orientated and saw the peak of urbanisation, cutting huge amount of forests, polluting rivers and spreading mineral waste. All this was largely the result of the depersonalization of nature, where the scientific specialization had a huge role, reducing the awareness of the importance of a pure natural environment and so the relationship between man and nature became irrelevant.

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The fourth stage will come in the future when the principles of the relationship between man and nature become again important. “He describes it as an age of responsibility and unification” (Laurie 1976: 3).

This new understanding will result in social awareness and careful management of the environment that depends of the science and technology that will have the parameters to change the situation. (Laurie 1976). There is a reason to believe that the fourth stage has now arrived and is quickly developing. There are all kinds of opportunities already available which make it possible to protect the environment and raise the quality of life. Commonly everything takes time but the most difficult and important part is to raise the awareness of our problems and possible solutions.

Laurie (1976) concluded back then, that we are in the process of great transition due to the improvements in science and technology, also in society and utilization of physical energy. If we could avoid wasting energy and natural resources and to use potential for good rather than evil, we could actually be able to achieve Gutkind’s fourth phase. I think Gutkind was right and we have already arrived into an era of big transformations about the essence of urban environment. People’s understanding of this is changing quickly by huge amounts of information that is readily available and well-advertised.

1.2 Problems and possible solutions The major issues of nowadays’ developments derive from planning for short times, not always considering the influences and planning for separate small spaces that is not comprehensively connected to a wider scale. It may seem more easy like this but from this kind of approach can result bigger problems.

This situation occurs widely if developments are made quickly and ill-considered by inexperienced developers. There can be several reasons why the methods in many places have not worked. It can be derived from a weak planning system where different professionals are not forced to work together and the decisions are made individually. Also a major cause is not having a good master plan that considers the settlement coherently. E. W. Dramstad et al has pointedly noted possible reasons for it:

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“In some countries these two basic components – ecology and culture – have diverged relatively recently. For example, ecology has matured, and veered away from planning and design. Or economics has become paramount.

Or aesthetics. Or sewage and wastes have been considered only an engineering problem. Or flourishing litigation has coloured decision-making. Or local actions have overridden regional thinking and planning.”

Where could this distant nature approach have come from? Is it connected to the sense of power over nature or just a lack of interest? Peters (1971) argues that people’s behaviour about the natural environment started in the hunting and gathering society with the withdrawal of society members from a nonhuman world. This may have happened especially with men in the higher castes who assumed bigger control over the natural environment and did not have to deal with it, so they forgot the importance of ecology, started to waste their resources and also forced others to do the same. It was not because they were irreverent but because it was not so vital for them, no longer having an experience with it either.

It can be assumed that this kind of social pattern also exists nowadays where people, often in key decision-making positions, think they have supremacy, that nature is less important and that it is fine to be deciding for others.

Peters (1971) also speaks about trade-industrial society’s behavioural patterns - that this society was ruled by the tools or machines and that it is so large that there are not enough resources to go around equally, so if this approach is not changed the society will collapse. I think that it can also be applied to the current technological society. It is a question of deciding how technology or "power" is used to.

If the cities could be more bio-diverse, people would start valuing nature even more. There have already been many improvements in different countries about the change of the policies into more eco-sustainable approach.

For example Swedish government has decided to start integrating the values of ecosystem services at all levelsnational, regional and local, into decision making. It includes also how to increase the knowledge of people about ecological values. These new environmental goals are going to be fulfilled by 2018. There will be a lot to do when it comes to implementation but they will be already well prepared for nature protection, conservation and sustainable exploitation of resources. (Simonsen 2013)

"It’s becoming increasingly apparent that we can't work with the environment as a separate issue. In order to find solutions to the challenges we face now, environmental issues need to be incorporated into other areas. This

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commission is about making that possible, and using ecosystem services as a concept to help integrate a perspective about the biosphere in various decisions� says Thomas Hahn who is a researcher at Stockholm Resilience Centre and also part of the commission, along with Louise Hürd af Segerstad from Albaeco and Lars Berg, from the Ministry of Environment. (Simonsen 2013) Government has a major responsibility to balance the sustainability in different fields. Sustainable development does not embrace only environmental sustainability but also economic and social aspects: Italian organisation SOGESID states about the aspects of sustainable development like this: Environmental sustainability: to provide conservation and protection of uniqueness of a certain territory ensuring the renewal of environmental heritage and natural resources.

Economic sustainability involves sustaining population by providing people with employment and improving the growth of economy.

Social sustainability involves providing democracy, welfare and security equally for all.

(SOGESID)

Figure 1. Interconnections among the three dimensions of sustainable development. (after SOGESID)

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Figure 2. Scheme of the three concentric circles that measures impacts in relation to three dimensions and shows that they always exist all together. (after SOGESID)

Figure 3. Pyramid of Sustainability shows the hierarchy of the resources – the natural capital supplies, social and economic dimensions. (after SOGESID)

These three schemes prove that the one of the most important basis we have for all the planning and economic activities is the natural environment that must be considered in every decision process, otherwise any system will not be in balance.

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We need a change in individual behaviour and from there to political decisions to achieve the balance that starts from ecological sustainability, otherwise we lose a natural scale in the contemporary world that finally brings more losses than profits. (SOGESID) And it is not only important in planning and in urban design, but also in service, industry and business where ecological management must be taken into account by using economical techniques and sustainable practices like passive design and be self sustaining in terms of water, waste and energy.

1.3 The starting point In many countries the profession of landscape architecture has been lost between other major occupations like engineers, architects, urban planners and many others but what is missing is an immediate contact between them, a link that brings people with different knowledge together and intermediates them in the purpose of finding best solutions. The same is with the landscape and its structures where there are perfect components but an interaction can get lost. Landscape architect mediates different specialists and interacts between architectural structures and natural components keeping them in balance and harmony.

Though every decision making and realization plan starts from the government, the planner needs to have a great vision and an ability to explain and convince governments of the alternatives of living more harmoniously. Everything depends on the interaction between the decision makers and professionals, because ideally - successful communication prevents the problems of co-work.

From the report “Sustainable urban neighbourhoods�, that examines what should be the measures to create sustainable communities, comes out that local government, developers and locals must find less adversarial way to work better together by changing the way developments are conducted and procured and it is also useful to take good examples in front of them. (Falk & Carley 2012) One of the most important things is to have a better understanding by having a total participation with all the parties and a will to co-work from which can come out harmonious end-result. Another basic aspect is to share the information and educate people about topics like biodiversity benefits in the city and nature protection, also helping them to understand about sustainable way of managing with urban environment.

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One way to start moving towards the better solutions is to determine the needs of man and nature, to know what is the scale of measures that can bring benefits for both.

For example a concept “Nature Pyramid” draws out the different experiences that we should receive over a day, week, month or a year and at different spatial scales for a healthy life and sufficient contact with the natural world. It provides also important policy, planning insights and guidance. It encourages us to look around us and see if the places we live deliver the nature quantity we need. (Beatley 2012)

Figure 4. A hypothetical depiction of the nature pyramid. graphic by Tim Beatley. (Beatley 2012) This scheme can be very useful for landscape architects and decision makers to find useful advice about importance of people’s needs in different time basis and analyzing it when starting to prepare development plans for developing them further. Beatley (2012) adds that landscape architects can create valuable ecological services that provide exposure to nature for urban residents that are in the lower levels of the pyramid. It is less frequent to have regional parks in the neighbourhood or access to a nature trail or to a forest that usually are more far than one 15 minute walk. Usually it occurs more on a weekly basis.

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There are several ways to use nature in urban environment not only as a visual component but using it by executing the outdoor space that makes people feel to be near natural environment that already rises the mood and urges to stay outdoors. Beatley (2012) adds that it is like a circle that vegetation and trees make people feel happier then they also have more will to spend time outside walking, hiking, breathing fresh air, and engaged to physical activity t delivers important health benefits, that many studies confirm. Due to this the utilization of motorized vehicles decrease and the air will be cleaner. Only planting trees raises highly the quality of urban environment.

It is already well studied what values are created by trees and plants. They soften the site’s environment with their green foliage, they reduce pollution, cooling air temperature, soothing people’s spirit, elevating property values, providing places for birds and wildlife, increasing neighbourhood pride, reducing greenhouse effect and so on.

Nowadays there are a lot of possibilities to implement innovative and even extraordinary ideas to transform our cities into healthy urban environments including urban farms, green roofs, walls, etc.

2. Importance of eco-sustainable design Sim Van der Ryn (1996) wrote in his book a very striking statement:

“In many ways, the environmental crisis is a design crisis. It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed, and landscapes are used. Design manifests culture, and culture rests firmly on the foundation of what we believe to be true about the world.”

Due to the nature’s ability to maintain itself it is possible to find solutions for design from the renewable resources, at the same time respecting its progress to reproduce. Sustainable design impacts minimally the environment and provides lots of benefits when managing it in the right way. Landscape architect should be able to apply this kind of design in the landscape if it is to be ecologically sustainable.

The reason why we have not been living sustainably before, McLennan (2004) states that it is possible to find ways how to apply technologies and the knowledge in the right context, but many reasons why we have not arrived yet to the sustainable world are mostly drawn on the lack of knowledge and indolence.

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Unfortunately the use of sustainable design has been underestimated and is not because of people do not value it but general intention from higher caste of gaining profit – forcing people to use things that lose their value with short time because something sustainable is harder to get. Birkeland (2002) argues as well that nowadays designers do yet little to avoid negative environmental impact while trapping people into consuming things that after a while they do not need any more instead of designing things that can be ecologically sustainable- cleaner and more profitable.

The same problem is with urban design where in the city space there are used unsustainable materials that degrade faster over time and need to be exchanged, instead of permeable materials for example. Sustainability in urban design is safe and beneficial more to people and nature instead business, and reduces also negative impacts to the environment. Janis Birkeland (2002) adds that unfortunately the urban design has had a minor role in ecological sustainability. Considering that our living environment is also responsible for the environmental impacts, design establishes the size of the effects. She adds that our decision makers are wrong not appreciating the importance of ecological design in management and in finding solutions for our problems.

Concludes that the most important key to many of our environmental and health problems reveals in sustainable urban design.

It is not always possible to achieve new solutions fast but at least if people will start valuing more design that includes sustainability and endurance, we will develop further culturally, respecting the importance of local and renewable sources.

Nowadays there are plenty of professionals who make their work well but in many planning stages lacks an extensive cooperation that could help rising the knowledge of different experts about various topics. Van der Ryn (1996) states that in order to combine ecology and design, it is necessary to understand nature’s essence and the connection with the scheduled project. That means also deep cooperation between ecologists, architects, biologists, industrial designers, engineers and with many others, according to the needed result. That requires a lot of work, skilful operators and good interaction between them.

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Table 1. Comparison of the characteristics of conventional and ecological design by Sim Van der Ryn (Van der Ryn 1996)

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Considering that many people who are more aware about the value of sustainability because they know it leads to their own welfare and are careful how they consume, this kind of thinking will get more and wider attention. I can assume that step by step it gets even more diffused, so industries that are not sharing the sustainable approach will soon crash due to too few consumers. Already now at least in Europe all this “eco� theme gets wide attention and ecological products in supermarkets, clothing stores and construction materials are getting higher demand.

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Like McLennan (2004) wrote in his book:

„My past has taught me two important lessons; that we have an amazing capacity to damage the habitat of all living things while building our own, but we also have an ability to heal it through good design.”

3. Integrating sustainability There are many new already finalized projects that are great exemplars for the ecological planning approach. They should be highlighted projects for municipalities that want to rise the quality of their urban environment.

One outstanding planning with an eco-focus is Hammarby Sjostad district in Sweden that keeps the standard up for forthcoming projects. It is that unique because of integrated planning work before development of the area and combined environmental solutions from the very beginning. (Hammarbysjostad) Another good example of an institution is an economical factory named Pocheco in France that produces envelopes and has everything in the right quality starting from holding the balance between paper production from wood and the used forests biodiversity and also reducing their carbon footprint through employees’ cars sharing for using cars and plane as little as possible. This factory sustains itself 100% in terms of water with successful sustainable water management systems and has everything heated by the energy from the solar panels. They already have various trophies for great environmental performance from diverse years. (Pocheco) This factory seems to set a good example for other factories to start working more sustainably. Also more people want to work there or order their products especially just from them because it impresses the consumers and employers. Not every time has there been this kind of acceptance about eco-sustainable design. As John Stuart Mill so suitably put it, “Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.” (McLennan after Mill, 2004;4)

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McLennan (2004) discusses also that now we appear to be in between these two last stages because nowadays of the sustainable design’s popularity it is difficult to dispute – this kind of design will always be a trend due to its natural origin.

4. Strategies for eco-sustainable cities A way to make cities sustainable has several outputs. There is new urbanism that is a design movement that

promotes walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods and transit-oriented development. The concept of green urbanism signifies a model for zero-emission and zero-waste urban design that seeks to transform and re-engineer existing

city districts and regenerating the post-industrial urban environment to transform existing cities from fragmentation to compaction. (Lehmann 2010) All these different notions together compose a network of several measures that have the same purpose - an aim to improve our cities towards ecological sustainability.

The future of our living environments is not only the technical matters, but a question of holistic environmental and social sustainability, every community’s peculiarity and healthy, high-quality habitat.

Every place is unique and has a special context, its own its original characters and genius loci. Starting to develop an eco-sustainable urban area, it needs special approach considering all of its constraints and opportunities. All several principles of eco-cities are guidelines for achieving a better way to manage urban areas more sustainably.

Principles of Green Urbanism by Steffen Lehmann (2010): ● respond well to their climate, location, orientation and context, optimizing natural assets such as sunlight

and wind flow, ● are quiet, clean and effective, with a healthy microclimate, ● have reduced or have no CO2 emissions, as they are self-sufficient energy producers, powered by

renewable energy sources,

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● eliminate the concept of waste, as they are based on a closed-loop ecosystem with significant recycling,

reusing, remanufacturing and composting, ● have high water quality, practicing sensitive urban water management, ● integrate landscape, gardens and green roofs to maximize urban biodiversity and mitigate the urban heat

island effect, ● take only their fair share of the earth’s resources, using principles of urban ecology, ● apply new technologies such as co-generation, solar cooling and electric-mobility, ● provide easy accessibility and mobility, are well inter-connected, and provide an efficient low-impact public

transport system, ● use regional and local materials and apply prefabricated modular construction systems, ● create a vibrant sense of place and authentic cultural identity, where existing districts are densified and

make use of urban mixed-use infill projects, ● are generally more compact communities around transport nodes (`green Transit-Oriented Developments,

TODs’), with a special concern for affordable housing and mixed-use programs, ● use deep green passive design strategies and solar architecture concepts for all buildings, with compact

massing for reduced heat gain in summer, ● are laid-out and oriented in a way that keeps the buildings cool in summer, but which catches the sun in

winter, ● have a local food supply through community gardens and urban farming and which achieve high food

security and reduced `food miles’, and ● use multi-disciplinary approach, best practice for urban governance and sustainable procurement methods.

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Figure 5. Above: The three pillars of Green Urbanism, and the interaction between these pillars. Below: The holistic concept of Eco-City has again a balanced relationship between the urban area and the rural area. (Lehmann 2010)

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There are more strategies and principles that are written by various institutions. For example Melbourne principles (2002) have gained a lot of positive attention about creating sustainable cities:

“They allow cities to develop sustainable solutions that are relevant to their particular circumstances.

They can help to bring together citizens and decision-makers, whose participation and cooperation is essential in transforming our cities to sustainability.” ● Long term vision for sustainable city according to its characteristics ● Long-term economic and social security for increasing quality of human and natural systems ● Understanding and protecting the value of nature ● Maintaining and improving the “metabolism” of the city ● Applying the characteristics of ecosystems into the city ● Respecting and maintaining the cultural, historical and natural systems of the place ● Intense co-operation between all inhabitants ● Strengthening network in local and regional scale ● Sustainable production and consumption ● Transparency and openness of good governance (Melbourne Principles for Sustainable Cities 2002) Principles of sustainable development of cities are overlapping with majority of approaches set down by various theorists. It has emerged from several researches and experiences as well, so there is no doubt that this could be the right way to manage our future cities.

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4.2

Eco-sustainable

planning

and

design

principles

of

urban

development 4.2.1 Urban governance, participation

Governments that want to achieve ecologically sustainable approach in the planning system need innovative culture and successful co-work by all the sectors. Lehmann (2010) states that it is very hard to create a coherent system without the political support and planning. Vision, strategies and efficient management for the compact development should be provided by fair and high-level managerial staff. Public authorities must have also individually a sustainable approach and lifestyle- their own consumption practices influence their methods of urban decisionmaking.

This statement proves that everything starts from individual approach as well and to achieve this kind of thinking, people themselves need to be confident about this reflection of life.

Another aspect is the participation of locals who know the best about the systematization of a certain place. As are writing also Ford & Canter (2013) that the participation of locals is essential for the benefits of new developments as well as keeping people’s voice in the planning system. It is more than clear that sustainability of the community is connected to the engagement of the residents. There are surely several ways to make public participation much successful and this must be the first direction towards sustainable cities.

When people are more active and they have wide knowledge about ecological sustainability, the new developments will be much more innovative. McBride (2013) adds that if the decision makers want to have creative and effective solutions, they should involve more and diverse people in the planning process to solve the problems.

Boyd Cohen writes in his article about the top 10 smartest European cities that are appointed concerning several indicators from the Smart Cities Wheel that shows the integrated management towards sustainable cities. The first places are Copenhagen, Stockholm and Amsterdam due to their good governance.

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Figure. 6 Smart Cities Wheel. (Cohen, s.a)

4.2.2 Education, research, knowledge Raising awareness of the people and changing behaviour itself are the solutions for successful participation.

Lehmann (2010) claims that it is possible to help with several actions starting from research and its publications, involving people in it, educating children and youngsters at school, providing different training programmes, experience exchange etc. Also creating technical programmes for public, lessons like waste recycling, water efficiency, sustainable behaviour that are beneficial for people and easily used in practice. A city should also be a place where it is possible to gain knowledge (institutions, galleries etc) that brings people aware of the basis of possible healthy living.

There are many ways to rise the awareness of the people who finally help to construct sustainable communities. But the most important is everyone’s contribution by changing their attitudes and personal lifestyles.

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Another aspect in my opinion should be opening more courses and seminars to landscape architecture students about ecologically sustainable practices to acknowledge our future professionals with wide awareness of principles that should be the base to start with. Also provide children in kindergarten and basic school with knowledge about how to act more sustainably.

4.2.3 Liveability, healthy communities There are certain measures about city planning to provide well-functioning urban space. Lehmann (2010) argues that the key to the sustainability are land use development patterns and mixed-use. Maximizing the diversity of users helps to overcome the problems of social fragmentation, reduce the traffic, make it more compact and pedestrian-friendly environment. Lerner (2010) points out that recent studies have also proved that in the city districts with various functions occur more physical activity and less signs of obesity because of more active lifestyle in this kind of areas.

All this indicates that the more the neighbourhood is in human scale and the less it is needed to use motorized vehicles, the more this area is sustainable.

Avoiding mono-functional projects by integrating various cultural and economic activities helps to increase stronger neighbourhood character and an original sense of place. (Lehmann 2010) It seems logical that when people are involved then they feel needed and in turn contribute for their own living area. Finally they feel as a community where everyone is important that results also in good common management.

4.2.4 Density Frequency of the city’s different land use functions creates diverse urban space that mixes more also the activities in the city including green recreational spaces that offer people more activity in the city areas. Lehmann (2010) adds that better and dense land use planning will reduce impacts from urban to rural environment in case of

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concentrating important functions to the compact city centres. Also the underused areas in the city must be used for affordable housing and for the benefit of community, making it more sufficient and resilient. Promoting densification strategies and transforming cities into more compact is a sustainable way to manage urban areas.

Though the urban environment must not be compressed and an area with densely situated and high buildings but involving lot of greenery, have several functions and possibilities for spare time and be an interesting place with a strong character. (Benfield 2013) From this statement comes out that density increases also urban character.

(See design project poster “Biodiversity connections – Green corridors”: Proposals of biodiversity connections 1:5000)

4.2.5 Sustainable transport Light traffic, car-pooling and conducive public transport encourages people to live more healthy lifestyle. When the access is good for the public transport services and using cars turns more difficult than using light-traffic network the public space will change into more enjoyable, safe and healthy environment. (Lehmann 2010) All this shows that with quite easy methods it is possible to assure healthier life for the citizens if decision makers understand the importance of providing them this kind of solutions. Also from streets’ design depends if people would use more sustainable features to move in the city. Newell et al (2013) claims that road planners are usually trained to create traffic connections for motorized vehicles instead of considering several functions that involve also street design oriented for cyclists and pedestrians. Creating sustainable infrastructure involves also greening the roads by urban runoff mitigation solutions and reducing the urban heat island effect by adding bicycle roads.

Landscape architects could be competent to find solutions together with engineers for attractive and ecologically sustainable street systems.

(See design project poster “Traffic – Streets”)

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4.2.6 Renewable energy The possibilities vary from different new technologies like solar PV, solar thermal, geothermal power, mini-hydro energy, biomass, wind, etc. Lehmann (2010) explains that renewable energy generation and storage possibilities in a certain place should be decided considering the local availability of resources that can supply the place and change the city from energy consumer to energy producer. It is also possible to use decentralized system of renewable energy resources and also balanced combination of different resources that is a secure solution in the case of some supply problems. It would work if there could be required a local energy production in every district, that produces its energy 100% because having only energy efficiency programs the energy use will rise and it does not pay off. Every urban planning should have a goal for optimizing the balance of renewable energy resources, including the transportation and storage possibilities in the place.

In addition to holistic planning, managing buildings, car parks and lightning sustainably create more advantages.

Baker s.a writes that on buildings it is beneficial to use solar control and shading to regulate the spread of lightning energy and its consumption because in case of overheating it needs more energy demand to cool off by airconditioning. The remaining heat gain from the buildings could be used for energy production.

(See design project poster “Car parks” – Solar photovoltaic system and poster “Old railway” – Solar street light)

4.2.7 Water

Sustainable way to manage water in the cities is having integrated urban water cycle infrastructure to keep the quality of water and manage the runoff through storage. (Lehmann 2010) (See design project poster “Biodiversity connections – Green corridors”: Proposals of biodiversity connections 1:5000 – SUDS) Babalis (2006) and Barker s.a explain that SUDS – sustainable urban draining systems influences in many ways developments and is an essential component of a sustainable urban space. There are several ways to integrate them successfully into urban landscape like mini-channels, rain-gardens, swales, permeable paving, green roofs and underground storage ranks, the aim is always to detain run-off and releasing it slowly into ground or into directed collectors, releasing it slowly into ground or into directed collectors.

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(See design project poster “Traffic – Streets” – Bioswale, transparent asphalt; poster “Car parks” – Porous pavement, plastic grass lawn grid; poster “Public space” – Raingarden; poster “Underused space” – Green roof, permeable pavement) This shows that there is possible to find solutions to every kind of water problem that brings huge advantages to urban space in the means of keeping waste water systemized without bringing negative impacts to natural environment.

4.2.8 Zero-waste Sustainable waste management includes recycling and reusing materials, also composting wastes to produce energy. Especially renewable resources can be reused over again on a different purpose, therefore it is more beneficial to use recoverable resources already from the beginning. There is already too much waste in our cities nowadays, so it is better to prevent it by recycling. (Lehmann 2010) But to go behind recycling, the best solution would be stop to producing waste in the first place by designing buildings and structures that can be returned to be greenfields again. We should be moving towards an idea of carbon neutral cities where it would be a closed-loop ecosystem where the wastes do not move beyond the boundaries of the urban area but are used inside the circular zero-waste city. (Lehmann 2012)

4.2.9 Food It is important to have food supply from local areas to reduce the traffic and provide healthy products. Lehmann (2010) argues that local consuming lays the foundation for sustainable food management that reveals in regional food supply, local food production, agriculture and urban farming. This means also limited petrol-based transport that in turn reduces the carbon footprint of the cities. Also schools and other institutions could apply allotment gardens that can be connected also with the educative side of community gardening, urban farming and sharing

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from what is essential to increase the knowledge of these kinds of initiatives. Organic waste can be used as a compost and purified wastewater used for irrigation.

In case of possibilities, underused spaces like brownfields or greyfields can be used as places where to apply allotment gardens to provide opportunities for locals to grow their own food. (See design project poster “Underused space”)

4.2.10 Climate and context It is very risky to plan a project without considering the climate and difficult to apply alien species in the parks. The most secure way is considering local plants to avoid encountered dissapointment. Lehmann (2010) writes that the development should begin with analysing the constraints and opportunities and finally it must be in harmony with cultural, historical, social, geographical, economical, environmental and political factors. Every site is unique and due to the special site conditions the outcome should be perfectly balanced with different measures in case on maintaining the complexity of the place. This is always beneficial when in the development the full advantage of every potential has been used and all the constraints are taken into account.

(See design project posters “Contextual description”)

4.2.11 Cultural heritage, identity The most important is to take into account the identity and cultural heritage of a place to avoid resentment of locals and run down the history and genius loci. Lehmann (2010) states that in sustainable city the identity of the place has a very

important role. Keeping it unique and maintaining originality promotes cultural heritage and local business, cultural developments and creativity of the locals. City councils must protect the city by creating master plans that balance conservation and developments, also taking under protection places with strong genius loci.

(See design project poster “Urban landscape character” and ”Views and character management”)

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4.2.12 Landscape, gardens, urban biodiversity Maximizing biodiversity in the cities has a major role in sustainable city. Urban environment with green landscape elements rises the quality of city and makes it attractive and enjoyable. Greenery performs an important role in city’s micro-climate that provides shelter for several species and reduces a heat island effect.

Lehmann (2010) adds that biodiversity protects regional characteristics, habitat and ecology and keeps the natural cycles in good balance. Urban agriculture and farming gives special benefits to increase the biodiversity in cities, also green corridors that connect important green habitats and add green recreational spaces for citizens. Another essential element in urban environment are the buffer zones between big populated spaces that conserve natural resources and energy streams where the major benefit is high local diversity.

(See design project poster “Biodiversity connections – Green corridors” - Proposals of biodiversity connections)

4.2.13 Passive design The purpose of passive design is to simplify the reliance on active heating and cooling systems. When the buildings are constructed by energy saving materials it would lead to more sustainable future of bio-climatic architecture.

There are different concepts of solar architecture, green-roof systems and façade technologies that all can be adapted according to the possibilities and characteristics of the place. Finally buildings will consume less and generate more energy, absorb and purify water for the benefits of the residents. (Lehmann 2010)

4.2.14 Sustainable materials Lehmann (2010) argues that using sustainable materials for landscape structures lowers the economical and rises the ecological aspect. It is important to rise the usage of local materials in order to limit the transport and supply shorter chains.

This kind of approach should be emphasized more and supported by research and new technological solutions to reduce waste and increase sustainable innovations.

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Methodology My method was to find physical outputs to use in the design project, firstly discussing about the theory of ecosustainable landscape architecture from where I could find ideas and practices for testing.

The goal was to apply different suitable eco-sustainable possibilities in the urban environment of Aulla.

There are several features that rise the quality of the living environment and what should be considered in every landscape design project: using sustainable techniques to minimize both the input of resources and the output of waste. There must be a goal to value the soil, treat water as a resource, preserve existing vegetation and conserve and reuse materials. It is important as well to preserve other kinds of values like heritage and the identity of place.

There are many things what can be done by a landscape architect in cooperation with the government and specialists like planning urban areas and resolving big-scale problems, involving the residents and preparing a variety of analytical processes for the best results.

This table offers the essential features of an ecologically sustainable urban development in the scale of specific and characteristic city layers (in this case about the urban development of Aulla, Italy).

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Table 2. Method of eco-sustainable design approach

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Explenation of the table First there are indicated the objectives that must be taken into consideration in designing eco-sustainable urban environment and that are taken from the synthesis of previous theory. These are: good access for citizens; healthiness, safety and comfort of people; context of place depending on the location; heritage and identity of the site; green connections in the urban environment with other vegetated areas and facilities; using passive design on buildings and sustainable materials on any urban structure; recycling materials used in urban environment; education of the citizens and esthetics of design projects.

The main purposes that should be compiled are biodiversity corridors, sustainable energy and water management, reuse of underused areas, traffic calming, local food management and recreation possibilities.

The information through which result the solutions in this specific site are an inspection of existing situation and planning documents of Aulla; theory about eco-sustainability and an overall analysis about the place - its history, urban development, climatic and physical characteristics, etc.

Next step was to divide the urban area of Aulla into city layers to characterize the main and different physical aspects about this place - general layers to find locations to adapt different sustainable solutions. The main characteristic layers of Aulla are private place, streets, car parks, buildings, railway, river shores, underused space and public space. The layer boxes with green fill are used in the project as example areas.

When to sum objectives, information and city layers follow the project’s proposals – what possibilities emerge in these special areas: in private space it is possible apply urban farm and different solutions of sustainable water reuse; in streets: to enhance light traffic and apply traffic calming measures; in car parks: applying sustainable parking systems; in buildings: using green roofs and –walls; in old railway: proposing recreation possibilities; in river shores: proposing recreation and nature protection; in underused space: finding suitable functions that help to manage energy, waste, water or food; in public space: proposing suitable sustainable design project.

In the next part there are the “tools” that show what solutions there are depending on a certain space and possibilities. This part is divided into five characters: earth, air, water fire and life depending on the chances that these elements offer. In this part of the table there are written all the possibilities that could be applied in these given city layers.

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Design project After theorizing about eco-sustainable approaches in land-use and in the urban design, listing several sustainable principles for the cities and finding methodology to compile the project I have found proof that there are many ways to apply suitable ecological practices in every place to rise the quality of the environment. In this project I analyze the site of Aulla, providing ecological design approaches by many illustrative materials and explanations.

From the analyze of the site’s context, historical aspects, landscape character and views (See design project posters “Contextual description” and “Urban landscape character”) I found a way to manage views from surroundings into the site by framing the important ones with vegetation that enhances site’s unique essence and at the same time adding buffer zones to rise the biodiversity and create a transition between urban and natural environment. (“Views and character management”) By analyzing site’s setting, green structure, surroundings, connections and surveyed the background of its climate, vegetation, uses and conditions (“Contextual description”, ”Urban landscape character” and “Biodiversity connections – Green connections”) I arrived to the proposals to create green corridors that should be connected between already existing green areas and the new potential spaces to reuse as green public spaces. (” Biodiversity connections – Green corridors”) Finally finding also a holistic scheme about sustainable planning objectives of the project area ( “Biodiversity connections – Green corridors”) The next step was generating projects to five different city layers (See Table 2. Method of eco-sustainable design approach) to offer suitable eco-sustainable solutions.

First task was introducing different kinds of places depending on the city layer with special character, explaining the existing situation and the possible solutions to its problems. After choosing one potential area to offer suitable solutions there is described the current project and eco-sustainable solutions. (”Traffic – Streets”, ” Car parks”; ” Public space”, “Old railway, ” Underused space”)

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Discussion My main purpose of this project was to reach an understanding about in which extent it is possible to design the urban areas using ecologically sustainable planning and techniques and what is important to know about the integration of these practices into urban space.

Arriving to the completion of my project by applying holistic solution to the site - rising the quality of urban environment by biodiversity connections should be principal to all the projects because the balance between urban and natural environment is essential to provide sustainability of the living environment everywhere. People need to enjoy living where they live, to feel safe, comfortable and satisfied, experiencing a healthy lifestyle. At the same time the environment should be able to sustain itself with simple management and offer habitat also for insects, birds and wildlife due to which we take care of preservation of abundant nature.

It is not difficult to apply eco-sustainable techniques when a landscape architect has a background about the opportunities and constraints of the practices and a wide knowledge about the context of a site made with integral analysis and surveys.

There is no lack of sufficient information about this theme because there are made already many projects involving these methods that made the finding of suitable practices no severe.

Certainly it is essential to work together with government, locals and special engineers while compiling projects to achieve best solutions in planning. Speaking of eco-sustainable techniques, landscape architect could design the system alone but ideally it would be more secure if the used practices could be negotiated with engineers to reach fully functional results.

Every project and its solutions are original due to every placeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique character, opportunities and constraints, as well as my work. It is possible to find even more and several opportunities to resolve these kinds of problems that occurred in the site of Aulla.

Improvements that this site received, correspond to the initial objectives like rise of biodiversity; healthiness, comfort and safety of people in their living areas, more possibilities to spend time outside in the urban space, use of sustainable materials, local plants and so on.

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Strengths of this kind of approach are considering with everyone, trying to achieve results that are accepted by all parties and to satisfy as people as well as the Earth that needs management to preserve its natural environment to survive. Weaknesses are the aspects of people’s insufficient knowledge, compassion and will to change themselves to provide sustainable essence for the environment. It is still difficult to our generation to prefer things that do not bring us the direct profits in a short-time scale and limits the way to ignore the simple way out in some situations.

Like Sim Van der Ryn (1996) mentioned before“…everything is about what we believe to be true about the world.”

(Van der Ryn 1996) More research is needed to create and develop already existing techniques and according to holistic planning determining complete working systems of energy, water, waste and local food management of the whole site that would compose a well-sustainable urban area.

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Conclusion Ways how to make cities ecologically sustainable involves special approaches into natural environment and expressions of sustainable design. Summing up the theory comes out that governing cities in this kind of approach needs holistic management with all parties involved and a new way of thinking considering every aspect of rising biodiversity in cities, recycling materials, water, waste and energy that interacts well with natural environment.

Landscape architects have a very important role in it since this profession covers relation between natural and built environment for people as well as for natural biodiversity.

The extent to which ecological sustainability is connected to landscape architecture is related to the need of preserving natural environment and well-being of people. If urban environment gives benefits to the both then it is the result of great governance and comprehensive management.

Analyzing several strategies and principles of green urbanism derives that more or less all close to nature approaches express very similar phenomena and taking them into consideration of (re-) generating residencies and also institutions the future of natural living is not far.

From the design project of Aulla it is possible to see what opportunities there are considering the design of urban environment where all different aspects â&#x20AC;&#x201C; earth, air, water, fire and life are sustainably managed in different city layers. Every place has its opportunities and constrains; spirit, history, development, local vegetation, materials, supplies and so on that all create together unique environment that must be enhanced and sustained.

The main findings during this work have been new and innovative solutions that still keep developing and with right management give positive results. The most significant outcome appears when balancing the constructed environment with nature and following sensitive usage which does not affect negatively our resources.

This research project by design gives an overview about the background of what is essential to consider when there is an intention to change towards sustainable future. It gives parameters for planners and landscape architects for improving the sense of place and finding possibilities for large and also small-scale issues, providing answers about the essential and visual effects to the landscape.

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The research should go further on finding solutions on different urban situations with several tactics to create better and sustainable urban environments where cities could be carbon free and with zero-waste and managing itself with energy, clean water and food supply.

This subject is a fast-growing approach that is gaining more and more attention by people in constructing professions that is a good sign for population if the quality of life is to rise in their cities. It needs even more attentiveness that people could be aware of the importance of changing their life-style into more healthier for the better future as well as for the next generations. Landscape architects should be able to highlight more the problems about our urban environment and be innovative to create solutions transforming cities into higher quality living environments.

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Birkeland, J. 2002. Design for Sustainability: A Sourcebook of Integrated Ecological Solutions. Earthscan. Sterling, VA. Dramstad, E. W., Olson, D. J. & Forman, T. T. R., 1996. Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning. Island Press. Washington.

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Lerner, J. 2010. How Urban Planning Can improve Public Health. Pacific standard.

Available:http://www.psmag.com/health/how-urban-planning-can-improve-public-health-11408/ (25.05.13) McBride, A. 2013. Community Wisdom+Expert Knowledge=Good Community Design. Citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Institute on Rural Design.

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Ökoloogiliselt jätkusuutliku kujunduse rakendamine Aulla linna näitel, Itaalias Magistritöö Rea Sepping

Kokkuvõte Käesolev töö uurib, kuidas muuta linnu ökoloogiliselt jätkusuutlikuks ja milline on selles maastikuarhitekti roll.

Eesmärgiks on leida sobivaid väljundeid linnade säästlikumaks muutmisel ning selgitada välja tavad ja meetodid, mis on selleks vajalikud. Katsetatakse, kuidas ja millises ulatuses on maastikuarhitektuur ja ökoloogiline jätkusuutlikkus omavahel seotud.

Põhirõhk antud töös on kujundusprojektil, kus eksperimenteeritakse erinevaid ökoloogiliselt jätkusuutlikke meetodeid linnaruumis, Aullas, Itaalias.

Võimalusi, kuidas muuta linnu ökoloogiliselt jätkusuutlikumaks kätkeb endast erilist lähenemist looduskeskkonna ja säästva disaini kohta. Selline käsitlus eeldab terviklikku juhtimist eelkõige valitsuse poolt, koos kõikide planeeringuga seotud osapooltega ja uue mõtteviisiga arvestamist, hõlmates erinevaid aspekte – materjalide taaskasutamine, toidu, vee, jäätmete ja energia säästev majandamine, mis suhestuks looduskeskkonnaga.

Maastikuarhitektidel on selles väga oluline roll, kuna see elukutse hõlmab loodusliku- ja tehiskeskkonna kujundamist inimeste ja bioloogilise mitmekesisuse heaks.

Kui linnakeskkond toob kasu mõlemale, siis on tegemist kooskõlalise ja tervikliku juhtimisega.

Analüüsides mitmeid erinevaid põhimõtteid ja strateegiaid, säästva linnaruumi kujundamise kohta, tuleb välja, et peaaegu kõik rohelise mõtteviisiga seotud käsitlused väljendavad väga sarnaseid nähtusi ning kui neid planeerimisel arvesse võtta, siis on põhjust uskuda, et oleme parema tuleviku poole teel.

Aulla kujundusprojektist järeldub, et igal alal on oma võimalused ja piirangud; paiga vaim, ajalugu, areng, kohalikud ressursid, mis kõik koos loovad ainulaadse keskkonna, mida tuleb kindlustada ja edendada läbi säästva disaini.

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Tänapäeval on palju uuenduslikke lahendusi säästliku linnaruumi kujundamisel, mis arenevad üha edasi ning mille õige haldamise korral annavad positiivseid tulemusi. Kõige olulisem on ehitatud- ja looduskeskkonna tasakaalustamine teineteise suhtes, nende tundlik kasutamine, mis ei avaldaks negatiivseid mõjusid olemasolevatele ressurssidele. Kõike seda saab pakkuda, luues rohekoridore haljastatud tänavate ja aladega, pakkudes inimestele rekreatsioonivõimalusi linnakeskkonnas, integreerides linnaruumi kujundusse taaskasutatavaid materjale, alternatiivseid energia tootmisvõimalusi, vee taaskasutamise juhtimis- ja kuivendussüsteeme, toiduvarude tootmist ja muid lahendusi.

Antud teema on aja jooksul kiiresti arenev, mis tõstatab üha rohkem ehituse elukutsetega seotud inimeste tähelepanu, on hea märk elanikkonnale kui nende linnades hakatakse tõstma elukeskkonna kvaliteeti läbi antud lahenduste. Teema vajab üha rohkem tähelepanu, et ka tavainimesed saaksid teadlikumaks säästva eluviisi olulisuse kohta, neid teadmisi ise kasutada ning luua parem tulevik edasistele põlvkondadele. Maastikuarhitektid võiksid linnades esinevaid probleeme rohkem esile tõsta ja olla innovatiivsed uute ökoloogiliselt säästvate lahenduste leidmisel, et muuta linnakeskkond kvaliteetsemaks.

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