A Study on the Structure Style of Street Green Spaces on Port Island, Kobe, Japan

Abstract

This study was carried out to provide examples of planting methods for the construction of street green spaces with abundant greenery by analyzing road type, surrounding land use and planting structures in street green spaces on Port Island, Kobe, Japan. Port Island_(total area: 826ha) is a marine cultural city located in Japan's first artificial island with facilities of urban function and port facilities. The study site was designated at 11 plots of 55~285m 2 on Port Island, and topography structure styles were divided into four types with mounding style, slope style, slope and flat style, flat style according to the adjacent roads width. The area adjacent to the middle roads with high levels of noise and pollution set up the mounding style, slope style, slope and flat style of multi-layer structures using topographic properties. The area adjacent to small roads focused on a green strip with shrubs on a flat style. Surrounding land-uses include a public institution, housing complex, and a commercial building. The planting concept was a buffer and landspace function in case of the middle road_(lane 4) while the small road_(lane 2) was a landspace function. Planting species were diverse with Liquidambe formosana, Cinnamomum camphora, Sapium sebiferum, Cedrela sinensis, Laeocarpus sylvestris var. ellipticus, Ginkgo biloba, Prunus serrulata var. spontanea, Zelkova serrata, Quercus glauca, Juniperus chinensis, Magnolia kobus, Rhododendron spp., Camellia japonica, Abelia mosanensis, etc. Planting density was 0.02~0.08(0.04) individual/m 2 at the canopy layer, 0.02~0.08(0.04) individual/m 2 at the understory layer. Ratio of green coverage was 40.0~173.7(93.0)% at the canopy layer, 2.1~79.8(34.9)% at the understory layer and 17.9~64.2(32.9)% at the shrub layer. Grüvolumenzahl was 1.43~6.67(4.13)m /m 2 at the shrub layer. The ratio of green coverage of street green space on Port Island was higher than that of Seoul, and particularly, the ratio of green coverage and grüvolumenzahl at the shrub layer differed, compared to the main street green space in Korea. The result of this study may be applicable to other coastal reclaimed cities in terms of setting methods for street greenery considering