The Role of Vegetation in Climate Adaptability: Case Studies of Lodz and Warsaw

Abstract

<p>The threats that arise from climate change and their associated economic, social, and environmental impacts are leading to the transformation of the spatial structures of cities. The growing demand for climate adaptability calls for the development of normative criteria for the design of forms of urban settings that integrate vegetation. Climate-responsive urban design reacts to the challenges of urban physics, which depend heavily on the forms of urban structures and the role of greenery. This method includes research on vegetation indexes and their impact on urban regulatory functions. The goal is to propose a comprehensive framework for assessing the functioning of urban public space, which considers the role and maintenance of green infrastructure. The intersection with the subject matter of analytical urban morphology is evident, in terms of the resolution of the urban fabric and its transformations over time. The framework of climate-responsive urban design also covers examining the parameters of surrounding built structures, such as the floor area ratio, the building coverage ratio, and building heights. In particular, the requirements of climate adaptation have an impact on the design of outdoor spaces in cities. In this article, we apply the selected methods that contribute to the climate-responsive urban design model to recommend the transformations of two urban nodes, in Lodz and Warsaw (Poland). Our goal is to indicate the future form of nodal public spaces with a focus on the needs of urban greenery, and to determine indicators for the local climate zone. After an initial literature review, we discuss a number of available indicators from the perspective of how they might contribute to determine the environmental conditions. We focus on urban water cycle, the requirement of trees for water, and insolation conditions.</p>

Towards Sustainable Education by Design: Evaluating Pro-Ecological Architectural Solutions in Centers for Environmental Education

“…An additional challenge for CEEs is effectively communicating, through their architectural features, how specific concepts of sustainability work and showcasing their impact. Scientific research in this field has typically focused on fragmented professional and research perspectives to explore how to shape buildings and the built environment to be environmentally friendly (e.g., [62][63][64]), leaving the specific challenges highlighted by CEEs largely unexplored.…”

Understanding and Assessing Climate Change Risk to Green Infrastructure: Experiences from Greater Manchester (UK)

“…Access to water for irrigation purposes can provide resilience to urban vegetation during extended periods of low water availability [64][65][66]. Accordingly, the potential for irrigation opportunities was selected as an adaptive capacity indicator for this study, with groundwater depth information for GM collected from the British Geological Survey [67].…”

Urban Parks Hydrological Regime in the Context of Climate Change—A Case Study of Štěpánka Forest Park (Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic)

“…The importance of urban greenery in mitigating the effects of climate change has been demonstrated in many studies, e.g., [1][2][3][4]. Regarding urban forests in particular, many factors are pertinent.…”