LANDSCAPE & CITY DESIGN

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park , Singapore

Semester LA4, Elective I, L3b

Devaki Amma’s Guruvayurappan College of Architecture, Chelembra
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

Those committed to managing built environments sustainably face significant strategic

planning challenges including public health, water management, housing need and
delivery, economic growth, biodiversity and climate change adaptation.

All too often such problems are diagnosed, managed and delivered within separate
sectoral silos potentially leading to policy inefficiency and disintegration.

Consideration of environmental values and anthropocentric practice is clouded by a

veneer of sustainability rhetoric and a focus on the site scale rather than on the larger,
more important issues impacting local ecosystems.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

Value systems –

Eco-centric values - The eco-centric perspective posits that every species should have an
equal survival opportunity. An estimated 21-36 percent of the world's mammal species,
13 percent of birds, 30-56 percent of amphibians and 30 percent of conifers are
threatened with extinction. The number of threatened species has increased in every
category since 1996.

Fossil records provide us with a normal extinction rate, with the exception of the
few mass extinction events, for the earth's history. Today the species extinction rate
is 600-6,000 times the normal rate indicated by the fossil record. The primary cause
of extinctions and biological diversity (biodiversity) reductions is habitat loss.

Anthropocentric values - The anthropocentric perspective gives humans an elevated

status based on philosophical or religious foundations, or simply through overwhelming
self-interest. It also expresses man's relationship to the environment in terms of
resource management, husbandry of some species or ecosystems instead of others, or
conversion of the natural world for the economic and cultural benefit of humans
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

Responding to the current state of decaying infrastructures and ecological pressures,

new models and practices are now beginning to challenge the existing methods –

• Ecological Engineering: Linear, static, mono-functional methods of engineering

give way to design flexibilities, circular operabilities, interconnections,
interdependencies, and multi-dimensional capabilities towards optimization and
performance.

• De-zoning: Redevelopment and rezoning of land through the layering of land

uses and biophysical systems, generates financial mechanisms necessary to the
reclamation of decaying infrastructure and contaminated land.

• Planning for Failure: Reliant on a culture of contingency and preparedness, risk

forecasting are force generators in the planning of urban regions over successive
generations.

• Regionalization: The watershed region is a hydro physical infrastructure that

provides a strategic, intermediary scale for planning across jurisdictions.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

Ecosystem services and products are provided through green infrastructure to humans. The services flow to human
society only when the viability of the ecosystem is maintained.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

Ecosystem health is related to human health . Human wellbeing

has four aspects, each composed of contributing parts.
Healthy ecosystems sustain human wellbeing in direct and
indirect ways.
An effective green infrastructure is a network of corridors and
spaces assembled from ecocentric, anthropocentric and mixed
components.
The components can be organized to reinforce each other and
lead to land use efficiencies.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
The conversion of existing urban land to higher-density use is the responsible course, despite
the opposition that this strategy will surely generate among business sectors seeking to
develop pristine land to acquire a maximum profit. This approach helps manage growing urban
populations while preserving natural landscapes, reducing urban sprawl, and minimizing the
ecological footprint.

1. Reducing Urban Sprawl

• Urban sprawl—uncontrolled expansion of cities into undeveloped land—often leads
to the destruction of natural habitats and increased car dependency. When we focus
on converting existing urban areas to higher-density use, we make better use of the
land we already have. This approach reduces the need to clear pristine land for
development and helps preserve ecosystems.
2. Environmental Sustainability
• Higher-density urban design tends to have a smaller environmental footprint,
especially when paired with green infrastructure and sustainable building practices.
By building up rather than out, cities can reduce the distance people need to travel,
which lowers greenhouse gas emissions and promotes sustainable public
transportation. Additionally, revitalizing and repurposing existing buildings (e.g.,
adaptive reuse) reduces the energy consumption and resource use that would be
required to demolish older structures and build new ones from scratch.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
3. Preservation of Natural Land
• As urban areas continue to expand, encroaching on natural areas or agricultural land
can lead to habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity. By focusing on infill
development (developing vacant or underused land within a city), cities can protect
open spaces, forests, and agricultural lands, preventing further damage to the
environment.
4. Social and Economic Benefits
• High-density urban development can offer diverse housing options and create
walkable neighbourhoods, making cities more inclusive and accessible. These areas
tend to foster stronger community ties and can promote a higher quality of life due to
proximity to work, schools, parks, and cultural amenities.

 The "Freiburg Model" (Germany): The city encourages high-density, mixed-use

development while preserving green spaces around the city.
 Tokyo, Japan: Tokyo’s urbanization strategy includes developing high-density residential
areas while maintaining significant green spaces and integrating green infrastructure
throughout the city.
 Barcelona, Spain: The “Superblocks” initiative in Barcelona aims to limit car traffic in
certain parts of the city to promote pedestrian spaces and create community-friendly
environments. The city has also focused on converting underused urban spaces into parks
and green zones, increasing density without sprawling outward.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
However, it’s also true that business sectors This image illustrates the loss of forest habitat and
often push for development of pristine land connectivity due to fragmentation by roads, reduction of
for various reasons, including: habitat due to exurban housing development and
• Profit Motive: Undeveloped land may be complete loss of ecosystem values due to low-density
cheaper to acquire, and developers often suburban development.
seek to build new commercial or
residential properties with higher profit
margins.
• Lower Regulations: Greenfield
development (developing on undeveloped
land) can sometimes face fewer zoning or
regulatory hurdles compared to
redeveloping urban areas, which may
require navigating complex existing
infrastructure and older buildings.
Development of greenfield sites (agriculture, forest or habitat areas) may be required to
accommodate population growth, but it should be permitted only after infill, redevelopment
and brownfield options are exhausted. Furthermore, identification of marginal forestland, poor
agricultural soils and areas of low biodiversity as suitable places for urban development would
minimize the adverse impact of urban development.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Since urban development fragments habitat and creates a hostile environment between the
remnant patches, movement of individuals and populations of species becomes difficult, even
impossible and fatal. Movement through corridors between habitat patches is necessary for
organisms to acquire food, disperse offspring, assure genetic diversity and adapt to natural
perturbations.

The use of corridors is a very common pattern in undisturbed natural areas, where organisms
use them to move within their home range or between habitats as they search for food.
Evident even in birds, this instinctive activity is thought to reduce competition between
groups. The need for an ecological corridor is greater if the urban matrix is hostile. If the area
an organism needs to cross is in great contrast to its habitat, then the corridor is more
valuable. In order to reduce predation, or other danger, organisms tend to cross more quickly
when crossing a hostile matrix than when moving through a corridor. Similarly, the time spent
moving through corridors of low quality is shorter than the movement time through high-
quality corridors.
URBAN WATERSHED

A watershed has three primary functions.

• First, it captures water from the atmosphere. The water infiltrates the soil and
percolates downward. Several factors affect the infiltration rate, including soil type,
topography, climate, and vegetative cover. Percolation is also aided by the activity of
burrowing animals, insects, and earthworms.

• Second, a watershed stores rainwater once it filters through the soil. Once the
watershed's soils are saturated, water will either percolate deeper, or runoff the
surface. This can result in freshwater aquifers and springs. The type and amount of
vegetation, and the plant community structure, can greatly affect the storage capacity
in any one watershed. The root mass associated with healthy vegetative cover keeps
soil more permeable and allows the moisture to percolate deep into the soil for
storage.

• Finally, water moves through the soil to seeps and springs, and is ultimately released
into streams, rivers, and the ocean. Slow release rates are preferable to rapid release
rates, which result in short and severe peaks instream flow. Storm events which
generate large amounts of run-off can lead to flooding, soil erosion and siltation of
streams.
URBAN WATERSHED

An urban creek may experience many things on it's journey from its headwaters in the upper watershed to it's mouth
at the confluence of a larger creek, stream, or river. It may pass through a park or residential area in one reach, then
flow past a shopping mall or industrial park the next. In a small, steep, wooded canyon behind a residential area, it
may become a convenient place to dump grass clippings or garbage. It may pass through vacant lots, becoming lost
among the discarded appliances, shopping carts, and tires. It may follow-through an over-fertilized golf course. It may
flow for long distances inside a culvert under ground. It may receive stormwater run-off from oily roads, parking lots,
and factory drainage ditches. Uninformed neighbours may even dump used motor oil or antifreeze into storm drains
that empty directly into the stream.
URBAN WATERSHED
In urban areas, on the other hand, large expanses of roads, parking lots, and roofs of buildings
replace the forest and organic soils. These impervious surfaces do not allow water to soak into the
ground. Consequently, infiltration in urban areas accounts for only 5 to 35% of rainfall.
Evapotranspiration is also substantially reduced, to 20-35%, due to a lack of vegetation. Therefore,
30% to 70% of rainfall in urbanized watersheds runs off almost immediately into storm drains and
subsequently into natural water bodies.
Increased runoff creates a number of problems:
• When water flows over urban impervious surfaces, it picks up pollutants such as oil, gasoline,
cigarette butts, fertilizers, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. As there is little vegetation, these
substances are usually not filtered before being washed into water bodies where they can
seriously harm aquatic organisms .
• The volume of water flowing off urban areas is much greater compared to natural areas. The
great energy in these torrents of water can cause erosion, which destroys stream channels and
banks, wildlife habitat and adjacent property.
• Erosion caused by the large water volumes also deposits sediment in low-energy downstream
areas such as at the mouths of rivers. This can smother bottom-dwelling plants and animals as
well as destroy fish spawning and bird feeding habitat.
• Water flows in urbanized watersheds are significantly altered compared to natural flows. For
example, very little water is stored in watersheds with large areas of impervious surfaces; this
results in large peaks in stream flows immediately after a rainstorm, followed by very low flows
soon after. These extreme conditions are inhospitable for most fish and aquatic invertebrates.
Dams, dykes and water retaining walls also alter flows.
URBAN WATERSHED
Nonpoint source pollution poses a serious threat to the health of urban watersheds. It results from an
accumulation of many small actions, and, although the individual impacts may seem minor, the
combined cumulative effects are significant.
The most effective control measures to address residential nonpoint source pollution include:
• public education
• use of vegetated swales and wetlands for contaminate filtration before runoff enters receiving
streams
• sediment traps in urban stormwater systems
• stormwater retention (e.g. detached downspouts)
• landscape design for erosion control
• reduction in use of household chemicals
• recycling and proper disposal of household chemicals
• proper maintenance of on site septic systems to reduce nutrient loading
• combined sewer overflow management
• vegetative planting and riparian enhancement of neighbourhood streams
• frequent street sweeping and use of vacuum sweepers to reduce suspended solid loading and
decrease heavy metals and phosphorus contamination to receiving streams
• limited development on steep slopes
• limited amount of impervious surface
• increased use of cluster developments
• utilization of erosion control ordinances, especially on construction sites
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

A depression that temporarily holds the stormwater on-site is called a detention basin or
dry pond. The use of detention basins protects the natural aquatic system from excessive
volume and velocity, but it doesn't improve water quality much.

Furthermore, detention basins offer few secondary benefits to a green infrastructure

since they are often deep, include steep slopes, often require fencing to protect the
public from the drowning hazard and are often made of concrete

Detention basins are designed to

control runoff rate only. Their
single purpose fails to contribute
significantly to a green
infrastructure network.
 STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

Constructed wetlands for stormwater runoff treatment

Urban runoff can be effectively treated by shallow marsh wetlands (free water surface,
FWS wetlands). It is correct to think of FWS wetlands as treating batches (the design
storm volume) of water. One batch remains in the wetland after the storm ends and
receives extensive treatment. The inflow from a new storm displaces the batch in the
wetland. The best water-quality performance will result from sizing the FWS wetland to
contain the volume of more than one design storm.

The Wilmington wetland treats stormwater

from a suburban watershed and
dramatically improves the water quality of
the receiving stream. It also provides
recreation and habitat benefits to the
community.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

The Wilmington wetland removed more than 90 percent of the ammonium and
orthophosphate, and 89 percent of the total phosphorus. Nitrate removal was very high,
especially in the warmer months. It is important to remove nitrate from stormwater since
it is toxic to aquatic organisms, causes algae blooms in lakes and the
ocean and is a human health risk in drinking water.

The excellent performance of this stormwater wetland is the result of several design
factors.
• The two six-foot deep forebays visible are necessary to allow sediment to settle from
the two stormwater inflow points.
• The stormwater must be evenly distributed across the wetland. At Wilmington this is
done with notched weirs at the outlet of each sedimentation basin and along a third
weir that crosses the entire wetland.
• Dense vegetation is a critical feature of a stormwater wetland. The storm flow must be
shallow and move slowly through the wetland to receive maximum contact with the
stems of the wetland plants and bottom sediment. The microorganisms and bacteria
establish an ecosystem that utilizes the organic material, ammonium, nitrates,
phosphorus and even complex and toxic organic compounds such as petroleum
hydrocarbons.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

• The wetland should be constructed with a flat or minimal slope (0.5-1 percent).
• The water depth should vary from 6 inches to 18 inches deep for the water quality
storm. Sometimes deeper (4 feet) trenches are placed across the flow path to
encourage mixing and redistribution of water, and to provide cooler water for fish
habitat.

Bioretention basins - An alternative to a stormwater wetland is a bioretention basin (rain

garden, infiltration basin). The stormwater flows into a forebay and then into a shallow
basin, just as with the stormwater wetland. However, the bioretention basin holds only 6-
12 inches of water that completely drains away within 24 to 48 hours . It is used for
reducing runoff rate, delay time of concentration (peak runoff), recharging groundwater,
improving base flow and preventing sedimentation.
• The failure of bioretention basins is most often due to construction errors and
clogging of the filter media. Therefore, a sedimentation basin, swale or tank is
recommended to remove as much sediment and suspended organic material as
possible before water flows into the basin. It is recommended that the sedimentation
pool and the temporary pool above the bioretention basin are sized to contain 70-75
percent of the water quality storm volume.
• A vegetated filter strip should attenuate any overland flow into a detention basin.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

The Mount Tabor Middle School Rain Garden is regarded as one of Portland’s most
successful examples of sustainable stormwater management. This project transformed
an underutilized asphalt parking area into an innovative rain garden that melds the
concepts of art, education, and ecological function
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

• Approximately 30,000 square feet of impervious area runoff generated by the school’s
asphalt play area, parking lot, and rooftops, is elegantly captured and conveyed into
the rain garden via a series of trench drains and concrete runnels.
• Once inside the landscape space, the water is allowed to interact with both plants and
soil while soaking into the ground. Depending on how intense a particular storm event
is, runoff will rise within the rain garden until it has reached the 8-inch design depth.
• Once exceeding capacity, the water exits the landscape system and enters the
combined sewer system. The rain garden’s infiltration rate varies from 2-4 inches per
hour.

Design of a 2-foot wide pea gravel “corridor” that visually

connects the rain garden from end to end. Not only does this
prominent design feature allow the visitor to observe
stormwater cascading into the rain garden from multiple
directions, but it also serves as a pathway for maintenance
crews to access the rain garden without disturbing the
plantings or soil structure.
REFERENCES

BOOKS

1. PLANNING AND URBAN DESIGN STANDARDS - Frederick Steiner, Kent Butler; University of Texas at Austin
American Planning Association; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

2. THE ART OF BUILDING A GARDEN CITY - Designing new communities for the 21st Century; Kate Henderson,
Katy Lock, Hugh Ellis - RIBA Publishing

3. Green Infrastructure for Landscape Planning - Integrating human and natural systems; Gary Austin ;
Routledge , Taylor & Francis Group

PAPERS & ARTICLES

1. https://www.asla.org/awards/2007/07winners/517_nna.html
2. New Street Design Guide for Oxfordshire: a step towards more sustainable travel
(headingtonliveablestreets.org.uk)
3. https://wecareearth.com/sustainable-living/green-city-freiburg-germany/
4. https://greencity.freiburg.de/pb/elements.html
5. https://urbangreenbluegrids.com/projects/hammarby-sjostad-stockholm-sweden/