Thesis (M.S.)--North Carolina State University, 2003. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Mar. 26, 2005). Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The main goal of my work was to determine knowledge of the Třeboň Region as a unique nature area not only for the Czech Republic but also for all of Europe, knowledge and use of educational trails, the spa function of the town and knowledge of the Třeboň Region in general.

Santiago is the 7th largest major city of Latin America with almost 8 million inhabitants and is situated in a fairly closed watershed, surrounded on the eastern side by the high Andean mountain chain with altitudes of 5,000 m. From the Andean mountains, the Mapocho River and a set of large and small streams transport -often torrentially- water and sediment. In thirty years, Santiago has increased its size two fold, replacing previous agricultural lands, native forests and shrubs with urban land uses, and occupying rivers beds and streams. These land use and cover changes have had dramatic environmental consequences. The mentioned urban dynamic has produced a city in constant collision with the natural system. This structural disarticulation produces many environmental problems such as an increase in city’s surface and air temperatures, an accelerated disappearance of vegetation, a major interruption in wind, sediment and water flows, and finally, increasing people’s exposure to environmental hazards. Since streams, canals and rivers are structural components of Santiago’s landscape, they can function as key links between the urban-social and natural system and provide multiple ecosystem services, helping to reduce environmental problems and ensure long-term urban sustainability. Traditionally, the analysis of river and streamsides has been focused on rural and natural landscapes as well as on environmental protection and nature conservation. Nowadays, there is an increasing interest and necessity to understand the environmental status, functions and possibilities of riparian zones in urban environments in order to delineate and plan greenways, which provide social and ecological benefits. Green infrastructure such as urban greenways is a key component of sustainable cities. Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the socio-ecological status of urban riparian zones and even fewer to assess these areas in terms of their potential as multifunctional greenways. New efforts should be conducted to develop analytical application-oriented frameworks in the green infrastructure field. This research elaborates and proposes a transferable conceptual-methodological framework for evaluating the potential for multifunctional riparian greenway development. An analytical application-oriented framework to assess the potential for multifunctional green infrastructure development is proposed by articulating and improving three analyses hitherto used separately: multicriteria, least cost path and opportunities-challenges. The Mapocho River was selected for the application and testing of the proposed conceptual-methodological framework to contribute to multifunctional green infrastructure planning in Santiago as a city representative of the structure and processes of megacities in Latin America. First, the main ecological and social characteristics of the Mapocho’s riparian zone are analyzed, making a synthesis of the socio-ecological status. Second, the suitability to provide multiple ecosystem services of the riparian zone is spatially explicitly modelled, first separately, as mono-functional suitability, and then, integrated into a multifunctional suitability evaluation. Third, the opportunities and challenges perceived by government actors are identified and analyzed as well as those derived from an institutional and regulatory analysis. Finally, the assessment phase concludes with a discussion on the main potential for the development of a greenway, resulting from the synthesis and integration of the most relevant findings of the suitability and opportunities analysis The socio-ecological status of the riparian zones is characterized by being highly altered in ecological terms, diverse in social terms, and highly used by the metropolitan transport infrastructure with a concentration of green areas in a few municipalities. This means that the riparian zone provides limited physical support for important social and ecological functions characteristic of these zones in urban environments: habitat, aesthetic, cooling, transport route and flood mitigation. The results reveal a significant east-west gradient in the socio-ecological status of riparian zone, which gradually decreases from east to west. The riparian zone of the Mapocho River in Santiago has good suitability as a wind corridor, providing a cooling effect and to mitigate flood hazards. The main challenges for the development of a multifunctional urban greenway in the Mapocho River corresponds to low levels of inter-jurisdictional and inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation, maintenance costs and the existence of urban highways in the zone. On the contrary, the main opportunities are the existence of important sectors of vacant land, increased political and social importance of urban green areas and the existence of a set of consolidated riparian parks. In synthesis, the assessment developed in the Mapocho River identifies the most important aspects to be considered and the greatest potentialities to capitalize in planning a multifunctional greenway along the Mapocho River. This is key when thinking about a possible master plan for the Mapocho River that returns the river to the city and values it as an axis for urban integration. The development of a multifunctional greenway in Santiago can considerably contribute to the social and ecological connectivity and thereby mitigate the socio-ecological segregation and disconnection characteristic of cities in the region. It may also contribute significantly to reconcile urban growth with ecological health and people’s quality of life, maintaining functions and key ecosystem services and mitigating the negative effects of urbanization.

A partir da segunda metade da década de 2000, novas variáveis, de cunho ambiental, foram introduzidas nas políticas públicas que tratam da relação entre rios, várzeas e áreas urbanas na Cidade de São Paulo, resultando em uma mudança significativa na forma de entender a urbanificação dessas áreas, tanto em âmbito municipal quanto estadual. O objetivo desta tese é analisar o andamento dessas novas políticas públicas, em suas diversas escalas, dos planos aos projetos urbanos, observando as restrições e potencialidades que se apresentam ao seu desenvolvimento. É possível observar, a partir dos estudos realizados, que apesar de a abrangência das intervenções ainda ser pequena, há avanços nas políticas, o que indica que a relação estabelecida com o sistema hídrico no século passado está em processo de transformação. Contudo, permanece o caráter setorial das intervenções, resultando em ações muitas vezes incompletas, que respondem parcialmente às demandas sociais, ambientais e urbanas. Como resposta às questões colocadas pela análise, a tese sugere alguns parâmetros para o planejamento, implantação e gestão de caminhos verdes, parques lineares, ou outros espaços livres públicos em fundos de vale. / After the middle of 2000 decade a number of new environmental variables were brought into the public policies debate around rivers, riverbanks and the management of urban areas in the city of Sao Paulo. This has had a profound impact on how urbanization is perceived both at municipal and state levels. This doctorate thesis\' objective is to review the development of such policies at its multiple levels, as well as its plans and development programmes with special attention to the opportunities and shortcomings its implementation may bring. Results show that even though the scope of interventions is still narrow, there has been improvements in the way these public policies are made, which suggests a trend in the way water has been historically managed for the last century. Nevertheless, the silo approach to water management resources is still prevelent, which leads to insufficient responses to the social and environmental needs of urban development initiatives. In response to the challenge posed by this research, the thesis recommends a set of parameters for the planning, implementation and management of greenways and other public spaces on the urban river corridors.

The north shore of the North Arm of the Fraser River represents the Southern boundary of the City of Vancouver. This boundary has been crucial to the development of Vancouver as a city that strives on natural resource processing and shipping. This industrial heritage along the North Fraser has provided Vancouver with a substantial portion of its revenue and tax base since the 1800's, but is currently under threat by land developers and residential pressures. With this development pressure comes the increased lure of immediate revenue, increased public use of the waterfront, and an increase in market housing within the city limits. However, this pressure will also result in a loss of economic sustainability and long-term revenue dollars. This is a trend that is occurring throughout the lower mainland, encouraging a commuter environment and a dissociation between place of work and place of residence. This thesis seeks to combat this issue and will illustrate that it is not only desirable, but necessary to sustain urban resource-based industry along the North Fraser. Through the implementation of a Greenway design, the thesis will prove that the portion of the North Fraser that lies between the Knight Street Bridge and the Oak Street Bridge can retain its industrial character, while becoming more inclusive of the cultural/social needs of a growing population and recognizing environmental concerns. The implementation of a public recreational Greenway will enhance the quality of the area, thereby drawing users both within and beyond the surrounding community to take advantage of a great resource that is often forgotten or hidden by intensive industrial frontage. At the same time, the Greenway will provide opportunities for education and awareness that will highlight the values and benefits of an industrial infrastructure along the North Fraser. Finally, the thesis will prove that such an endeavour is not only sustainable in a cultural and economic sense, but that a Greenway has the capacity to provide a rehabilitated ecological condition that will sustain a valuable and fragile ecosystem.

A partir da segunda metade da década de 2000, novas variáveis, de cunho ambiental, foram introduzidas nas políticas públicas que tratam da relação entre rios, várzeas e áreas urbanas na Cidade de São Paulo, resultando em uma mudança significativa na forma de entender a urbanificação dessas áreas, tanto em âmbito municipal quanto estadual. O objetivo desta tese é analisar o andamento dessas novas políticas públicas, em suas diversas escalas, dos planos aos projetos urbanos, observando as restrições e potencialidades que se apresentam ao seu desenvolvimento. É possível observar, a partir dos estudos realizados, que apesar de a abrangência das intervenções ainda ser pequena, há avanços nas políticas, o que indica que a relação estabelecida com o sistema hídrico no século passado está em processo de transformação. Contudo, permanece o caráter setorial das intervenções, resultando em ações muitas vezes incompletas, que respondem parcialmente às demandas sociais, ambientais e urbanas. Como resposta às questões colocadas pela análise, a tese sugere alguns parâmetros para o planejamento, implantação e gestão de caminhos verdes, parques lineares, ou outros espaços livres públicos em fundos de vale. / After the middle of 2000 decade a number of new environmental variables were brought into the public policies debate around rivers, riverbanks and the management of urban areas in the city of Sao Paulo. This has had a profound impact on how urbanization is perceived both at municipal and state levels. This doctorate thesis\' objective is to review the development of such policies at its multiple levels, as well as its plans and development programmes with special attention to the opportunities and shortcomings its implementation may bring. Results show that even though the scope of interventions is still narrow, there has been improvements in the way these public policies are made, which suggests a trend in the way water has been historically managed for the last century. Nevertheless, the silo approach to water management resources is still prevelent, which leads to insufficient responses to the social and environmental needs of urban development initiatives. In response to the challenge posed by this research, the thesis recommends a set of parameters for the planning, implementation and management of greenways and other public spaces on the urban river corridors.

The north shore of the North Arm of the Fraser River represents the Southern boundary of the City of Vancouver. This boundary has been crucial to the development of Vancouver as a city that strives on natural resource processing and shipping. This industrial heritage along the North Fraser has provided Vancouver with a substantial portion of its revenue and tax base since the 1800's, but is currently under threat by land developers and residential pressures. With this development pressure comes the increased lure of immediate revenue, increased public use of the waterfront, and an increase in market housing within the city limits. However, this pressure will also result in a loss of economic sustainability and long-term revenue dollars. This is a trend that is occurring throughout the lower mainland, encouraging a commuter environment and a dissociation between place of work and place of residence. This thesis seeks to combat this issue and will illustrate that it is not only desirable, but necessary to sustain urban resource-based industry along the North Fraser. Through the implementation of a Greenway design, the thesis will prove that the portion of the North Fraser that lies between the Knight Street Bridge and the Oak Street Bridge can retain its industrial character, while becoming more inclusive of the cultural/social needs of a growing population and recognizing environmental concerns. The implementation of a public recreational Greenway will enhance the quality of the area, thereby drawing users both within and beyond the surrounding community to take advantage of a great resource that is often forgotten or hidden by intensive industrial frontage. At the same time, the Greenway will provide opportunities for education and awareness that will highlight the values and benefits of an industrial infrastructure along the North Fraser. Finally, the thesis will prove that such an endeavour is not only sustainable in a cultural and economic sense, but that a Greenway has the capacity to provide a rehabilitated ecological condition that will sustain a valuable and fragile ecosystem. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate