Many downtowns in North America have been severed from the rest of the city and from the contextual relationship to their surroundings. Sundered from their context, the ecological characteristics of a site are frequently taken for granted, and the disengagement of its public spaces erodes the downtown's character as well as the urban fabric. Downtown Clearwater has lost the vitality and vibrancy that once characterized it as a lively district. Because of recent developments in the downtown area, public spaces have been lost between parking lots, high rises and a small number of sporadic residential pockets. Some of the most important streets fail to create connections for the pedestrians to the surrounding public spaces and areas of interest; as a result some local businesses have dried up, affecting Downtown Clearwater's economy and its community. There is also a disconnection of the downtown with its context and it is evident that some of the major ecological and environmental characteristics of the site have been ignored through its development. This thesis studies how the ecological characteristics of a site can be integrated into the core of its design and experience. The Thesis proposes to revitalize Downtown Clearwater with a new system of green corridors that will promote activity and circulation. The corridors will define a new invigorating framework of points of interest supported by surrounding land uses. The main objectives of the project are to create a new urban destination, enhance the pedestrian experience, reconnect public spaces, cleanup water runoff and organize circulation of bicycles and pedestrians.The thesis emphasizes the design and development of a specific node and section of the green corridor system to explain the design.

Everyone wants to live in a healthy environment, an idea that has always been closely associated with the healthy landscape. Pretoria CBD is no longer a place that offers such a landscape; it is congested, fragmented and placeless. People move far and wide to get away from its hostile environments, chasing after the high gloss images of nature displayed on the billboards and posters of suburbia. They race to find a patch of land within the security complexes and estates of the east, all the while being savagely pursued by the evils of urban sprawl and decentralization. Surely there must be a way of addressing mans need and desire for landscape without perpetuating urban problems and destroying the very nature they strive for? In order to ensure a sustainable future for Pretoria needs to investigate new ways to deal with the urban problems of sprawl and decay. This thesis explores the potential of using landscape as the basis with which one can reorder and reconstruct the urban form in a way that will offer people the ideals they search within a sustainable urban environment. The investigation starts at a regional scale in order to holistically address urban issues and identify opportunities and then works its way across a range of scales down to detail design and place making. It looks new methods of constructing contemporary landscapes not by mere superimposition but by working with the current and historic urban fabric as well as the social, historical and environmental processes that have shaped it over time. It looks to the far from idyllic, yet brutally honest, post-industrial landscape of Pretoria West to construct hybrid landscapes. Arguing that if one were to genuinely offer people a healthy landscape, one they can experience and relate to, the might actually want to live in the city, in return awakening spontaneous urban renewal. / Dissertation (ML(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

Notre recherche interroge la portée de la nouvelle politique environnementale de la capitale chinoise, dont la mise en oeuvre a été précipitée dans le cadre de l'accueil des Jeux Olympiques.Si la trame urbaine de Pékin était encore il y a peu l'un des derniers héritages des préceptes traditionnels d'aménagement de l'espace chinois entre "montagne et eau" et se référant au “souffle - qi”, qui anime toute chose et tout être dans la cosmogonie chinoise et qui est à la base de l'implantation de la ville sur son site, les politiques urbaines menées au cours du XXe siècle ont détruit en grande partie cet héritage.La prise de conscience environnementale amorcée dans les années 90 a généré une nouvelle approche au territoire qui s'est accélérée en 2001 dans l'optique de l'accueil des green Olympic Games en 2008. La reforestation de la capitale chinoise a alors été considérée à toutes les échelles, de celle du pays à celle de la rue.A l'échelle de son territoire périurbain, Pékin s'est dotée de deux ceintures vertes. Pour autant, le gouvernement municipal a choisi la voie de l'originalité en planifiant des "ceintures vertes habitées", à 50%pour la première et à 30% pour la seconde. A l'échelle de sa zone urbaine, la municipalité a mis en place de nouvelles promenades paysagères qui s'étirent le long des routes et des canaux et qui font apparaitre une nouvelle typologie d'espaces publics qui trouve son origine dans la réhabilitation de l'axe historique nord-sud et qui a permis outre la réhabilitation de l'histoire ancienne, celle de la réhabilitation du paysage ancien.Des ceintures vertes aux coulées vertes, la qualité de vie est sans nul doute améliorée à Pékin. Ce souffle vert est-il pour autant porteur d'une nouvelle identité urbaine? Attendons encore pour voir. Pékin 2050. Alors ce souffle vert? / Our research examines the scope of the new environmental policy for the Chinese capital, whoseimplementation was precipitated by the hosting of the Olympic Games.If the Beijing urban fabric was one of the last vestiges of the traditional Chinese precepts of spatialplanning between "mountain and water" and referring to "breath – qi" that animates all things and allbeings in the Chinese cosmogony, and that is the basis of the establishment of the city on its site, theurban policies implemented during the twentieth century have destroyed much of this heritage. Theenvironmental awareness that emerged in the 90s has generated a new approach to the territory, whichwas expedited in 2001 in view of hosting the green Olympic Games in 2008. The reforestation of theChinese capital was then considered at all scales, from that of the country to that of the street.At the scale of its periurban area, Beijing has built two green belts. However, the municipal governmenthas chosen an original approach by planning two "inhabited green belts ", 50% for the first and 30% for thesecond. At the scale of its urban area, the municipality set up new scenic walks along roads and canals,revealing a new typology of public spaces that finds its origin in the rehabilitation project of the historicnorth-south axis and that has also allowed the rehabilitation of ancient history and of the ancientlandscape.From green belts to green corridors, the quality of life is undoubtedly better in Beijing. Has, however, thisnew breath of green created a new urban identity? Let's wait and see. Beijing 2050. So, what about this new breath of green?

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Die Analyse von ländlichen Projekten erfordert exakte sozioökonomische und agroökologische Studien auf lokaler Ebene über große Räume. In dieser Studie wird eine Methodologie für die Analyse von Bodennutzungssystemen mit GIS entwickelt. Das empirische Modell charakterisiert die ländliche Bodennutzung einer Neuansiedlung im Tropenwald von Misiones, Argentinien. Das Modell verbindet mit Hilfe von GIS Informationen der Landnutzung, die aus der Satellitenbildklassifizierung extrahiert wurden, mit einzelbetrieblichen Informationen, die von offiziellen Daten und Befragungen abgeleitet wurden. Die Analyse schließt ein die Bewertung alternativer Produktionsverfahren und Wirtschaftsweisen in ihrem räumlichen und zeitlichen Bezug. Es werden Szenarien auf der Basis parametrischer Variationen entwickelt und bewertet. Die Aussagegenauigkeit und Überprüfbarkeit der Modellergebnisse wurden durch Befragungen vor Ort und Betriebsbesichtigungen getestet. Ein weiteres Szenario, definiert auf der Basis des Projektes "Grüner Korridor" wurde sozioökonomisch und ökologisch evaluiert. Die Modellierung mit GIS produziert genaue und plausible Daten der Landnutzung auf lokaler und auf regionaler Ebene und sind geeignet für Entscheidungsfindungen auf den verschiedenen Ebenen der ländlichen Entwicklungsplanung. / The analysis of rural projects requires precise socio-economic and agro-ecological investigations on a local level over extended areas. The present study develops a methodology for the analysis of agricultural systems with GIS. The empirical model characterises rural land use of a new settlement in the tropical forest of Misiones, Argentine. The model combines the GIS information on land use, extracted from remote sensing, with farming data, derived from official statistics and participatory surveys. The analysis of the agricultural system incorporates the local variations of production and capital management in space and time. On the basis of parametric variation of the model, scenarios are defined and evaluated. Precision and plausibility of the land use assessment were validated through farm visits and interviews of the farmers. A new scenario, defined on the basis of the project "Green Corridor of Misiones" was evaluated in socio-economic and ecological terms. The modelling of land use with GIS produces precise and plausible analysis results on a local and regional scale which turns out to be useful for decision-making on the different planning levels of rural development.