abstract: The combination of rapid urban growth and climate change places stringent constraints on multisector sustainability of cities. Green infrastructure provides a great potential for mitigating anthropogenic-induced urban environmental problems; nevertheless, studies at city and regional scales are inhibited by the deficiency in modelling the complex transport coupled water and energy inside urban canopies. This dissertation is devoted to incorporating hydrological processes and urban green infrastructure into an integrated atmosphere-urban modelling system, with the goal to improve the reliability and predictability of existing numerical tools. Based on the enhanced numerical tool, the effects of urban green infrastructure on environmental sustainability of cities are examined. Findings indicate that the deployment of green roofs will cool the urban environment in daytime and warm it at night, via evapotranspiration and soil insulation. At the annual scale, green roofs are effective in decreasing building energy demands for both summer cooling and winter heating. For cities in arid and semiarid environments, an optimal trade-off between water and energy resources can be achieved via innovative design of smart urban irrigation schemes, enabled by meticulous analysis of the water-energy nexus. Using water-saving plants alleviates water shortage induced by population growth, but comes at the price of an exacerbated urban thermal environment. Realizing the potential water buffering capacity of urban green infrastructure is crucial for the long-term water sustainability and subsequently multisector sustainability of cities. Environmental performance of urban green infrastructure is determined by land-atmosphere interactions, geographic and meteorological conditions, and hence it is recommended that analysis should be conducted on a city-by-city basis before actual implementation of green infrastructure. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil and Environmental Engineering 2016

Esta pesquisa propõe uma contribuição metodológica para avaliação de impactos ambientais, produzidos na implantação de empreendimentos habitacionais sobre áreas verdes urbanas. O modelo de política habitacional brasileira, nas últimas décadas, não conseguiu evitar o crescimento das cidades sobre as áreas verdes urbanas. Essas áreas, muitas vezes, são ecossistemas frágeis que promovem benefícios ao ser humano, exercendo um papel fundamental na preservação das cidades e no bem-estar urbano. A pressão da urbanização provoca impactos sobre as áreas verdes. Nesta pesquisa, é proposta uma metodologia que utiliza, como base, a matriz de Leopold, uma das ferramentas mais usuais na avaliação de impactos. Essa matriz é uma lista bidimensional, em que um eixo é composto por ações realizadas pelo homem na implantação do projeto, e outro eixo por componentes ambientais selecionados. Na construção da matriz, são considerados aspectos ambientais, socioeconômicos e da área ambiente-comportamento. As interações resultantes dessa matriz são mensuradas com base em critérios e atributos com valores atribuídos e hierarquizados. Nesta pesquisa, o processo de avaliação proposto é detalhadamente explicado, desde o início até o resultado final. A metodologia proposta é aplicada em dois empreendimentos habitacionais, do tipo loteamento, no município de Cachoeirinha, como estudo de caso. O objetivo é propor um método de avaliação de impactos decorrentes da implantação de empreendimentos habitacionais sobre áreas verdes urbanas. A pesquisa foi dividida em três etapas: a primeira, de cunho exploratório, analisa a implementação de empreendimentos habitacionais pelo programa Minha Casa Minha Vida, na Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre. Na segunda etapa, é descrita a metodologia proposta a partir da matriz de Leopold e, na terceira etapa, o método proposto é aplicado parcialmente aos empreendimentos do estudo de caso. Através da proposta do método de avaliação de impacto de empreendimentos habitacionais sobre as áreas verdes urbanas, a pesquisa busca contribuir para a replicação desse tipo de avaliação e, assim, incentivar a preservação ambiental. / This research proposes a methodological contribution for environmental impact evaluation of housing developments over urban green areas. The Brazilian housing public policy in the last decades did not avoid the cities growth over urban green areas. These areas are often fragile ecosystems that promote benefits for the people, playing an important role in the preservation of cities and urban wellness. The urbanization’s pressure over green areas has impacts. This research proposes a methodology based on Leopold’s matrix, one of the most used tools for impact evaluation. This matrix is a bidimensional list, with one axis composed by human actions during the implementation of the project and in the other by selected environmental components. In the matrix construction, environmental, social-economic and environmental behavior aspects are considered. The resulting interactions of this matrix are measured based in attributes and criteria with values attributed and ranked. In this research, the proposed evaluation process is explained in detail from its conception to the results. The proposed methodology is applied in two housing developments in the city of Cachoeirinha as a case study. The goal of this research is to propose an evaluation method for the impacts of housing developments over urban green areas. The research has three steps: the first was more exploratory, analyzing the implementation of housing developments by the “Minha Casa Minha Vida” program in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre. The second describes the methodology, based on Leopold’s matrix, and the third partially applies the proposed method to the case study developments. Through the proposal of the impact evaluation method for the housing developments over urban green areas, this research aims to contribute to the reapplication of this kind of analysis and therefore, encourage environmental preservation.

Por suas dinâmicas sociais e territoriais complexas, as metrópoles estão sujeitas aos graves impactos causados por eventos climáticos extremos, reais ou esperados. Organismos internacionais multilaterais e extensa literatura acadêmica avalizam a importância do papel dos ecossistemas para a redução dos riscos e na mitigação das consequências dos desastres ambientais, tanto em áreas rurais como urbanas. Propõe-se a valoração das áreas verdes livres e dos parques urbanos como recurso que integre estratégias para o desenvolvimento da qualidade ambiental das cidades através dos serviços ecossistêmicos derivados da cobertura arbórea local, divisando-se a manutenção da saúde pública em um meio ambientalmente equilibrado. Foi aplicada ferramenta tecnológica representada pelo software i-Tree como método empregado para a identificação, quantificação e estimativas de valoração econômica dos serviços ecossistêmicos prestados pelas árvores contidas no Parque Ibirapuera, em São Paulo, que serviu como referência. É discutida a significância da inserção dos princípios e objetivos do instrumento do Pagamento por Serviços Ecossistêmicos no planejamento, ordenamento e gestão urbanos, integrando-o a políticas de melhoria da saúde ambiental nas cidades. / For their complex social and territorial dynamics, the cities are subject to the severe impacts of extreme weather events, actual or expected. Multilateral international organizations and extensive academic literature endorse the important role of ecosystems to reduce risks and mitigate the consequences of environmental disasters, both rural and urban areas. It is proposed to valuation the green areas and urban parks as a resource that integrates strategies for the development of environmental quality in cities through the ecosystem services derived from local tree cover, for the purpose of maintenance of public health. Was applied technological tool represented by i-Tree software as a method used to identify, quantify and estimate the economic value of ecosystem services provided by trees contained in Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, which served as a reference. Discussed the relevance of the integration of the principles and objectives of the instrument Payment for Ecosystem Services in urban planning and management, integrating it in policies to improve environmental health in cities.

O metabolismo entre homem e natureza tem sido diretamente impactado em nossa sociedade para fomentar o desenvolvimento capitalista e a racionalidade econômica atual. Nesse contexto, as áreas verdes no meio urbano, cada vez mais, têm dado lugar a novas paisagens que refletem a lógica acumulativa do sistema, sem que se leve em conta o impacto que tais mudanças podem causar no ambiente. Além de muitos benefícios para a saúde humana, tais áreas promovem melhoria da qualidade de vida para a população no que diz respeito ao lazer, ao embelezamento paisagístico e ao microclima. No município de São Paulo, a desvalorização do verde pode ser notada pelo decréscimo das áreas remanescentes, em especial da arborização urbana, e pela manutenção realizada pela gestão pública de forma ineficiente. Dadas a dimensão ainda expressiva da arborização e a falta de recursos (entre outros problemas), a gestão participativa, por meio da população e de tecnologias sociais como agentes de apoio ao Estado para a gestão dessas áreas, pode ser uma saída e uma ferramenta de apoio à proposta de Novo Metabolismo. Esta baseia-se no conceito de saber ambiental, proveniente da Educação Ambiental, para a preparação dos munícipes / Metabolism between Man and Nature has been directly impacted in our society to foster capitalist development and current economic rationality. In this context, the green areas surrounded by urban environment, more and more, has been given rise to new landscapes that reflect a cumulative logic of the system, without thinking about the impact that such changes can cause to the environment. In addition to many benefits to human health, such areas promote improvement of the quality of life for a population in terms of leisure, landscape beautification and microclimate. In the municipality of São Paulo, the devaluation of the green can be noticed by the decrease of the remaining areas, especially urban afforestation, and by the inefficient maintenance management carried out by the public administration. Given the still significant size of afforestation and the lack of resources (among other problems), the participative management, through population and social technologies as agents of State support for the management of these areas, it can be a way out and a support tool to the New Metabolism proposal. This is based on the concept of environmental wisdom, coming from the environmental education, for preparation of citizens

The aim of this diploma thesis is the estimation of the influence of green areas on real estate prices in Bratislava, SK. Being not a public good green areas are not market valuated which makes the decision about its size and placement in urban areas problematic. This thesis was written with an aim to evaluate the benefit of greenery and help future decision making concerning green urban areas in Bratislava. Theoretical part points out current situation of green urban areas in Bratislava and real estate market development. It also demonstrates some of the benefits coming from urban greenery and defines hedonic pricing method. Practical part is focused on greenery value estimation using HPM. It analyzes geografical data altogether with real estate data and based on five regression models using various groups of environmental variables estimates the impact of different types of greenery on the real estate prices in Bratislava.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-01-26T16:56:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 wagnerdeazevedodornellas.pdf: 6283448 bytes, checksum: 204cd55f68b80c03946a50a43353e2c3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-01-27T11:05:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 wagnerdeazevedodornellas.pdf: 6283448 bytes, checksum: 204cd55f68b80c03946a50a43353e2c3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-27T11:05:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 wagnerdeazevedodornellas.pdf: 6283448 bytes, checksum: 204cd55f68b80c03946a50a43353e2c3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-21 / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / No Brasil, não é comum o uso de indicadores quantitativos na elaboração de políticas públicas urbanas que visem à melhoria da qualidade ambiental das cidades. Essa pesquisa visa trazer uma contribuição da área da Saúde Coletiva, mais especificamente da Epidemiologia, para o campo do Urbanismo valorizando uma forma mais quantitativa e sistematizada de avaliar os benefícios das Áreas Verdes (AV) para as populações urbanas. Este estudo objetiva verificar a hipótese de associação significativa entre a existência de áreas verdes livres públicas urbanas e a ocorrência de internações hospitalares por doenças do aparelho respiratório nas Regiões Urbanas da cidade de Juiz de Fora. Foram utilizados os dados de internação do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) dos anos 2009, 2010 e 2011. Desses foi extraída a média trienal que foi transformada em taxas (por 100.000 hab.) e ainda foram aplicadas ao Método Direto de Padronização e ponderação de dados pelo Estimador Bayesiano Empírico Local. Como variável de exposição, foi usado o Índice de Áreas Verdes (IAV) categorizado. As associações foram controladas por variáveis de demografia, faixa etária, sexo, características socioeconômicas (Índice de Desenvolvimento Social - IDS) e acesso às Unidades de Atenção Primária de Saúde (UAPS) do SUS. Para esta análise foram utilizados métodos de Análise Espacial em saúde. Foi utilizado como Sistema de Informação Geográfica (SIG) o software TerraView® 4.2.0; para testes estatísticos foram utilizados os softwares R e Epi InfoTM 3.5.2. Foram aplicados testes estatísticos não paramétricos Mann-Whitney, análise de correlação de Spearman, teste de Shapiro-Wilk para testes da distribuição normal das populações de dados. Os resultados indicaram não haver associação significativa entre as taxas de internação e a presença de AV nas Regiões Urbanas (RU) de Juiz de Fora e que tais taxas de morbidades estão significativamente associadas às condições socioeconômicas das RU por meio do IDS e com a presença de UAPS nas RU de menores condições socioeconômicas. Os resultados apontaram para grandes desigualdades sociais e econômicas e na distribuição das áreas verdes para Juiz de Fora. Percebeu-se que disparidades sociais tem influência para uma desigual distribuição das condições de saúde no espaço urbano. / In Brazil, it is not common to use quantitative indicators in the development of urban public policies that aim at improving the environmental quality of cities. This research has the purpose of making a contribution in the area of Public Health, Epidemiology more specifically, to the field of Urbanism valuing a more quantitative and systematic way of assessing the benefits of Green Areas (AV) for urban populations. This study has the objective of verifying the hypothesis of a significant association between the existence of free public urban green areas and the occurrence of hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Urban Regions of Juiz de Fora. We used the datas of hospitalization Unified Health System (SUS) of the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. From these was extracted the three-year average which was transformed into rates (per 100,000 inhab.) and which were applied to the direct method of standardization and weighting of data Empirical Bayesian Estimator Location. As the independent variable, we used the Index of Green Areas (IAV) categorized. The associations were controlled by demographic variables, age, sex, socioeconomic characteristics (Index of Social Development - IDS) and access to the units of Primary Health Care (UAPS) SUS. For this analysis, methods of spatial analysis in health were used. TerraView ® 4.2.0 software was used as Geographical Information System (GIS); Statistical tests for R and Epi InfoTM 3.5.2 software were used. Nonparametric Mann - Whitney test, Spearman's correlation analysis, Shapiro-Wilk test to test the normal distribution of data population. The results showed no significant association between admission rates and the presence of AV in Urban Regions (UR) in Juiz de Fora, and that such rates of morbidities are significantly associated with socioeconomic conditions of the UR through the IDS and the presence of UAPS RU in lower socioeconomic conditions. The results pointed to major social and economic disparities and the bad distribution of green areas in Juiz de Fora. It was noticed that social disparities have influence to an unequal distribution of health conditions in the urban space.

Dans le but d’accompagner les décideurs libanais dans le choix de réformes des politiques publiques en matière d’environnement pour une prise en compte de la biodiversité dans les projets urbains, l’ambition de cette recherche est d’étudier l’opportunité de transposer des dispositifs existants en matière d’aménagement durable en France vers le Liban. Ainsi, l’objet de cette thèse est d’analyser l’intégration progressive de la biodiversité dans les documents de planification. Il s’agit d’identifier des pistes transférables au Liban avec la méthode du Benchmarking. Cette approche est complétée par l’observation des réformes institutionnelles et des modalités de mise en œuvre de l’action publique. Le développement des dispositifs transférables au Liban nécessite d’avoir un diagnostic partagé par tous les acteurs, car le contexte libanais est différent : plusieurs contraintes limitent l'élaboration d’une planification durable et efficiente. Néanmoins, définir un projet co-porté par tous requiert des décideurs l’adoption d’une vision stratégique du projet urbain. Ce processus passe par une phase concertée où une démocratie citoyenne participe et s’implique afin de mobiliser tous les acteurs. D’une part, on a introduit l’indice végétal permettant d'évaluer la qualité environnementale d’un projet urbain. D'autre part, on a modélisé le concept de la Soft city où la nature se trouve à toutes les échelles de la ville, en vue de l’appliquer à Beyrouth. Pour faciliter son expérimentation, on a élaboré des guides méthodologiques et des référentiels de suivi et d’évaluation à destination des acteurs concernés afin de saisir l’intérêt de la mise en œuvre des outils et des concepts innovants. / With the aim of supporting Lebanese decision makers in the choice of public environmental policy reforms to take into account biodiversity in urban projects, the ambition of this research is to study the opportunity of transferring existing mechanisms of sustainable development in France to Lebanon. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze the progressive integration of biodiversity in the planning system. It is about identifying transferable actions to Lebanon with the Benchmarking method. This approach is complemented by an observation of institutional reforms and the implementation modalities of public action. The transposition of mechanisms to Lebanon requires the implementation of diagnosis shared by all stakeholders because the Lebanese context is different : many constraints limit the development of sustainable and efficient planning. Nevertheless, defining a co-led project requires decision makers to adopt a strategic vision of the urban project. This process goes through a concerted phase where a citizen participation involved. As for the mobilization of the stakeholders, it is based on the proposal of innovative approaches that were formulated theoretically and empirically. On the one hand, we introduced the concept of green index allowing stakeholders to assess the environmental quality of a project. On the other hand, we have modeled a city concept, called Soft City, where nature is everywhere in the city, with a view to applying it in Beirut. To facilitate its experimentation, methodological guides and monitoring and evaluation frameworks were developed for the concerned stakeholders in order to encourage them to implement the innovative tools and concepts.

Flertalet studier har visat att grönområden främjar människors fysiska och psykiska hälsa. I takt med en ökad urbanisering och stadsutbyggnad ersätts naturliga miljöer med bebyggelse vilket påverkar befolkningen i urbana miljöer negativt, eftersom urbana grönområden genererar viktiga ekosystemtjänster. En urban livsstil kan dessutom medföra hälsorisker som psykisk ohälsa, hjärt-kärlsjukdomar och fysisk inaktivitet. Syftet med uppsatsen var att genom en kvalitativ ansats undersöka vilken betydelse urbana grönområden har haft för enskilda invånare i Helsingborg under covid-19-pandemin. Tio kvalitativa e-postintervjuer genomfördes och empirin analyserades med en induktiv ansats. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk bestod av Attention restoration theory samt Stress recovery theory och den insamlade empirin gav upphov till följande teman: lugn och ro, hämta energi, samt miljöombyte. Resultatet visar att urbana grönområden har betydelse för informanternas hälsa, eftersom urbana grönområden bidrar till återhämtning och stressminskning, vilket är betydande faktorer för en god fysisk och psykisk hälsa. Utifrån studiens resultat kan slutsatsen dras att genom att bevara urbana grönområden kanmänniskors livskvalitet öka eftersom urbana grönområden bidrar till bättre fysisk och psykisk hälsa i samhället. / Former studies have shown that urban green spaces improve physical and mental health.Urbanisation and urban development result in green environments being replaced by buildings. This has a negative effect on urban residents as urban green spaces provide important ecosystem services. An urban lifestyle can involve health risks such as mental illness, cardiovascular disease, and physical inactivity. This study aimed to investigate through a qualitative approach, the importance of urban green spaces for individual residents of Helsingborg during the covid-19 pandemic. Ten qualitative e-mail interviews were conducted, and the empirical findings were analyzed with an inductive approach. The collected empirics resulted in the following themes: peace and quiet, gain energy, and change of scenery. The results were analyzed through the theoretical framework Attention restoration theory and Stress recovery theory. The results showed that urban green spacesare essential for the informant’s health, as they contribute to recovery and stress reduction, which are significant factors for good physical and mental health. The main conclusion of this study shows that by preserving urban green spaces, people’s quality of life can increase as urban green spaces contribute to better physical and mental health in society.

abstract: The world has been continuously urbanized and is currently accommodating more than half of the human population. Despite that cities cover only less than 3% of the Earth’s land surface area, they emerged as hotspots of anthropogenic activities. The drastic land use changes, complex three-dimensional urban terrain, and anthropogenic heat emissions alter the transport of mass, heat, and momentum, especially within the urban canopy layer. As a result, cities are confronting numerous environmental challenges such as exacerbated heat stress, frequent air pollution episodes, degraded water quality, increased energy consumption and water use, etc. Green infrastructure, in particular, the use of trees, has been proved as an effective means to improve urban environmental quality in existing research. However, quantitative evaluations of the efficacy of urban trees in regulating air quality and thermal environment are impeded by the limited temporal and spatial scales in field measurements and the deficiency in numerical models. This dissertation aims to advance the simulation of realistic functions of urban trees in both microscale and mesoscale numerical models, and to systematically evaluate the cooling capacity of urban trees under thermal extremes. A coupled large-eddy simulation–Lagrangian stochastic modeling framework is developed for the complex urban environment and is used to evaluate the impact of urban trees on traffic-emitted pollutants. Results show that the model is robust for capturing the dispersion of urban air pollutants and how strategically implemented urban trees can reduce vehicle-emitted pollution. To evaluate the impact of urban trees on the thermal environment, the radiative shading effect of trees are incorporated into the integrated Weather Research and Forecasting model. The mesoscale model is used to simulate shade trees over the contiguous United States, suggesting how the efficacy of urban trees depends on geographical and climatic conditions. The cooling capacity of urban trees and its response to thermal extremes are then quantified for major metropolitans in the United States based on remotely sensed data. It is found the nonlinear temperature dependence of the cooling capacity remarkably resembles the thermodynamic liquid-water–vapor equilibrium. The findings in this dissertation are informative to evaluating and implementing urban trees, and green infrastructure in large, as an important urban planning strategy to cope with emergent global environmental changes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2019

In the last decades the population living in cities has substantially increased. According to the United Nations, by 2050 two thirds of the world population will be living in urban areas. Demographic pressure, through influx of residents or internal growth results in expansion and densification of urban areas and goes hand in hand with increased imperviousness, putting pressure on the provision of urban green. Urban green offers a range of direct and indirect benefits to the urban ecosystem. Green in the city reduces rainwater runoff and flooding risk while improving water quality; it improves air quality, provides natural cooling and contributes to reducing the urban heat island effect. Being the main source of contact with nature, urban green has also been shown to contribute to the physical and psychological wellbeing of urban citizens. The environmental concern for urban nature and re-naturing of cities are thus at the heart of developing more «ecological approaches to sustainable urban design and planning». In the framework of this research, it implies: understanding the (spatial) distribution of green space in relation to the built-up area of the city at different scale levels – the benefits they provide, their quality and proximity for urban residents – and; how to develop diagnostic, analytical and projective capabilities aimed at improving their (urban green) provision to address a host of sustainability challenges related to climate change, demographic growth and densification of the urban area. The research focuses on the development of evidence-based frameworks for planning that incorporate citizens’ needs and that are built on an interdisciplinary foundation. With this scope and focus, this study contributes to the development of a more ecological framework for sustainable urban design and planning aimed at integrating nature in the city more effectively and in an evidence-based way. The first part of the research focuses on the development of a spatially explicit tool for green space quality and proximity assessment reflecting user’s perception. Application of the model in the Brussels context reveals that user’s perception of qualities of urban green spaces such as naturalness and spaciousness can be linked to green space characteristics as described by available GIS-based data. As such GIS-based modelling allows for an extrapolation of questionnaire-based quality assessments for a selection of parks to other public green spaces. Analysis of the proximity of urban green spaces based on user’s perception shows spatial inequalities in green space provision, with less than 50% of Brussels’ citizens having good access to small (residential and play green) and to large green spaces (city and metropolitan green). By coupling multi-scale proximity assessment with quality assessment of green spaces, it is demonstrated that nearly two third of the Brussels population has no access to high quality public green spaces. Through collaborative research by design workshops involving different stakeholders, indicators produced by the quality-proximity model are used to indicate and tackle problem areas. Three alternative scenarios for public green space development are defined. The scenario analysis demonstrates that actions to provide low-income neighborhoods with a good accessibility to public green spaces will require creative solutions, dealing with complex property and management issues, and levels of investment that go well beyond the cost of regular green space development. The second part of the study presents a GIS- and design-based approach to assess potential land cover change for the Brussels-Capital Region anticipating expected population growth. The methodology proposed can be used to assess the impact of spatial policies and the implementation of building codes on future urban land cover. By studying the everyday processes for parcel infill and densification, and by defining a densification process based on the principles of sustainable urban design (e.g. walkable and high-density urban areas near mobility hubs, compact building typologies, preserving valuable natural areas, creative approaches to increasing the provision of urban green (green roofs, bioswales, etc.) space for water and floodscapes, etc.), two land use evolution scenarios are formulated; a business-as-usual and a sustainable scenario. One of the main conclusions of the case study on the Brussels-Capital Region is that densification can be deployed as a vehicle for positive land cover change and greening of the city. / Doctorat en Art de bâtir et urbanisme (Architecture) / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished