A study on green planning and design methods of new urban areas in Europe

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PLANNING CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING

A Study on Green Planning and Design Methods of New Urban Areas in Europe

M.Sc. URBAN PLANNING AND POLICY DESIGN

NAME: NING FENG

STUDENT ID: 917712

THESIS ADVISOR: PROF. EUGENIO MORELLO

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Foreword

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Eugenio Morello and my

home university’s Prof. Wu Zhiqiang for the continuous support of my thesis and

research, for his motivation, patience and wide knowledge. Thanks for the great support

of Prof. Davide Ponzini and Livia during my exchange time in Politecnico di Milano, they

are very respongsible both in our life and study.

I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents and friends for providing me

with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study

and through the process of writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have

been possible without them.

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Abstract

In 2008, for the first time in history, the number of urban residents exceeded that of

rural residents, and China's urbanization began to enter the real "urban" era in 2011.

Faced with the continuous influx of urban population, the construction of new urban

areas in China is increasingly receiving great attention. As of 2018, the construction of

19 national new urban districts has been carried out, and it is clear that the national new

urban districts will undertake the strategic tasks of national major development, reform

and opening up. At the global level, since the economic crisis in 2008, a new concept

"green city" has gradually shown its strong vitality in urban development. "Green city"

is an updated concept integrating low-carbon, ecological and sustainable development

concepts. It has become a powerful tool for cities to cope with severe global

environmental risks, climate change, energy crisis, social differentiation, and other

issues. European cities have a long history of low carbon, ecological and sustainable

development of urban practice experience, and are also leading in the field of "green

city". Before China starts massive construction of new urban district, in order to avoid

another detour in urban development, it is in urgent need to study European cities’ green

planning methods systematically and scientifically, especially those methods for new

urban areas.

This study firstly studied the concept of "green city" from the theoretical level, explored

its development process and tried to summarize the current European standards for

evaluating green city, so as to guide the case collection direction of green city planning

and design in the next step.

Then, the study collected and teased out the planning and design cases of new urban

areas meeting the "green" standard in the case platforms of Oppla, Think-Nature, C40,

state of green. Finally, a total of 121 cases were collected to complete the construction

of the case library.

Next, on the basis of the case library, based on the preliminary research on the green

standard, three space-level of green planning design method libraries were conceived,

and on this basis, the three-level European green city planning and design method

pedigree were summarized. And the study further explores the innovative highlights

and distribution characteristics of green planning and design methods.

Finally, the study analyzed the green planning and design methods of the 12 cities

selected as the "green capital" of the European Union, and summarized the aspects

suitable for China, so as to provide inspiration for the construction of new urban areas

in the future.

Key words: Green city; Planning and design methods; Europe; New urban areas; Case

studies

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Astratto

Nel 2008, per la prima volta nella storia, il numero di residenti urbani ha superato quello

dei residenti rurali e l'urbanizzazione cinese ha iniziato a entrare nella vera era "urbana"

nel 2011. Di fronte al continuo afflusso di popolazione urbana, alla costruzione di nuove

aree urbane le aree in Cina stanno ricevendo sempre più grande attenzione. A partire

dal 2018, è stata eseguita la costruzione di 19 nuovi distretti urbani nazionali ed è chiaro

che i nuovi distretti urbani nazionali assumeranno i compiti strategici di sviluppo,

riforma e apertura nazionali. A livello globale, dopo la crisi economica del 2008, un

nuovo concetto di "città verde" ha gradualmente dimostrato la sua forte vitalità nello

sviluppo urbano. "Città verde" è un concetto aggiornato che integra concetti di sviluppo

a basse emissioni di carbonio, ecologici e sostenibili. È diventato uno strumento potente

per le città per far fronte a gravi rischi ambientali globali, cambiamenti climatici, crisi

energetica, differenziazione sociale e altre questioni. Le città europee hanno una lunga

storia di basse emissioni di carbonio, sviluppo ecologico e sostenibile dell'esperienza

di pratica urbana e sono anche leader nel campo della "città verde". Prima che la Cina

inizi la costruzione massiccia di un nuovo distretto urbano, al fine di evitare un'altra

deviazione nello sviluppo urbano, è urgentemente necessario studiare sistematicamente

e scientificamente i metodi di pianificazione verde delle città europee, in particolare

quei metodi per nuove aree urbane.

Questo studio ha innanzitutto studiato il concetto di "città verde" dal livello teorico, ha

esplorato il suo processo di sviluppo e ha cercato di sintetizzare gli attuali standard

europei per la valutazione della città verde, in modo da guidare la direzione della

raccolta dei casi di pianificazione e progettazione della città verde nel passo successivo.

Quindi, lo studio ha raccolto e preso in giro i casi di pianificazione e progettazione di

nuove aree urbane che soddisfano lo standard "verde" nelle piattaforme caso di oppla,

thinknature, C40, stato verde. Infine, sono stati raccolti in totale 121 casi per completare

la costruzione della biblioteca dei casi.

Successivamente, sulla base della biblioteca del caso, basata sulla ricerca preliminare

sullo standard verde, sono state concepite tre librerie di metodi di progettazione del

piano verde a livello spaziale, e su questa base, il pedigree del metodo di pianificazione

e progettazione della città verde europea a tre livelli è stato riassunto. E lo studio esplora

ulteriormente i punti salienti innovativi e le caratteristiche di distribuzione dei metodi

di pianificazione e progettazione verde.

Infine, lo studio ha analizzato i metodi di pianificazione e progettazione verde delle 12

città selezionate come "capitale verde" dell'Unione europea e ha sintetizzato gli aspetti

adatti alla Cina, in modo da fornire l'ispirazione per la costruzione di nuove aree urbane

in futuro .

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Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background

1.1.1 Construction and Development of New Urban Areas in China

In 2011, China's urbanization began to enter a real "urban" era. The urban population

exceeded the rural population for the first time. However, the pace of urbanization in

China will not be suspended. In the future, the rural population will release a large

number of people into cities. The new urban district will be an important place to

accommodate the growing urban population in the future. According to the 2016 China

New Urban Development Report, as of 2016, the number of new towns and new

districts at and above the county level in China had exceeded 3,500, which had formed

a relatively large space system and is an important part of China's urbanization process.

At the end of June 2018, 19 national new districts have been established nationwide.

According to the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of

National New Districts (2015)”, the national new districts will assume the strategic

tasks of major national development and reform and opening up. A large number of

urban new districts need a set of scientific and rational urban development methods as

a guide for construction.

1.1.2 Development of Green City Concept

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, green city not only is seen as a response to the

global sustainable development under the background of global severe environmental

risks, climate change, energy crisis, social differentiation, etc., but is also giving rise to

a new science and technology and industrial revolution, and bring new social and

economic opportunities. In recent years, New York, London, Vancouver, Seoul, Nagoya,

Copenhagen and other cities have all taken building the world's greenest city as an

important strategic goal. With the wide spread of the green city movement in the world,

it is more and more necessary to study the concept of green city.

"Smart City" has also been proposed as a strategy to deal with urban population growth

and cracking urbanization issues. In recent years, it has begun to be integrated with

green concepts and developed into “green smart/intelligent city”. Digitalization has

gradually been incorporated into “green cities”. Among the connotations, it has become

the proper meaning of the "green city" development in the new era. Smart cities have

created new models of urban planning, construction, and management through the

integrated use of modern science and technology, integration of information resources,

and integrated business applications.

In the new era, “green” is the essence of urban sustainable development, and

“smart/intelligence” is the brain leading urban development. Under the guidance of

"green" concept, "smart" city can not only improve the quality of urban construction

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environment for mankind.

1.1.3 Comparability Between the Construction of New Urban Areas in Europe and

New Urban Districts in Chinese Context

Europe is the earliest origin of industrialization, and its informationization process has

begun relatively early, and the infrastructure of all aspects of the city has been relatively

perfect. The urbanization rate in many European countries has reached a stable stage in

the later period of urbanization, but the development of urbanization has not been

suspended. The construction of the city continues to improve under the guidance of new,

more scientific and rational urban concepts. The “new districts” of European cities

referred to in this study mainly refers to new construction areas with obvious

modernization characteristics outside the historical urban area, especially the urban

areas equipped with modern facilities developed after World War II. These new districts

have been built for many years or are undergoing a new round of modernization and

reconstruction, and have a relatively complete facility foundation under long-term

development. Since the old city of Europe usually has many historical buildings, under

the guidance of the need to follow the strict protection consciousness, if the historical

city wants to keep pace with the new development concept, the solutions it needs will

be significantly different from the modern “new district”. The new urban areas in

Europe are mostly built outside the old city, forming a modern building base. The

“green” construction of this type of new areas involves more new construction and

reconstruction based on already completed construction. The construction difficulty is

much less than the protective transformation on the basis of complex historical urban

areas, and the problems faced are closer to the situation of the new urban districts in the

Chinese context.

Most of China's new districts are currently building cities on complete open spaces, and

some are new districts that have just been built in recent years but have not yet been or

are only initially active. These new districts are more complete in terms of infrastructure

and construction than the old city. The difficulty of greening is greatly reduced, which

provides comparability for the construction of new districts in contexts of Europe and

China. Therefore, studying the "green" planning and design methods of new urban areas

in Europe is more practical for the construction of new urban districts in China.

1.2 Research Contents

1.2.1 Research Questions

With the rapid transformation of planning technology brought by big data and the influx

of more people into cities in the future, cities have become increasingly important

places for human life. As an important place to accommodate the newly increased urban

population, the construction of new urban districts in China will become more urgent

and important. Under the premise of constantly pursuing the green development of

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higher life quality, this study mainly puts forward the following questions:

1) How can new urban areas in Europe be adapted to green planning and design?

2) What are the components and characteristics of green planning and design methods

in different fields and at different space levels? How are they classified?

3) What is the reference significance of the green planning and design of new urban

districs in Europe for the construction of new urban districs in China? How to improve

the planning and design methods of new districts in China?

1.2.2 Significance of Research

Looking back at China's urbanization process, it can be clearly seen as a rapid and

extensive urban development model. This development has accumulated a large

number of urban problems, leading to the continuous deterioration of China's living

environment. A large number of new urban districts provide the best experimental site

for the transformation of China's future urban development model. Compared with the

complex and high cost of transforming the old facilities in the old city, the renovation

and construction of the new district is clearer and easier to operate. The introduction of

scientific and rational development concepts and technologies from the beginning will

greatly reduce the difficulty of China's future urbanization transformation and reduce a

series of adverse consequences of detours again. At the national level, China attaches

great importance to the construction of new national-level districts. The construction of

these new districts will definitely affect China's future urbanization development model.

The “green” planning and design concept that incorporates the new connotation of the

new era needs to be promoted and applied in a timely, scientific and rational way in the

construction of the new district of China.

In China, researches on the "green city" started relatively late. The meaning of "green"

is constantly expanding and enriching. The research of most Chines scholars is still

concentrated in the stage of low-carbon cities and eco-cities, and is mainly based on

qualitative analysis. The research on excellent practices is limited to a few countries,

which make it difficult to systematically and comprehensively understand the contents

involved in the process of green city planning and design. After the emergence of big

data, "smart city" has been upgraded with "intelligence". The integration of “green

smart city” as the two most advanced urban development concepts has become the

dominant direction and core strategy of many countries in the world ( Zahng QY., 2017).

Based on the previous research on ecological and low-carbon planning and design, this

research is guided by the rich “green” concept, and uses the means of big data analysis

to systematically sort out the most practical cases of “green cities” in Europe. Through

the analysis of green planning and design elements, a set of maps of green planning and

design methods for new urban areas will be established, and then the characteristics of

green planning in new urban areas will be summarized. This will provide a more

comprehensive reference for the “green” planning and construction of new urban

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theoretical significance and practical value.

1.2.3 Research Scope

In terms of theoretical research, the core collection database of Web of Science is taken

as the scope of literature research to construct a systematic understanding of the

development processs of “green city” concept. As for case study, the relatively

professional case platform of European green city planning and construction is taken as

the work scope. From the theoretical and practical aspects, we expect to form a

complete scientific understanding of green planning and design of new urban areas.

The case platforms adopted in this study is mainly related to climate change. The early

stage is for finding appropriate case platforms according to green related contents, and

finally 16 relevant case platforms were found. Because the later research needs to

extract the method for each case in detail, the case platform with more conceptual

explanations and the case platform that is not clear and accurate in the application

method are eliminated, and finally 4 case platforms that meet the case collection

requirements are selected as the work scope of case study. Table 1 shows the main

European green city case database used in this study.

Table 1 European green city case database

1.3 Research Ideas, Methods and Routes

1.3.1 Research Ideas

As "green city" is still a relatively emerging research field, its concept has not been

uniformly confirmed, and it is easy to confuse it with similar concepts in the past.

Therefore, this study needs to clarify the development context and constituent elements

of "green city", and define a relatively clear connotation of "green city". The following

research will use the “green” dimension of the “green city” theoretical study and the

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“green” dimension of the EU “green capital” selection as the criteria for case selection,

and screen out the green planning practice cases of the new urban areas as the base plate.

These planning and design methods are divided into three space levels for further

research.

Through sorting out and analyzing the cases of green planning, design and construction

of new urban areas in Europe, this study will solve the following sections:

1) Firstly, analyze the important planning techniques and methods applied in each case

and build a complete case database, so as to master the systematic data in the frontier

field of green city construction;

2) Then, analyze and studying the classification methods of green planning and design

methods for new urban areas, and then construct the method library of green planning

and design methods according to the classification of green dimensions, and explore its

constituent elements and characteristics;

3) Finally, the pedigree of green planning and design methods is condensed according

to the method library;

4) In addition, comprehensively analyze the key planning and design methods of 12

European cities at the forefront of "green city" construction, and then summarizes the

most valuable experience for the construction of new urban districts in China.

1.3.2 Research Methods

The research methods involved in this study mainly include:

(1) Documentary Method

Histcite (Wikipedia, 2019) is a visual citation analysis software that can measure and

study all aspects of a specific academic field through econometric analysis and

visualization, clearly show the source of the development of the field and the entire

development process, important literatures, important researches, and also the

interaction between the institution or author and the various contributors in the field.

Histcite's information visualization process converts references into citation chronicles,

showing the interrelationships between them, helping researchers quickly sort through

large amounts of information. The citation chronology is generated based on time, the

entire history of the research topic or a specific stage therefore can be studied in depth

by changing the time frame of the analysis.

(2) Case study method

As an effective form of empirical research methods, case studies play an important role

in problem discovery, inspiration, and explanation (Siggelkow N., 2007). It is

applicable to solving the problems of "How? Why?" The case study focuses on

excavating the background and development process of the research object, presenting

the complex features of things, and thus describing, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating

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categories: exploratory case studies, descriptive case studies and explanatory case

studies. This paper uses descriptive case study methods. The main purpose is to provide

a relatively complete and accurate description of the emerging field of "green city"

through detailed case collection, so as to inspire China to form a set of suitable green

city construction methods by learning from international excellent experience in this

emerging field.

1.3.3 Technical Routes

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Chapter 2. Research on Related Theories

2.1 Theoretical Review

Fundamentally speaking, "green city" is not a completely newly created concept. Its

germination originates from the consideration of solving environmental problems in

big cities. With the rapid increase of urban population brought about by industrial

development and the deteriorating environmental problems on a global scale, the green

concept has been continuously given new connotations at various stages. Although the

concept of "green" has been around for many years, "green city" was barely understood

as a systematic urban development concept before the economic crisis in 2008, and

even now there is no clear definition. This study will analyze the theoretical

understanding of "green city" from two aspects. On the one hand, there are theories

related to "green"; on the other hand, there are specific "green" elements in theoretical

research. As for the analysis of the "green" dimension, this study hopes to complete it

through data processing in a relatively objective way. Therefore, it decides to tease out

the clear connotation of the concept of "green city" based on the classification of

high-frequency keywords in the literature on "green city" studied by international scholars.

2.1.1 The Development Process of "Green" Related Theories

2.1.1.1 The Sprout of Green City Theory

In the 1760s, British scholar Ebenezer Howard proposed the famous " garden city"

concept to solve the problems of rapid urbanization, the surge of urban population, land

use shortage and environmental degradation brought about by the industrial revolution,

advocating a wide green belt around the city. The Green Belt combines all the

advantages of active urban life with the beauty of the countryside and all the welfare,

which can realize the harmony between man and nature. It is the germination of the

idea of “green city” that advocates dispersion (Ebenezer Howard., 2011). In 1930, Le

Corbusier, the master of modern architecture in France, clearly stated the concept of

"green city" in his "bright city" for the first time, advocating the construction of vertical

garden city to maximize the open ground to green space and sunshine (Le Corbusier.,

2011).

2.1.1.2 The Birth of Green City Theory

Since then, the concept of eco-city has gradually developed. In June 1972, the United

Nations (UN) Conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm put

environmental issues on the agenda for the first time, issuing the warning that "there is

only one earth" (Zhao ZH., and Zhang LL., 2013). During the same period, many urban

ecological organizations and researchers in the world contribution many key ideas to

the basic concept of "ecological city". For example, the “urban ecology” organization

(1975) initiated by Richard Register advocated the reconstruction of the balance

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green organization’s design of the political structure of ecological cities, etc. (Huang

ZHY., Yang DY., 2001). In 1984, the 11th item of the Man and Biosphere program

(MAB) initiated by the scientific department of UNESCO, "comprehensive ecological

research on human settlements", put forward five principles of eco-city planning: 1)

ecological protection strategy; 2) ecological infrastructure; 3) living standards of

residents; 4) cultural and historical protection; 5) integrate nature into the city (Huang

ZHY., Yang DY., 2001). These five principles have clearly reflected the comprehensive

requirements of technology, society and nature in the concept of "ecocity" during this

period.

In the 1990s, a new round of global environmental problems such as ozone depletion,

global warming, and the loss of biodiversity have emerged. Complex environmental

issues have promoted the interdisciplinary development of urban ecology, sociology,

and environmental ecology. The problem is multi-angle and comprehensive. The

connotation of eco-city has been enriched by many organizations and scholars, as well

as the catalysis of interdisciplinary disciplines. It has gradually combined with other

related concepts such as urban sustainable development. No longer focusing solely on

the environment, it has gradually included social and technological connotations, and

finally gave birth to the "green city". Roseland (1997) believes that “eco-city” should

be a holistic concept that includes concepts such as sustainable development, social

ecology, healthy communities, good technology, green cities/communities, indigenous

worldviews and othr concepts. He believed thet there is no need for boundary between

the concepts and then he put forward the preliminary eco-city principle (Huang ZHY.,

Yang DY., 2001). In 1990, David Gordon published the book "Green Cities", which

was the first time in the world to systematically propose the concept, connotation and

implementation strategy of "green city". He believed that green cities should protect

natural resources, pay attention to human health and harmony between humans and

other creatures in nature, arrange urban elements according to aesthetic principles,

provide comprehensive development opportunities for people, and emphasize the need

to avoid negative externalities while enjoying local fresh air and clean water sources

(Gordon D., 1990). So far, the concept of “green city” has covered human, nature and

society. During the same period, UN-HABITAT and the United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP) promoted the “Sustainable Urban Development Plan”, arguing

that green cities should be cities that are environmentally friendly, socially equitable

and implement green policies. The connotation of sustainable cities extends to society,

economy and nature (UN-Habitat, and UNEP., 2001).

2.1.1.3 The Development of Green City Theory

After the Second World War, the "urban city" theory alone could not solve the big city

disease caused by the new round of rapid expansion of western cities. The "compact

city" and "smart growth" have become the way out for Europe and the United States to

solve this problem. In 1990, the Commission of the European Communities issued the

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"Commission of the European Communities" (CEC), which first publicly proposed "the

urban form of returning to a compact city" and proposed the development model for the

development of mixed-use land in cities, emphasizing high density. The mixed

functions and the diversity of social culture have had a profound impact on the

development and construction of European cities (CEC, 1990). In contrast, the “smart

growth” concept is booming in the United States, and the International Capital Market

Association (ICMA) defines it as a growth that “brings more choices and personal

freedom, gets better public investment returns, brings more community opportunities,

a more prosperous natural environment, and a more proud legacy for future generations”

(International Capital Market Association, and Smart Growth Network, 2006). Both

concepts reflect the requirements of sustainable development.

The concept of a low-carbon city was proposed in response to the 20th century climate

change, energy crisis and other issues, originally from the economic field. The energy

white paper Our Energy Future: Creating a Low Carbon Economy published by the

British government (2003) defines “low carbon economy” for the first time : "through

higher resource productivity, get more economic output with less natural resource

consumption and environmental pollution, achieving higher living standards and better

quality of life”. This concept was quickly extended to the social field and was first

adopted by European and American countries in the development strategy of emerging

cities.

In 2005, the mayors of more than 50 cities from all over the world signed the Urban

Environmental Agreement -- Green City Declaration in San Francisco, USA, and

agreed on seven items to consider in the construction of green cities such as energy,

waste reduction, and urban design, integrating environmental protection, residents' lives,

society and economy. After the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008, various

urban concepts began to show signs of weakness in promoting long-term urban

prosperity. As the concept of “green cities” combines higher productivity and

innovation capabilities with lower costs and negative environmental impacts, and try to

more effectively address the issues of population poverty and social differentiation

(Simpson R, and Zimmermann M., 2013), covering richer and more comprehensive

content such as green technology, green energy, green housing, and green consumption.

“Green” concept has become a powerful force for stimulating a new round of global

development because it makes up for most of the previous urban concepts which

separate and even mutual exclude efficiency, equality and environmental sustainability

(Hammer S, Kamal-Chaoui L, and Robert A, et al, 2011).

2.1.1.4 The Difference Between Green City Theory and Other Green Related

Concepts

Every theory related to the green concept has its own specific background and different

focus. The concepts of garden cities, eco-cities, compact cities, smart cities, low-carbon

cities, and sustainable development are all created to solve problems in specific eras.

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not just the sustainable areas in the sense of urban form design. The “city” here is a

social and economic complex based on a certain region. It is an open development

system that absorbs the concept of urban-rural integration, compact and smart

development, but with richer and more stereoscopic content. Compared with eco-city

and low-carbon city, green city is a harmonious and efficient comprehensive

development model integrating human, nature, economy and society. The eco-city

pursues the harmony between human and nature and the low-carbon city deals with

climate change and energy crisis. Responses to such problems can be considered as an

integral part or supporting system in green concept (Zhang M., Li ZHH., and Huang

BR., et al., 2016). At present, although there is no unified definition of “green city” in

the world, in fact, these related concepts have always permeated the understanding of

“green” and have been continuously absorbed and integrated by the concept of “green

city”. With the support of these theories, green theory can show stronger vitality after

the economic crisis.

2.1.1.5 The Integration and Development of Green City Concept and New

Technology

In the 21st century, global informatization develops more rapidly, and it ushered in a

new era of big data in 2012, which opened up the technological revolution of various

industries led by data. Urban planning also rapidly entered a data-driven era. The

integration of digital urban construction and green city concept is not accidental, but

has deep inevitability.

In 1992, the construction of “Smart Island” in Singapore proposed to integrate computer

network technology with urban functions and become the first practice of digitalization

of urban construction. In 1998, US Vice President Al Gore proposed the concept of

“digital earth” and “digital community” (Zhang L., and Ren LX., 2014). In 2009, IBM

officially proposed the concept of “Smart City” in its vision of “Smart Earth”, which

started the climax of global urban construction to “smart city” construction. South

Korea launched the u-Korea strategy in 2004, Singapore launched the iN2015 plan in

2006, and the European Union proposed the smart city construction concept in the EU

Smart City Report in 2007, which is regarded as the origin of smart city concept (Zhang

L., and Ren LX., 2014).

However, the development of “smart cities” in various countries in the world also has

their own characteristics. Generally speaking, the European and American countries

have a good foundation for informationization and industrialization. The digitization of

their cities is more mature and perfect, and not completed in a short period of time,

compared with the development of smart cities in Asia, Africa and South America.

Europe attaches great importance to the construction of smart cities. The EU has listed

smart city construction as an important part of the “European Digital Agenda” released

on May 19, 2010, and has released the “European Digital City Index” every year since

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2015 (Hou ZHY., and Jiao LF., 2014). In the construction concept and development

goals, more emphasis is placed on the use of smart technology to achieve the

coexistence of energy-saving and emission reduction, green and low-carbon,

knowledge-sharing smart economy and eco-economic in sustainable urban

development (Ding BT., and Tang T., 2018). North American cities also pay attention

to the construction of information technology, but most of them take economic

development as the starting point. Whether it is the construction of digital cities,

wireless cities or “smart cities”, they are more concerned about the economic benefits

brought by the application of information technology (Hou ZHY., and Jiao LF., 2014).

In the planning and practice of using information technology to promote urban

transformation and development, green sustainable development has become an

important goal of future urban digital construction. At the September 2015 summit, the

United Nations officially announced the "United Nations Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs)", addressing the development of social, economic and environmental

dimensions, which has a huge impact on the construction of global smart cities.

According to the latest study reports done by research institute Gartner, by 2020, half

of the world's smart cities will incorporate key performance indicators such as climate

change, rapid repair capabilities, and sustainability into their urban development goals

(Ding BT., and Tang T., 2018).

From the perspective of practical effects, the practice of “green smart cities” in

European cities has achieved very good results. In recent years, the best smart cities in

Europe selected by various institutions have been known for their sustainable

development. For example, Stockholm in Sweden has been using intelligent

transportation systems since 2006. In just three years, it has reduced traffic congestion

by 25%, urban pollution by 15%, and queuing time by 25% (Chen GX., 2011). It has

become a model for global intelligent transportation. Copenhagen, the capital of

Denmark, aims to become the world's first carbon dioxide zero-emissions capital by

2025. Amsterdam has been using the smart meter and energy feedback technology to

“visualize” energy consumption to assess and improve energy use. Austria has been

promoting “civil solar power plants”. Paris’ shared bicycles have been rated as the best

case in smart cities in Europe by ICF. London focuses on the development of green

smart buildings, etc (Ding BT., and Tang T., 2018).

From the perspective of concept development, the concepts of low-carbon ecology and

green sustainability are deeply rooted in Europe. Therefore, the construction of “smart

cities” in Europe naturally absorbs and integrates the concept of “green city”. The

primary cause of the sucessful integration is that green cities and digitally driven cities

show great consistency in their internal needs. The digital-driven “smart city” has been

upgraded into the “intelligent” stage in the era of big data. The construction of digital

cities has long been not a mere technology and engineering concept, but a combination

of technology, management, humanities and economy (Jin MJ., and Li JM., 2011). This

characteristic of digital cities is consistent with the “green city” advocated to achieve

(21)

data era, the “expert-led” plan has turned to “public participation” supported by

effective technical. At the same time, “green city” does not give up the requirement of

efficiency. Big data has the advantages of massive data, rich types, low value density

and fast processing speed. It provides the possibility of from “distribution” to

“collaboration” and from "lag" to "real-time", from "artificialization" to "intelligence",

from "extensive" to "fine" (Ye Y., Wei ZC., and Wang HJ., 2014), which are exactly the

best technical methods that can be applied to urban construction, management,

operations, etc. to quickly improve efficiency. In addition, big data also provides the

ability to transform urban planning methods from “static, blueprint” to “dynamic,

procedural”. With the help of artificial intelligence, even artificial intelligence

deductions for urban land use can be realized to predict urban future (Wu ZHQ., and

Gan W., 2018, Wu ZHQ., 2018). “Green city” itself is a dynamic development model,

which must take into account its sustainable development and future development. In

this respect, green and digital find the possibility of integration again.

Therefore, the "green city" in Europe and the application of digital technology have

established a more comprehensive and deep connection in practice, providing the

richest and most cutting-edge case foundation for the study of urban green planning and

design.

2.1.2 The "Green City" Dimension at The Document Research Level

2.1.2.1 Sample Selection

This article will use the literatures of all the years (1975-2019) included in the core

collection of Web of Science as the key data source. Since the search time is May 2019,

the amount of literature retrieved in 2019 is greatly reduced consequently. In the Web

of Science core collection database, 10496 articles were retrieved by key words "green

city"; 1147 articles were retrieved by key words "urban green construction"; 4130

articles were retrived by key words "urban green development". According to the

annual published volume of the retrieved literatures, it can be seen that the trend of the

annual literature publications obtained by the three keyword searches is generally

consistent. As is shown in Graph 1, before 2000, the urban theory research related to

“green” was basically in a blank state. After 2000, there was a small amount of research.

Between 2005 and 2008, there was the first significant increase in the literature

published in this area. After 2008, the study of the “green” urban concept began to enter

a period of rapid growth, especially since 2014, the research on the “green” concept has

increased sharply, and scholars continue to pay close attention to it until today.

(22)

Graph 1 Literature publication quantity over time

2.1.2.2 Data Processing

The Histcite tool can sort all retrieved documents by Local Reference Count (LCS) to

indicate the times this article was cited in the current data set. So if an article has a high

LCS value, it indicates that it is an important literature in the field of the keyword. In

order to ensure the integrity and correctness of the final literature library, it is necessary

to verify whether the important literature results obtained by the three keyword searches

are consistent with each other. If the difference is too large, the keywords need to be

adjusted so as to omit relevant research literature as much as possible.

First, supplement the important missing literatures based on the results of the above

three keywords. Histcite citation analysis tool was used to find 19 important literatures

missed by keyword retrieval of "green city", 8 important literatures missed by keyword

retrieval of "urban green construction", and 16 important literatures missed by keyword

retrieval of "urban green development". Then, the search results of each keyword were

supplemented with important missing literatures. The three search results were sorted

by LCS respectively, and it was found that the repetition rate of the top 50 LCS

important literatures retrieved by the three keywords was very high. This indicates that

the three key words selected in literature retrieval are relatively reasonable, and there is

no serious irrelevant situation. After verifying the keyword selection and the reasonable

retrieval results, the Histcite tool combined all the results retrieved by the three

keywords, an this software can automatically merge the duplicate projects. Finally,

12,511 articles were obtainned as the basis of this literature study.

2.1.2.3 Selection of Key Doucuments

Due to the large number of literature libraries, it is impossible to read all the research

contents, and not all the literatures have research significance. Therefore, this study will

again sort 12511 documents according to LCS, and finally select the top 50 documents

as the most valuable key literatures for further research. Through the Graph Maker tool

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

"green city" literature quantity "urban green construction" literature quantity "urban green development" literature quantity

(23)

generated according to the LCS order, so as to grasp the development of this field more

intuitively and quickly and avoid the omission of key research literatures. Each circle

on Annex 1 represents a literature, and the number is the serial number of the literature

in the collated database. The larger the circle, the more times it is cited. There are arrows

connected between different circles, and the arrows indicate the citation relationship

between the literatures. If the circle is large and there are many arrows pointing to this

article, it is probably the beginning of the field. Literature library can be find at Annex

2 with 50 literatures ranked by LCS.

2.1.2.4 Determination of Green Dimension

The method to determine the green dimension according to literature research is to

count all the high-frequency keywords appearing in the top 50 literatures ranked by

LCS, and take these keywords as the specific evaluation dimension of green planning

and design methods. Through the English word frequency statistics website "WORD

COUNTER", the keywords with the number of occurrences of not less than 7 in each

literature are selected as high-frequency keywords, and then manually filtered the

words, excluding those have nothing to do with the concept of "green city" and without

study significance. Some similar keywords are also merged. Finally, 53 high-frequency

keywords were selected in total, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Green city research high frequency keywords summary table (1975-2019) Word frequency Keywords Word frequency Keywords Word frequency Keywords

753 green space 51 solar radiation 18 carbon sequestration 720 green roof 48 mental health 18 roofing system 131 open space 47 urban forest 17 urban landscape

124 urban trees 44 roof runoff 17 public green

space

124 ecosystem service 44 air quality 16 building materials 113 high albedo roof 37 urban park 15 cooling surface 97 natural

environment

37 green facade 15 energy saving

91 canopy cover 37 public health 14 tree-lined streets 87 biodiversity 36 cooling island 9 climate change

(24)

86 heat island effect 34 air temperature 9 low impact development 77 stormwater management 34 permeable pavement 8 rainwater garden

73 human health 33 shaded surface 7 thermal storage 61 (non) native species 30 vegetation coverage 7 noise 60 green infrastructure

29 private gardens 7 living roof

56 physical activity 27 green space coverage

7 energy

consumption 55 cool roofs 24 cooling energy 7 waste water 53 urban greening 23 energy balance

52 green space accessibility

19 reduce runoff

2.2 Evaluation dimension of European Union (EU) green city

The EU's “Green Capital” Award was advocated in 2006 by 15 European cities. The

European Union launched this award initiatively in 2008. The award's competition

began in 2010 and it is an important award for evaluating environmentally friendly city

life in Europe. The award aims to promote and reward cities that are working to improve

the urban environment and move towards a healthier and more sustainable living

environment. At the beginning of 2010, there were 10 green evaluation dimensions

(European Commission, 2019): 1) local contribution to global climate change; 2) local

transportation; 3) public green space; 4) local ambient air quality; 5) noise pollution; 6)

waste production and management; 7) water consumption; 8) wastewater treatment; 9)

environmental management of the municipality; 10) sustainable land use. As the

understanding of green continues to deepen, this green evaluation dimension is also

increasing and modifying year by year. In 2011, specific requirements for greenfield

accessibility were added; in 2012, new dimensions of nature and biodiversity were

added; in 2014, the dimensions of ecological innovation and sustainable employment

and energy performance were added on the original basis; since 2016, the requirements

for environmental management are no longer limited to the city, but also comprehensive

environmental management is required; the demand for transportation in 2020 is

upgraded to sustainable urban transport, and the scope of sustainable employment is

expanded to green growth, adding to the circular economic considerations. Considering

(25)

obtained, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Classification of green city evaluation dimension

Domain

Field

Climate change: mitigation and adaptation

——

Sustainable Urban Mobility

——

Sustainable Land Use

Availability of green areas open to the public

Green Urban Areas

Public Green Areas

Biodiversity

——

Nature

Green and blue structures

Air Quality

——

Quality of the acoustic environment

Noise

Waste

Waste production

Waste management

Water

Water management

Waste water treatment

Green Growth

Sustainable employment

Eco‐innovation

Application of various innovative technologies

Energy Performance

——

Governance and management

——

2.3 Classification framework of green city planning and design

(26)

technology, when finalizing the classification framework of the green planning design

method, it is necessary to integrate the green planning design classification with the

digital technology classification in order to finally obtain a complete classification

framework.

2.3.1 Planning and classification method for green related concepts

From the perspective of green concept, since the current definition of "green city" has

not been unified, there are still many green concepts scattered in low-carbon city,

ecological city and other concepts. Therefore, problems at the green level can be teased

out by referring to the technical classification methods of low-carbon city and ecology.

Wu Zhiqiang, a scholar from China, believes that the technical system of urban

ecological planning can be divided into three levels (Wu ZHQ., and Song WJ, 2010,

Wu ZHQ., 2011): The first level covers the technical level of six elements: "energy,

water, material, air, land and life"; The second level covers the time layer of the whole

life cycle of ecological planning and construction; The third level is the space layer

composed of different layers of "point-line-surface". In the study of urban ecological

planning and design methods, existing studies further classified and refined on this basis,

forming a classification framework of the meta-library of ecological design methods

(Table 4), and integrating various elements into three aspects (Zhao Q., 2016): material

energy design, entity space design and design implementation mechanism.

Table 4 Classification of urban ecological planning and design methods (Zhao Q., 2016)

2.3.2 Classification method of digital technology practice

The generalization of digital technology practice needs to be understood by means of

classification of related technologies. Wu Zhiqiang (2000) divided the technologies

related to urban planning into two categories. The first is the technology of urban

planning, which are the evaluation, spatial design, prediction model theory,

optimization, management index and other contents in the process of urban planning

and design. The other is technology in urban planning, which refers to the auxiliary

technical means introduced in the formulation of urban planning, namely, the urban

planning toolkit (Wu ZHQ., 2000). In terms of classification methods applicable to

technical practices (Figure 2), Wu Zhiqiang believes that intelligent technology can be

divided into technical methods and technical examples. Technical methods include data

(27)

form include: intelligent network -- intelligent infrastructure, represented by the two

basic types of Internet and the Internet of things (sensor) network and other derivative

forms; Intelligent goods -- physical forms with functions of information collection,

transmission and display; Smart service -- a variety of smart service projects developed

based on industry and social needs (Wu ZHQ., 2014). This study focuses on the

construction of green digitalization of new urban areas. Therefore, the classification

method of technical examples will be more helpful to guide the reasonable

classification of methods in practical cases.

Figure 2 Classification methods applicable to technical practices (Wu ZHQ., 2014)

2.4 Classification of Green Planning and Design Methods for New Urban Areas

Based on the existing classification methods of ecological planning and design, this

study will build a classification framework of green planning and design methods for

new urban areas according to the latest development direction of "green city". Firstly,

the preliminary classification framework of green city planning and design method is

adjusted and constructed by combining the literature research in theoretical research

and the evaluation dimension given by European "green city" related research

institutions. After all the cases are collected, the framework is further modified

according to the key words in the cases and the actual situation. Finally, the

classification framework of green planning and design method is obtained, as shown in

Table 5 .

New categories are added based on case collection: Blue infrastructure; Blue and green

strategy and planning; Business patterns; Participatory planning; Awareness building;

Cost accounting.

The classification of technical practices is mainly included in the category of design

implementation mechanisms. Intelligent networks and intelligent items are

concentrated in the field of energy efficiency optimization in the cases collected this

time, and the boundaries are not very clear. For example, intelligent lighting facilities

(28)

and intelligent traffic signal facilities have the attributes of intelligent items and

intelligent networks, but the common final result is that energy efficiency is improved.

Therefore, the category of intelligent networks and intelligent items is transformed into

energy efficiency under the category of energy. A small number of categories involving

intelligent networks and intelligent items will be directly allocated in the field of their

application fields. Since there are many cases involving intelligent services in the

collected cases, and they further presents different characteristics. Thus, the study

further divided the intelligent services into three sub-categories, as shown in Figure 3:

intelligent aided design - focus on auxiliary role in the design phase; intelligent service

- focus on the optimization and improvement of the user's use process; intelligent

management - focus on the optimization of management methods.

Figure 3 Reclassification of technology practices

Table 5 Classification framework of green planning and design methods

Domain

Field

Material energy

design

Energy

Energy production

Energy supply

Energy usage

Energy efficiency

Water

Water management

Wastewater treatment

Rainfall flood utilization

Waste

Waste production

Waste collection

Waste disposal

(29)

Air pollution control

Acoustics environment

Noise management

Biodiversity

Biodiversity conservation

Vegetation planting

Physical space

design

Space utilization

Land development

Landuse arrangement

Residential space

Commercial space

Leisure space

Public space

Transportation

Overall structure

Pedestrian traffic

Bicycle traffic

Public transport

Transport facilities

Green and blue infrastructure

Strategy and planning

Ground greening

Aerial greening

Rivers/lakes/oceans

Implementation

mechanism of

design

Technology

Intelligent aided design

Intelligent service

Government and management Intelligent management

Policy-making

Business patterns

Society

Participatory planning

(30)

Social structure

Economics

Cost accounting

Industry

Employment

Finance

(31)

Chapter 3. Construction of the Green Planning and Design Method

Library

This study focuses on the European green planning and design methods suitable for the

construction of new areas. According to the research of related theories, the green

planning and design is mainly combined with climate change and environmental issues.

Therefore, this study mainly selected four platforms that cope with climate change, and

collected 121 cases that are consistent with the "green" dimension conform of the study

above. Specific case list can be found in the Annex 3.

The Oppla case platform brings together the latest thinking on natural capital,

ecosystem services and nature-based solutions; Thinknature is a platform dedicated to

achieving urban sustainability and resilience, supporting nature-based solutions,

supported by Oppla case studies, but complementing and expanding Oppla's case base;

the C40 Cities' operations are based on the world's most comprehensive urban climate

action database; State of Green is the Danish green development knowledge base at the

forefront of climate action.

3.1 Construction of the Green Planning Design Case Library of European Urban

New District

3.1.1 Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Green Planning and Design cases in

European Urban New Districts

In terms of space, according to the standard European geographical scope, it is divided

into five regions, namely North Europe, West Europe, Central Europe, East Europe and

South Europe, and then the cases of each country are collected and teased out

respectively. According to the final results, data from Denmark, Finland, Norway and

Sweden were collected for North Europe; data from Belgium, France, Ireland, the

Netherlands and the United Kingdom were collected for West Europe; data from Austria,

Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland were collected for

Central Europe; data from Estonia and Russia were collected for East Europe; data from

Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Spain were collected for South Europe.

According to the spatial distribution of the case, although the case collection results of

this study did not completely cover every city in Europe, the overall coverage of the

five major European geographic regions has been fully covered. In terms of the number

of geographical spaces, the ranking is respectively (shown in Figure 4) : 44 in Western

Europe (36% of the total cases), 34 in Northern Europe (28% of the total cases), 21 in

Central Europe (17% of the total cases), 18 in Southern Europe (15% of the total cases),

and 4 in Eastern Europe (3% of the total cases). According to the number of cases from

the most to the least (as shown in Table 6), the top 10 are the United Kingdom (UK),

(32)

Denmark (DK), Netherlands (NL), Norway (NO), Germany (DE), Spain (ES), Sweden

(SE), France (FR), Italy (IT), Poland (PL).

On the whole, it can be seen that the case of green planning and design in the Northern

of Europe (including Northern Europe and the north of Western Europe) is far ahead of

the rest of Europe in terms of total number. Among the Nordic countries, Denmark has

the largest number of cases partly because of the choose of Danish’s knowledge website

named State of Green, which is dedicated to the construction of Danish green cities. But

this is also consistent with Denmark's tradition and strength to address climate change

over the years. According to the EU's “Green Capital” award from 2010 to 2021

(European Commission, 2019), the number of cities awarded and the propotion of the

total number of awards in the EU countries during the 12-year period are (shown in

Graph 2 and Graph 3), Nordic 4 times. (33%), Western Europe 3 times (25%), Central

Europe 3 times (25%), Eastern Europe 0 times, Southern Europe 2 times (17%). The

overall spatial distribution law of the cases collected and the “Green Capital”

award-winning city is also consistent.

Table 6 Rank by number of cases

Region North Europe West Europe Central Europe South Europe Country DK NO SE FR NL UK DE PL IT ES Number of cities 3 1 2 1 6 6 6 2 2 4 Number of cases 16 9 6 5 10 27 9 4 5 9 Country ranking 2 4 7 8 3 1 4 10 8 4

(33)

Figure 4 Quantitative distribution of cases collected by country

Graph 2 The proportion of cases by region to the total number

28%

36% 17%

3% _15%

North Europe West Europe

Central Europe East Europe

A study on green planning and design methods of new urban areas in Europe

PLANNING CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING