1

Learning Point 98Liveable Places:Green Networks

2

INTRODUCTION

WHAT ARE LEARNING POINTS?

Learning points share what people have learned from their experience in regeneration - from people working or talking together, or from research into issues and evaluation of what is happening. Learning points can help people and organisations to improve their practice through identifying what works and what doesn’t.The views described in learning points do not mean that the Scottish Centre for Regeneration (SCR) or the Scottish Government necessarily support them. They simply reflect what has been debated and what those involved in the event considered useful learning and lessons from their perspectives.WHAT IS THIS LEARNING POINT ABOUT?

This Learning Point captures the key points from the presentation given at the Design Skills Symposium in Stirling on 27 September 2011 by Max Hislop. Max is Programme Manager at GCV Green Network Partnership. GCV (Glasgow Clyde Valley) Green Network Partnership is one of four partnerships delivering aspects of the Central Scotland Green Network, which is part of the National Planning Framework.

“Resilience is the capacity of a system to deal with negative change without collapsing, to withstand shocks, and to rebuild itself and learn”; places which go ‘boing!’

3

INTRODUCTION

The Central Scotland Green Network defines a green network as ‘a strategic network of woodland and other habitats, active travel routes, green space links, watercourses and waterways, providing an enhanced setting for development and other land uses, and improved opportunities for outdoor recreation and cultural activity.’The purpose of a green network –

• Landscape enhances a place’s identity• The provision of walking and cycling routes• It links habitats together• A good environment can attract investment

GCV Network describe these as the outcomes of a green network such as theirs -

• Can make stronger communities• Leads to health improvements• Creates biodiversity• Helps the development of enterprise

Government (Scottish Government in Delivering Better Places and A+DS) say that green infrastructure should be an integral part of the development process and that the design of external spaces is as important as of the buildings, but green organisations have not articulated the case for this strongly enough, and green infrastructure and landscape are still often an afterthought.

Green Networks

Region Whole settlement District

Block / Street Plot

Image: The favelas in Sao Paulo, Brazil - an extreme example of people placemaking.

4

There are 5 design elements to an Integrated Green Infrastructure (IGI)-

1. Habitat networks. These can improve the environment for development, not constitute a restraint on it.

2. Access networks. GIS in particular can be used to help focus on opportunities for improving access

3. Stewardship over time. Resources are needed to maintain and manage IGI

4. Green and open space, including both formal and informal spaces. Connecting these into a green network enhances their individual benefits. Greenspace Scotland’s new Greenspace map of Scotland is an excellent starting-point for this.

5. Water management. SUDS is the law now, so there is an automatic opportunity to create a ‘naturalised SUDS’ using, for example, green roofs, swales, ponds and wetlands, and mimicking nature through use of open streams, rather than culverts.

BCV have commissioned Collective Architecture and AECOM to do four studies showing how water management can be used as the basis for development of IGI. In the study for the Jackton and Gill Burn Valley community growth area, the process started by mapping the water journey, and proceeded to build physical infrastructure around this in support of that. Final master-plan incorporates the same number of houses, but has a much richer environment.

Integrating Green Networks5 Design elements:

5

Key Lessons1 IGI delivers green spaces which are multi-

functional and valued2 There are lots of spatial analyses and

tools available to inform the design process of IGI

3 Surface water management should be the starting-point for a development, not the road layout.

4 Access and habitat networks can be aligned with ‘naturalised’ SUDS

5 Stewardship should be designed in to sustain quality and outcomes.

Key message of presentation A green infrastructure can deliver unique benefits to a place; the integration of a green infrastructure in the urban development process, in particular one based on the management of water, should be a key driver of a masterplan for the creation or the regeneration of a place.

Image: Sarah cited Curitiba, Brazil as an example of successful integration between economic, spatial and transport planning ‘A city designed for people not planners’.

6

Scottish Government Architecture & Place Division

This document is published by the Scottish Government. If you would like to find out more about this publication, please contact Geraldine McAteer in the Architecture and Place Division of the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government APD. Area 2 J South, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh. EH6 6QQ

T: 0131 244 0548E: geraldine.mcateer@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

www.scotland.gov.uk

The views expressed in this Learning Point are not necessarily shared by the Scottish Government.