The Importance of Legibility and Its Relationship with the West End Regeneration Programme

Legibility is a significant quality of urban spaces. It affects people's knowledge of space and options available to them. This paper focused on the importance of the legibility of urban spaces and its relationship with urban design projects, and took the regeneration of Oxford's West End for example to il ustrate how to make urban open green spaces clearly legible.     

Eco-garden Artistic Conception of Central Landscapes in Longxijiayuan Residential District in Zhucheng City,Shandong Province

Design of central landscapes in Longxijiayuan Residential District, Zhucheng City, Shandong Province was introduced. By implementing the design concept of classical Chinese garden in the whole process, this landscape design presented well-organized central green spaces, took fl owing water as the framework, arranged different activity spaces according to actual terrains, designed the bridge to connect both sides of the brook, placed garden settings and benches properly, combined plants properly, and make the whole residential district green and energetic. From the overall planning to the architectural unit design and central landscape design, the residential district shows the ancient rhythm of Chinese elements, and an ecological and harmonious overall environment. The unit design has practical plane, beautiful form, graceful and elegant style, it integrates well into the overall environment.     

Landform Design of Urban Landfill Landscapes

Compared with landform design in common urban green spaces, landform landscape design of garbage landfi ll sites require higher technical regulations, and there are more restrictions for the design. This paper explored landform design of three types of landfi ll sites: domestic garbage landfi ll site, building waste landfi ll site and polluted soil landf ill site. Two aspects were included: exploring landform peculiarity of landfi ll sites by sorting out technologies and regulations; exploring landscape design methods of landf ill landscapes.     

Functions and Plant Configuration of Wuhan Jiangtan Park

With the rapid development of social economy, and constant improvement of living standards, modern people have had higher requirements on neighboring environment. Park green space is an important component of urban ecosystem, it improves quality of urban ecological environment, reduces urban heat island effect, and beautifies city environment. By studying plant configuration in Jiangtan Park, Hankou District, Wuhan City, functional areas were regarded as a whole to collect data, AHP was applied to investigate the sample plots, garden plant landscape evaluation system was established, and landscapes in all units were evaluated. From the perspectives of site type, functional area, plant configuration, landscape composition, this paper analyzed site conditions of Jiangtan Park, provided scientific theoretic support and case reference for the plant configuration of park green spaces, which would play an extremely important role in improving urban ecological environment and enhancing urban landscape effect.     

Application of Drought-resistant Varieties in Urban Green Spaces

As the connotations of urban green spaces and urban eco-green spaces have been more realized,drought-resistant green spaces have become a unique development trend,and drought-resistant flowers have been more applied in green spaces.This paper summarized characteristics of drought-resistant flowers,foreign and domestic researches in this field,advantages and disadvantages of their application in urban green spaces,and proposed key directions of the future researches.     

Planning of Urban Public Disaster-prevention Green Spaces: A Case Study of Living Water Park in Chengdu City

Based on disaster-prevention functions of urban public green spaces, necessity and significance of emergency shelters in a city were analyzed. Taking Living Water Park in Chengdu for example, planning of urban public disaster-prevention green spaces was analyzed to further explore planning of urban disaster-prevention green space system and refugee spaces, and provide instructions for the planning and construction of urban disaster-prevention green spaces in China.     

Planning Overall Landscapes,Building a Garden City:on the Revision of Guangzhou Urban Green Space System Planning

The concept of urban green space system planning was proposed after analyzing the background of compiling Guangzhou green space system planning and current situation of local green spaces,i.e. design landscape pattern of Guangzhou City during urban agglomeration of the Pearl River Delta,and highlight Lingnan cultures(Lingnan refers to south of the Five Ridges) and features of "Flower City"(another name of Guangzhou). Key points of planning are protecting ecological barriers in the north,improving urban garden structure in the center,using wetland reasonably in the south,to maintain integrality and continuity of the landscape pattern.     

Analysis and Reform Strategies of Campus Landscape of Hainan University

Campus landscape as an important campus green space carries such important functions as traffic, learning, communication, recreation, and entertainment. Landscape design of campus green spaces should not only be practical and beautiful, but also be able to show the natural and cultural atmosphere of campus, and the charm of the university based on its regional features, ecological environment and historical context. Through further analysis of green space landscape on Haidian Campus of Hainan University,this paper summarized the advantages and disadvantages of its green space landscape, and proposed the strategies for improving campus green space landscape of Hainan University from the perspectives of regionality, ecology and individuality.     

Construction of Ecological Network for Urban Green Space System from the Perspective of Landscape Ecology:A Case Study of Wanzhou District,Chongqing Municipality

Green spaces in Wanzhou District, Chongqing Municipality were not closely linked and failed to form an integrated ecological network, this paper analyzed and assessed current situation of green spaces in the local area from the perspective of landscape ecology, and then established the landscape ecology-oriented ecological network construction, restructured green paces in Wanzhou District using the landscape composition of "patch–corridor–matrix", and connected the scattered green patches using green corridors, so as to form a reasonable ecological network of green spaces.     

Disaster-prevention and Evacuation Functions of Urban Green Spaces in Dujiangyan City

In view of disaster-prevention and evacuation functions of urban green spaces, data collection, field investigation and questionnaire survey were integrated to analyze current situation and functions of green spaces in Dujiangyan City. Suggestions for enhancing disaster-prevention and evacuation functions of urban green spaces were proposed on the basis of analyzing and summarizing investigation results.     

An Integrative Approach to Value‐Added Planning: From Community Needs to Local Authority Revenue

The concept of value‐added planning (as part of the Valuing Attractive Landscapes in the Urban Economy, INTERREG IVB North West Europe Project) is introduced in this paper to facilitate integrative planning, focusing on the benefits that use and non‐use green spaces can provide to an urban area. The aim is to stress the need to plan for, and protect, green spaces in urban areas by determining the economic values connected to the green spaces and relate that values to community benefit and local authority revenue. The paper identifies tools that can be used to determine the economic value of green spaces based on the environmental, social, and economic benefits. The first section (value) refers to the social value of green spaces as determined from the public perspective and introduces the workbench method as a tool to assist with participatory planning and capturing of the social benefits of green spaces. The second section (added) refers to the environmental benefits of green spaces and, by means of the Green Credit Tool, introduces ways to ensure the protection of the green resources in an area. The final section (planning) refers to the economic benefit of green space, bringing use values and non‐use values of green spaces together. The paper concludes with an integrative framework for value‐added planning, incorporating all the tools presented in the paper, capturing the social, environmental, and economic benefits of green spaces and relating it to community benefit and local authority revenue.     

Pattern Change of Urban Green Space in Beijing from 2000 to 2010

With the rapid urbanization in Beijing, the vegetated surfaces have been increasingly replaced by impervious built surfaces. A clear recognition on the changes in green spaces pattern is vital for urban administrators and planners to optimize the urban development areas and define the ecological protection red lines. Based on the SPOT images and field investigation data of urban green spaces within the sixth ring road of Beijing in 2000, 2005 and 2010, the study investigated the dynamic changes of urban green spaces in this area, by means of GIS techniques and landscape ecology methods. The results indicated that green spaces in Beijing have decreased by 207 km2 from 2000 to 2010 at the expense of agricultural lands and waters. Although there has been some increases in urban forests and grasslands, it cannot compensate the rapid decrease of urban green spaces. The land cover types conversion occurred mainly in the areas between the fifth and sixth ring roads while the zones encircled by the fourth ring road had a little change. In addition, landscape metrics such as number of patches(NP) and shape index(SHAPE) increased, but the mean nearest-neighbor distance(MNN), aggregation index(AI) and patch cohesion index(COHESION) decreased during the period of 2000-2010. Also green landscapes became considerably isolated and fragmented. The study disclosed the obvious changes of green space size, composition and layout in urban districts of Beijing City from 2000 to 2010, and highlighted that construction of urban green space should consider not only the geometric or aesthetic effect, but also the increase of vertical green volume and optimization of spatial layout to fully develop the ecological service functions of green spaces.     

Development Paths of Low-carbon Landscape Design

Through interpreting significance of low-carbon landscape, and analyzing common problems in landscape design industry, paths of low-carbon landscape design were explored from the following perspectives: establishing low-carbon index system for the landscape construction of eco-city; constructing scientific and reasonable spatial layout; using landscapes to interpret low-carbon concepts; enhancing the carbon sink function of urban green spaces; choosing reasonable landscape materials; reducing landscape maintenance cost. The study aims at applying low-carbon concepts in all design projects to achieve sustainable development of urban landscapes.     

Study on Connotations of Industry Park Leisure Culture in Kunming City: A Case Study of Dounan International Flower Industry Park

Taking Dounan International Flower Industry Park in Chenggong District for example, neighboring environment and other tourism resources are combined on the basis of the five planned functional areas(fl ower trade and expo area, comprehensive service and distribution area, post-harvest treatment and information service area, international fl ower research and exhibition area, international fl ower enterprise exhibition and supporting service area), and recreational functions designed to build it into a comprehensive industrial and recreational park with sightseeing, leisure, and science popularization functions. Integration and adjustment of leisure spaces in Dounan International Flower Industry Park focus on the following aspects: re-plan the layout of leisure spaces; industrial park promotes restructuring of leisure spaces; residential functions are transferred to new leisure spaces; commercial service industry promotes leisure spaces; government transforms its functions and expands functions of leisure spaces; new technology pushes forward the change of residents' leisure time structure, so as to improve leisure functions of Dounan International Flower Industry Park in an all-around way.     

Analysis of Courtyard Plant Landscape Design

Plant landscaping in courtyard design was studied from four perspectives of building, water, road, garden setting and plant landscaping. Landscape designs in Guangzhou Baiyun Hotel, the Humble Administrator's Garden (Suzhou), and bamboo pathway of Small Yingzhou in the West Lake (Hangzhou) to improve scientific and artistic properties of plant landscaping, and develop economic, social and ecological effects of garden green spaces to the most.     

Educational Function Evolution of Urban Green Spaces in China

Understanding and ways of demonstrating educational functions of urban green spaces were summarized on the basis of 4 historical periods:ancient times,period of the Republic of China,early years of the People’s Republic of China,and after the reform and opening up.In ancient times,imperial palace gardens and temple gardens were used to advocate morality and etiquette,so as to consolidate governance of the ruling class.In the period of the Republic of China,parks were used to propagate democracy,civilization and patriotism.In the early years of the People’s Republic of China,urban green spaces were mainly used as the base for cultural,ideological and political propagation.After the reform and opening up,educational contents and forms of urban green spaces have been enriched and gradually become bases for scientific popularization,cultural,humanistic,art and history education.Urban green spaces as the products of social development reflect evolution of political,economic,cultural and social environment,and changes of human needs in the changes of its educational content.     

Development Trend of Vertical Greening in China and Countermeasures

Current situation of urban green spaces was analyzed, vertical greening, elevated floor and roof garden were effi cient ways of expanding urban green coverage area. The signifi cance of expanding green areas, improving soil, renovating and maintaining green plants was discussed.     

Landscape Planning for the Pond Renovation Engineering in East District of Hekou City,Henan Province

Pond is the lung of city and a signifi cant ecological infrastructure on which sustainable development of the city relies, it plays an essential role in maintaining healthy development of the city. This paper, on the basis of landscape design theories, explored the means of restoring ecological conditions of abandoned ponds in the city, applied various approaches to create park green spaces with beautiful landscapes and complete functions. Pond renovation is an essential task in the rapid urban construction.     

深圳城市绿地土壤入渗性能及影响因素研究

研究深圳市城市绿地土壤水分入渗性能及其相关影响因素,以期为海绵城市建设,深圳市城市绿地水土保持提供参考。针对绿地不同植被类型（草地、乔木、灌木）及不同土层深度(0~30 cm、30~60 cm),利用Guelph入渗仪现场测定土壤饱和导水率,并分析土壤理化性质对土壤水分入渗的影响。结果表明：深圳绿地土壤入渗性能较差,饱和导水率不良及以下等级高达63.42%;乔木上层土壤及灌木上层土壤饱和导水率较高,均显著高于各自下层土壤饱和导水率(P<0.05);绿地土壤砂粒含量较高,平均达52%以上,土壤容重偏高,平均为1.62 g/cm ³。土壤质地可显著影响土壤入渗特性,砂粒含量越高,土壤渗透性越好(P<0.01),容重、含水率、砾石含量与土壤饱和导水率显著负相关(P<0.05)。深圳绿地土壤入渗性能较差,未来可考虑降低压实程度、提高土壤砂粒含量来改良土壤渗透性。     

健康视阈下城市公园绿地休闲游憩适宜性评价——以杭州城北体育公园为例

在综合分析城市公园绿地健康促进效应和相关评价模型研究的基础上，对健康视阈下的城市公园绿地休闲游憩适宜性评价指标体系及评价模型构建进行探索。（1）在综合运用文献分析法和专家咨询法的基础上，构建城市公园绿地健康休闲游憩适宜性评价指标体系，共包括6个准则层、15个要素层和和40个指标因子。（2）采用层次分析法、熵值法确定评价指标体系中各指标的权重，准则层中健康功效感知(0.2663)和大众审美(0.2470)列前2位；要素层中排名靠前的评价指标为生理健康(0.1332)、植物景观(0.0988)、空气质量(0.0926)和游憩空间(0.0871)。（3）借助场地使用者问卷调查评分，对杭州城北体育公园绿地的健康休闲游憩适宜性进行实证评价，评价整体得分为4.1996，属于优良水平，但水体景观、基础服务设施等存在问题。针对评价结果，提出了5个方面的优化发展策略。