**3. Urban landscape**

Urban landscape is basically formed of open and green spaces within an urban environment3. However, it is not totally independent from the surrounding buildings and structures. Altogether, they form the character and identity of a city, and sense of place. It contributes to the cityscape by means of aesthetics and function. It also supports urban ecology. It is dynamic and constantly evolving. According to von Borcke (2003) *it is not an add-on but rather forms the basis for creating places*. Urban landscape elements function as separator and/or connector agents between different land uses. They can form a buffer zone between conflicting uses (e.g. between industrial and housing areas) while they can facilitate movement of citizens throughout the city (e.g. greenways). They have the flexibility to serve for multiple uses and for different group of users in the community (Anonymous, 2009).

Urban landscape also contributes to the cityscape in terms of visual quality. Within dense built environments, it creates a sense of openness and more attractive places to live. Urban landscape helps to balance human-scale in city centers where vertical effect of buildings and structures dominates. It softens the "hardness" of buildings and structures. Well designed and managed urban landscape can improve citizens' quality of life in many other ways as well. The benefits of urban landscape are explained below.

#### *Ecological and environmental benefits*

Contemporary urban ecology assumes that urban areas are ecosystems since they have interacting biological and physical complexes (Cadenasso & Pickett, 2008). McHarg played a major role in emergence of ecological landscape design approaches in urban development. His work "Design with Nature"(1969) displays how nature and city might coexist together. However, ecology has been neglected in urban planning systems of most developing countries which mostly focus on the relationship between physical and socioeconomic aspects of an urban development. Urban green spaces are fundamental in sustaining the urban ecology. Some of the environmental and ecological benefits of the urban landscape are listed below:


<sup>3</sup> From now on "urban landscape" and "open and green spaces" will be used as synonyms in the chapter.

Today urban environments have also a vast pressure on rural environments due to decentralization which causes loss of boundaries between urban and rural environments. Therefore it has a negative impact on natural resources which provide goods and energy for the urban dwellers. That is why sustainability has become the most important goal in urban design and planning more than ever. Urban design approaches should not neglect the natural processes which shape and influence the quality of life in urban environments. Since ecological principles are fundamental to landscape design and planning, urban landscape design plays an influential role in creating sustainable urban environments in context of

Urban landscape is basically formed of open and green spaces within an urban environment3. However, it is not totally independent from the surrounding buildings and structures. Altogether, they form the character and identity of a city, and sense of place. It contributes to the cityscape by means of aesthetics and function. It also supports urban ecology. It is dynamic and constantly evolving. According to von Borcke (2003) *it is not an add-on but rather forms the basis for creating places*. Urban landscape elements function as separator and/or connector agents between different land uses. They can form a buffer zone between conflicting uses (e.g. between industrial and housing areas) while they can facilitate movement of citizens throughout the city (e.g. greenways). They have the flexibility to serve for multiple uses and for different group of users in the community

Urban landscape also contributes to the cityscape in terms of visual quality. Within dense built environments, it creates a sense of openness and more attractive places to live. Urban landscape helps to balance human-scale in city centers where vertical effect of buildings and structures dominates. It softens the "hardness" of buildings and structures. Well designed and managed urban landscape can improve citizens' quality of life in many other ways as

Contemporary urban ecology assumes that urban areas are ecosystems since they have interacting biological and physical complexes (Cadenasso & Pickett, 2008). McHarg played a major role in emergence of ecological landscape design approaches in urban development. His work "Design with Nature"(1969) displays how nature and city might coexist together. However, ecology has been neglected in urban planning systems of most developing countries which mostly focus on the relationship between physical and socioeconomic aspects of an urban development. Urban green spaces are fundamental in sustaining the urban ecology. Some of the environmental and ecological benefits of the urban landscape

Urban green spaces provide flora and fauna with a habitat to live and therefore support

They also act as ecological corridors between urban, periurban and rural areas. They

3 From now on "urban landscape" and "open and green spaces" will be used as synonyms in the chapter.

support movement of living organisms between these areas.

well. The benefits of urban landscape are explained below.

resource management.

**3. Urban landscape** 

(Anonymous, 2009).

are listed below:

*Ecological and environmental benefits* 

biodiversity conservation.


#### *Social benefits*

Humans are the dominating elements of an urban environment. Social interaction, as a basic need for humans, is essential in developing sense of community, belonging and security. Social interaction in cities is possibly the highest in public open and green spaces. Urban open and green spaces offer citizens various activity choices including recreational and sports activities which promote social cohesion. In 1992, researchers from Pennsylvania State University have conducted a nationwide study to investigate American public's perceptions of the benefits of local recreation and park services. They concluded that local parks and recreation services are linked to sense of community.

Furthermore people from different demographical backgrounds share public urban landscape in their everyday life. While today democracy is regarded as the only legitimate form of government throughout the world, urban open and green spaces possess the notion of democracy in their nature. These places are designed and serve to everyone in the community. On the other hand this raises the issues of accessibility, equity and participatory planning which will be discussed in the next section.

All people need leisure time for relaxation and self fulfillment. Especially people living in urban environments seem to be more stressed and need more leisure time for their physical and mental health. There is a strong relationship between lifestyles, physical environment and leisure (Oğuz Çakc, 2010). Most people engage in leisure activities so that they can socialize. Urban open and green spaces can be designed to serve the community's leisure needs. It has also an economical aspect; for example playing ball games in a park or picnicking with friends is much cheaper than having a membership to a sports club or going to a restaurant. Unfortunately, nowadays people seem to spend more time indoors rather than outdoors which also leads to physical health problems due to inadequate physical activity. Designers should consider the ways to attract people to open and green spaces so that every group in the community can enjoy social benefits of urban landscape as well.

Urban Landscape Design 285

fatigue and allow directed attention mechanisms to rest (Berman et al., 2008). Even viewing natural environments is suggested to have positive impacts on health. Kaplan (2001) points out that nature views from windows influences well being and residential satisfaction (Oguz et al., 2010). Similarly, Ulrich (2002) suggested that viewing nature or garden landscapes can reduce stress and improve effects of clinical treatments in hospitals. Grahn and Stigsdotter's (2003) research also supports the idea that people, who spend more time in

In the last century urban parks were referred as being "lungs of the city", which emphasizes their physical health benefits for urban citizens. As mentioned previously, urban vegetation cover provides a cleaner environment. Besides urban open and green spaces offer citizens' environments to exercise. The positive effects of physical activity on human health are well known. The regular physical activity is associated with reduced rates of coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, colon cancer and depression (Powell & Prat, 1996). Wolch et al. (2011) found that body mass index (BMI) in children with better access to urban parks is less likely to show a significant increase. In their study, Maas et al. (2006) investigated the relationship between the amount of green space in living environments and perceived general health. They found that the amount of green space has a positive effect on health although the causes remain unknown. They also suggested that green spaces should be given more importance in spatial planning policies. However, according to Lee and Maheswaran (2010) there is weak evidence between green space and both physical and mental health, instead factors such as quality and accessibility influence the use of green spaces for physical activity purposes. On the other hand Takano et al. (2002) concluded that longevity of urban senior citizens is positively influenced by living in areas with green spaces in walking distances. Sugiyama and Ward Thompson (2007) also suggested that

outdoor environments have an important role in older people's well being.

determine economic value of urban landscapes in this context.

other sectors such as playground manufacturers and nurseries.

There are many research on understanding and explaining the effects of urban landscape on human health. Although the links between health and green spaces remain missing, the literature review given above clearly display that urban landscape has positive impacts on improving both mental and physical health in several ways. It is landscape architect's role to create outdoor environments which maximize the benefits of urban landscapes for citizens

Although the economic valuation of urban landscape is difficult, open and green spaces

 Their aesthetic contribution to cityscape influences property values. In general, urban landscape elements increase the nearby property value and enhance marketability of real estate (Anonymous, 2010). Accessibility, quality and visibility are basic factors that

 Urban landscapes provide employment opportunities during their design, construction and maintenance. The construction and maintenance of urban landscapes also supports

The health benefits of urban landscapes which were summarized above can reduce the

Public urban landscapes provide environments for walking, sports and other

recreational activities for no cost at all, especially for lower income groups.

outdoor environments, are less affected by stress.

to relax, exercise and restore.

have economic benefits in several ways:

costs of national health expenses.

*Economic benefits* 

Environmental education can be regarded amongst the social benefits of urban landscapes. Green spaces can be thought of as outdoor laboratories to observe and get to know about nature. Environmental education is necessary for developing awareness and responsible behaviors towards the natural environment, especially for children. Although environmental education is integrated within the most school curricula, without physical interaction with natural environments it is not possible to develop environmentally responsible behaviors and attitudes (Çakc Oğuz, 2010). Green spaces in urban landscape may play an important role in environmental education. For instance, botanical parks are where people can learn about different plants, their living conditions and observe the physiological changes during time. Even urban street trees present the seasonal physiological changes in plants. Green spaces are also found to have impact on reducing violent behaviors in urban environments. For example Sullivan and Kuo (1996) investigated the effects of plants on social behavior and concluded that urban forests can help to reduce domestic violence levels in cities (Jackson, 2003).

#### *Health benefits*

The degradation of natural environments inevitably affects human health in a negative way. According to World Health Organization (2012); e*nvironmental hazards are responsible for as much as a quarter of the total burden of disease world-wide, and more than one-third of the burden among children*. The relationship between environment, particularly urban environments and human health is rather complex. There are too many environmental factors that influence human health. People are more likely to be exposed to pollution and infectious diseases in cities compared to natural environments. Besides, human behavior trends in urban environments facilitate microbial traffic (McMichael, 2000) and globalization expands the spread of epidemic diseases, mainly through global transportation of humans and goods. Moreover the changes in urban lifestyles lead to some serious health problems which decrease life quality. For instance, passive lifestyles of urbanized communities (i.e. low physical activity) are strongly linked to obesity which has become a major health problem throughout the world. Clinical studies have shown that there are many other serious health problems associated with obesity, such as diabetes (Mokdad et al., 2003), coronary heart disease (Flint et al., 2010), Alzheimer's disease (Profenno et al., 2010), reduced fertility (Brannian, 2011), depression (Luppino et al.2010), osteoporosis (Paula & Rosen, 2010) and cancer (Freedland et al., 2009). Likewise, stress, which is an inevitable outcome of fast paced urban lifestyles, is found to have an impact upon the immune, circulatory, and nervous systems (Esch et al., 2003). Moreover, urban citizens have less contact opportunities with nature which is also linked to health and well being.

Parks and gardens are where urban citizens can contact with nature in their daily life. Health benefits of being in contact with natural environments have been known for centuries. In his writings the Roman senator Pliny the Younger described the mental and physical therapeutic effects of exercising and spending time in his villa gardens (Bowe, 2004; Ward Thompson, 2005). In Europe, during the medieval ages, the cloister gardens of the monasteries were used as healing gardens where patients were treated, exercised and relaxed (Ulrich, 2002; Ward Thompson, 2005). However an urban environment contains too many stimuli which attract directed attention. According to Kaplan's Attention Restoration Theory (ART) (1995), intense directed attention causes mental fatigue and natural environments, where involuntary attention is attracted, help to recover from psychological

Environmental education can be regarded amongst the social benefits of urban landscapes. Green spaces can be thought of as outdoor laboratories to observe and get to know about nature. Environmental education is necessary for developing awareness and responsible behaviors towards the natural environment, especially for children. Although environmental education is integrated within the most school curricula, without physical interaction with natural environments it is not possible to develop environmentally responsible behaviors and attitudes (Çakc Oğuz, 2010). Green spaces in urban landscape may play an important role in environmental education. For instance, botanical parks are where people can learn about different plants, their living conditions and observe the physiological changes during time. Even urban street trees present the seasonal physiological changes in plants. Green spaces are also found to have impact on reducing violent behaviors in urban environments. For example Sullivan and Kuo (1996) investigated the effects of plants on social behavior and concluded that urban forests can help to reduce

The degradation of natural environments inevitably affects human health in a negative way. According to World Health Organization (2012); e*nvironmental hazards are responsible for as much as a quarter of the total burden of disease world-wide, and more than one-third of the burden among children*. The relationship between environment, particularly urban environments and human health is rather complex. There are too many environmental factors that influence human health. People are more likely to be exposed to pollution and infectious diseases in cities compared to natural environments. Besides, human behavior trends in urban environments facilitate microbial traffic (McMichael, 2000) and globalization expands the spread of epidemic diseases, mainly through global transportation of humans and goods. Moreover the changes in urban lifestyles lead to some serious health problems which decrease life quality. For instance, passive lifestyles of urbanized communities (i.e. low physical activity) are strongly linked to obesity which has become a major health problem throughout the world. Clinical studies have shown that there are many other serious health problems associated with obesity, such as diabetes (Mokdad et al., 2003), coronary heart disease (Flint et al., 2010), Alzheimer's disease (Profenno et al., 2010), reduced fertility (Brannian, 2011), depression (Luppino et al.2010), osteoporosis (Paula & Rosen, 2010) and cancer (Freedland et al., 2009). Likewise, stress, which is an inevitable outcome of fast paced urban lifestyles, is found to have an impact upon the immune, circulatory, and nervous systems (Esch et al., 2003). Moreover, urban citizens have less contact opportunities with

Parks and gardens are where urban citizens can contact with nature in their daily life. Health benefits of being in contact with natural environments have been known for centuries. In his writings the Roman senator Pliny the Younger described the mental and physical therapeutic effects of exercising and spending time in his villa gardens (Bowe, 2004; Ward Thompson, 2005). In Europe, during the medieval ages, the cloister gardens of the monasteries were used as healing gardens where patients were treated, exercised and relaxed (Ulrich, 2002; Ward Thompson, 2005). However an urban environment contains too many stimuli which attract directed attention. According to Kaplan's Attention Restoration Theory (ART) (1995), intense directed attention causes mental fatigue and natural environments, where involuntary attention is attracted, help to recover from psychological

domestic violence levels in cities (Jackson, 2003).

nature which is also linked to health and well being.

*Health benefits* 

fatigue and allow directed attention mechanisms to rest (Berman et al., 2008). Even viewing natural environments is suggested to have positive impacts on health. Kaplan (2001) points out that nature views from windows influences well being and residential satisfaction (Oguz et al., 2010). Similarly, Ulrich (2002) suggested that viewing nature or garden landscapes can reduce stress and improve effects of clinical treatments in hospitals. Grahn and Stigsdotter's (2003) research also supports the idea that people, who spend more time in outdoor environments, are less affected by stress.

In the last century urban parks were referred as being "lungs of the city", which emphasizes their physical health benefits for urban citizens. As mentioned previously, urban vegetation cover provides a cleaner environment. Besides urban open and green spaces offer citizens' environments to exercise. The positive effects of physical activity on human health are well known. The regular physical activity is associated with reduced rates of coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, colon cancer and depression (Powell & Prat, 1996). Wolch et al. (2011) found that body mass index (BMI) in children with better access to urban parks is less likely to show a significant increase. In their study, Maas et al. (2006) investigated the relationship between the amount of green space in living environments and perceived general health. They found that the amount of green space has a positive effect on health although the causes remain unknown. They also suggested that green spaces should be given more importance in spatial planning policies. However, according to Lee and Maheswaran (2010) there is weak evidence between green space and both physical and mental health, instead factors such as quality and accessibility influence the use of green spaces for physical activity purposes. On the other hand Takano et al. (2002) concluded that longevity of urban senior citizens is positively influenced by living in areas with green spaces in walking distances. Sugiyama and Ward Thompson (2007) also suggested that outdoor environments have an important role in older people's well being.

There are many research on understanding and explaining the effects of urban landscape on human health. Although the links between health and green spaces remain missing, the literature review given above clearly display that urban landscape has positive impacts on improving both mental and physical health in several ways. It is landscape architect's role to create outdoor environments which maximize the benefits of urban landscapes for citizens to relax, exercise and restore.

#### *Economic benefits*

Although the economic valuation of urban landscape is difficult, open and green spaces have economic benefits in several ways:


Urban Landscape Design 287

analysis (suitability analysis) aims to define potentials and constraints of an environment for land use planning. Although he has been criticized for neglecting cities and social dimensions, he promoted integration of the natural processes into planning and design. The suitability analysis of McHarg still constitutes a basis for contemporary landscape planning and design. Assessing the relationships between each component of an environment enables designers and planners to recognize the true potential of a site for various land uses. Neglecting natural values in design causes high costs of construction and maintenance

Ecological sustainability is a tough yet crucial challenge in landscape design. It is often hard for the designer to integrate his artistic desires with the ecological facts. Yet, ecological mechanisms can help and guide the landscape architect through the design, because landscape design mostly depends on natural resources. In their study, Cadenasso and Pickett (2008) presented and discussed five urban ecology principles in context of urban

**Principle Principle basics Design and practice** 

Cities are ecosystems by virtue of having interacting biological and physical

Urban ecosystems include four components: organisms, a physical setting and conditions, social structures, and the built environment.

Heterogeneity in urban landscapes can be caused by both biophysical and social structures and processes. In turn, biophysical and social processes respond to urban spatial

Change in the structures and flows within cities, and between cities and other

All landscape designs and management schemes should be judged for their ability to contribute to both social and ecological goods and services, and to reduce both social and ecological risks and vulnerabilities (Steiner 2002; Grove et al. 2007).

ecosystems lend a dynamic element to urban form and morphology (Decker et al. 2000;

Concepts and approaches basic to ecological research can be applied to urban areas in an effort to understand how the city itself functions as an ecosystem (Alberti et al.

Table 1. Ecological principles and design applications (adapted from Cadenasso and Pickett, 2008).

**implications** 

ecosystems.

experience.

processes.

Design affects all four components of human

Design should enhance heterogeneity, and its ecological functions.

Design must accommodate internal and external changes projects can

Design should recognize and plan for feedbacks between social and natural

Remnant ecological processes yielding ecological services should be maintained or restored.

landscape design. Table 1 shows the summary of their work.

complexes.

heterogeneity.

2003).

Kaika 2005; Shane 2005)

(Memlük, 2009).

Cities are ecosystems

Cities are heterogeneous

Cities are dynamic

Human and natural processes interact in cities

Ecological processes remain important in cities

