Share North
Creating Urban Eco-Zones Favoured by Decreased Parking Space
“In the planning of Helsingborg’s new urban housing development renewal project H+ (Helsingborg+) and the envisioned local blue and green infrastructure, it is important for parks and open spaces to become multifunctional, i.e. serve as recreational areas, but also function as energy neutral organic filters to capture air and water pollution.
This multi-functionality of proposed Eco-zones can be integrated into the master plan by embodying open green storm water channels and thriving wetlands in the proposed H+ area. Wetlands are bio-diverse hotspots, since they serve as valuable habitats for a greater biodiversity of species, which are often endangered in the city context. Wetlands act as a micro-protective climate, by being natural refreshing buffer zones to the city’s urban heat effects, noise and visual pollution.
Additionally, wetlands in the old port area H+ can also serve to mitigate the risks of a predicted 1-2-metre sea level rise due to climate change in the Helsingborg area. Furthermore, planned Eco-zones as an active socio-ecological surface, reflects calm for stressful urbanites who can benefit from the aesthetic values of wetlands for health and as a social function for enjoyable meetings. These Eco-zones, i.e. constructed urban wetlands, are adapted so that they can receive runoff water (storm water) from both rooftops and from streets and paved areas and are linking the hydrological cycles together for a sustainable urban metabolism.
This report evaluates experiences, results and best practices from similar urban regeneration projects in Shanghai and Los Angeles. These cases are categorised in five different services that wetlands provide, notably: a) climate adaptation (both urban heat and climate change); b) biological diversity; c) possible water cleansing (of grey, black, and storm water); d) social health; e) other values of urban wetlands. Finally, the report advocates for an organic Cleantech such as engineered wetlands and open green storm water channels, utilising bio-mimicking technology that solves many urban environmental problems (10 of the 16 national environmental objectives) in coordination between sectors that manage energy, water, sewage and waste in the H + area.
The study thus shows innovative ecological solutions that could be arranged in the H + area in Helsingborg Sweden, instead of too much hard infrastructure in the form of, for example, parking spaces. Shared Mobility is a tool for reducing the need for unnecessary hard infrastructure.”
You can download the full report here.