Developing the Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure as a Tool for Urban Air Quality Management

Joanna Badach (), Jakub Szczepański, Wojciech Bonenberg, Jacek Gębicki and Lucyna Nyka
Additional contact information
Joanna Badach: Department of Urban Architecture and Waterscapes, Faculty of Architecture, Gdańsk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Street, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland
Jakub Szczepański: Department of History, Theory of Architecture and Conservation of Monuments, Faculty of Architecture, Gdańsk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Street, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland
Wojciech Bonenberg: Institute of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Poznań University of Technology, 2 Jacka Rychlewskiego Street, 61-131 Poznań, Poland
Jacek Gębicki: Department of Process Engineering and Chemical Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdańsk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Street, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland
Lucyna Nyka: Department of Urban Architecture and Waterscapes, Faculty of Architecture, Gdańsk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Street, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-29

Abstract: Urban structure is an important factor that shapes the process of urban ventilation and pollution dispersion. With proper planning of the urban spatial layout, city breathability can be effectively regulated, contributing to urban air quality improvement. This paper investigates the development and current management of urban systems of green and open spaces in four Polish cities: Gdańsk, Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław, with a particular focus on the planning aspects of urban ventilation and air quality management. The initial GIS-based comparison of historical plans and the current spatial layouts of the cities show that these systems, consciously shaped at the beginning of the twentieth century, remain clearly identifiable. However, in some locations, the continuance of these systems was interrupted by later investments. The next step was to develop GIS procedures to effectively map the spatial distribution of selected urban form indicators that are related to urban ventilation, especially the frontal area index. The results made it possible to determine the main features of the current ventilation systems and to identify some of the local problem areas. The last phase of the study was to conduct a local-scale analysis of these problem areas. With this study, the applicability of various analysis and simulation tools for the purpose of improving city breathability by appropriate integrated planning and design decisions was demonstrated. The presented approach, taking into account the city- and micro-scale interactions, should be used in current planning practice to preserve the historically developed ventilation systems.

Keywords: city breathability; urban ventilation; urban air quality management; blue-green infrastructure; integrated urban planning; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:15:p:9688-:d:881853

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