Facing Climate Change: A Guide for Local Authorities

It is apparent that climate change is spreading across the globe and even though we have known about its science for decades now, action and adaptability have been slow. Scientists and environmentalists have made it clear that the extreme environmental phenomena we see are enhanced and appear more often as a result of climate change. However policy is still adapting to the new situation. We need to accept that we are not planning for ‘extremes’, but for a ‘new normal’ and therefore various mechanisms need to change or adapt to secure a sustainable future

How Can Landscape Architecture Influence Systemic Change to Achieve Sustainable Cities and Regions

This paper presents how the ideas of landscape, design quality and drawings can influence systemic change to result in sustainable cities and regions. The research related to this paper explores project frameworks and design methods in order to reveal innovative ways and processes for creating environmentally friendly cities and regions that will have the power to adapt and mitigate climatic issues of the future. Through a series of explorations on existing landscape projects and while using a series of stakeholder engagement workshops contacted at a pan-European level the paper examines ways in which systemic change is possible and the outcomes it has in relation to the landscape. Using previously implemented and ongoing landscape projects such as the Room for the River (the Netherlands) and the West Midlands National Park (UK), the paper discusses how bold landscape-led visions influence decision making and support systemic change on a spatial scale. Drawing on experience gained during a series of stakeholder engagement workshops, where the projects of the Tame Valley Wetlands Partnership (UK) and the Urban Farming and Growing Network (UK) were selected as case studies, the research presents key findings and presents lessons learned that can build capacity and improve the understanding and management of stakeholders when it comes to spatial planning and urban design. The paper argues that a new way of thinking in design, policy or governance is not enough if these disciplines act individually. The breakthrough comes when each discipline collaborates with the aim to future proof our cities and regions. By presenting pioneering examples and models giving us tools for a systemic change, the paper aims to demonstrate that large scale developments can be brilliant examples of the new methodologies applied and lessons learnt. This research concludes that systemic change is represented across all levels, policy, decision making, governance, design and implementation if the aim is to deliver a sustainable city

A Low Carbon Landscape

Climate change, future resilience, low carbon and environmental challenges are concepts we hear about very often. With the latest developments on global warming and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) accepting that a warming greater than 1.5°C is not geophysically unavoidable, but future emission reductions will determine if and how it will occur, an increasing number of professionals and the public are exploring their relationship with nature. The momentum built in recent years in relation to the concepts of climate adaptation, land use, food security, behavioural change and a resilient way of living, recognise climate change as a concern that urgently needs to be addressed (United Nations, 2015). The landscape relates to food, agriculture, deforestation, water insecurity, urban sprawl, Greenhouse gas emissions, culture, history and also…..our identity. Therefore it is important to understand that what a low carbon landscape offers is much more than the term can describe. It is a concept supporting a new way of living, a new idea for landscape developments and the interest to climate resilience and collaboration

Understanding landscape; the process to a quality and sustainable space

Part of a broader strategy to examine how a more holistic approach to landscape may significantly contribute the global challenges by re-establishing landscape at the forefront of development and as the context within which the development processes take place, this paper investigates the extent to which low carbon and spatial quality can be delivered in regional infrastructure projects. The paper looks at the outcomes of two case studies, one of the Landscape Observatory (Spain) and the second of the Room for the River/Dutch Waterline (Netherlands). The two case studies are complementary, the first examining the way the idea of landscape can change hearts and minds, the second showing how the idea of landscape is used to shape the implementation of national projects in the Netherlands. This research shows how the Landscape Observatory has changed public opinion through a series of catalogues, seminars, projects and public participation to such an extent that there is now a public law protecting landscape – a concept that would have been inconceivable 10 years ago. The two national programmes in the Netherlands known as the ‘Room for the River’ and the ‘Dutch Waterline’, devised in response to the problems of climate change and long term sustainability of the Netherlands, demonstrate the potential and significance of introducing the quality of space as a vital aspect of regional infrastructure. In their different ways, these case studies have shown how this idea of landscape can be used, through a range of specific tools and policies to achieve low carbon and sustainable outcomes as well as the extent to which both are dependent the various modes of visual and spatial representation of concepts, ideas and a sense of place to convey the powerful and profound value of the landscape. Finally, the potential of understanding landscape as the context for the process of development will be analysed by discussing the impact these case studies might have had for the regions

Sustainable landscape design; key ideas for effective implementation

This paper forms part of wider research looking at pioneer landscape strategies across Europe, examining the extent to which low carbon, sustainability and spatial quality can be delivered effectively on urban and strategic scale, and covers examples from the ‘Landscape Observatory’ (Spain), the ‘Room for the River’ and ‘New Dutch Waterline’ (Netherlands), and the ‘HS2/HS2LV’ project (UK). This paper presents the Netherlands and the UK case studies, illustrating effective ways where the key issues of low carbon and quality of space are integrated in the design framework and the impact this has on the decision making. The case studies have shown that effective implementation requires visual communication and an in-depth understanding of how the concepts of sustainability and spatial quality are expressed. Policies, and legislation are also considered significant for landscape based developments