Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning
Abstract
Various tools have been developed to improve environmental planning in cities. One of these is the Biotope Area Factor tool (BAF), which examines green and blue surfaces and how well they deliver a selected set of ecosystem services. In this study, 18 surfaces (to be used in an BAF tool) were weighted by six different expert groups in terms of six different environmental impacts areas (noise, urban drainage, biodiversity, air quality, recreation, local climate). The results revealed that different surfaces were considered good at different things and that no surface was best at everything. They also revealed that a surface in itself cannot solve a specific environmental problem e.g. noise or recreation, which must be borne in mind when using tools such as BAF. The experts involved in the workshops were greatly helped by a combination of individual weighting and open discussion and by ranking pictures of the surfaces along a continuum
