Research Workshop: Greening of Cities; Auckland, New Zealand; 30 November 3 December 2012

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

In 1950, less than 30 percent of the world's population lived in cities. This number grew to 47 percent in the year 2000 (2.8 billion people), and it is expected to grow to 60 percent by the year 2025. The functional infrastructure services needed to accommodate this growth is staggering. If nothing is done, the potential effect on natural ecosystems could be catastrophic, both locally and globally. To avoid this will require the expertise of multiple disciplines (engineering, ecology, landscape architecture and urban planning) and new ways of thinking about urban infrastructure. The Research Workshop, Greening of Cities, will bring together experts from multiple fields, across the globe. They will identify and prioritize the range of issues that need to be addressed and assess the sufficiency of existing knowledge needed to find solutions. They will identify green technologies, such as green roofs, green walls, constructed wetlands, greenways, green streets and others that hold promise for solving these problems. Workshop attendees will identify ways of quantifying the potential functionality of Green Infrastructure, such as cleaning water, climate modification and filtering air, as well as the multiple values that come from these services, including improving human health, reducing energy consumption, moving people and increasing sustainable economic development. The attendees will also identify important intangible values that come from green urban infrastructure, such as increased wildlife diversity, visual quality and other contributors to quality of urban life. The implications of these issues will be examined at both a local and global scale. In order to understand the potential for incorporating Green Infrastructure into cities, workshop participants will examine selected case examples from around the world. The result of the workshop will be a set of research needs and strategies that will include collaborative research efforts that will provide the knowledge needed to better understand how green infrastructure can benefit the built environment, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and its communities. Cities provide important social and economic opportunities for people, which is why cities around the world are growing at a phenomenal rate. With such growth, we need to ensure that cities are healthy places to live, providing clean water, transportation and energy through urban infrastructure while ensuring people have clean air and healthy places to live and work. In order to achieve affordable, sustainable infrastructure, scientists and engineers are looking at green technologies and regenerative systems, such as green roofs, green walls, constructed wetlands and greenways. For these new, green technologies to be adopted by urban planners and others who build cities, experts must be able to demonstrate the value of these new technologies and how they can be implemented, both through research as well as practical experience. The purpose of this workshop is to gather experts from different fields around the world to examine the problems cities face, to identify potential green infrastructure solutions and to identify the research needed to demonstrate their value.