The Role of Ecological Networks in Environmental Logic–Identity Forming Design of Urban Regions, Case Study: Isfahan Poladshahr Urban Region

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Environment Planning and Design, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

2 MSc in Environmental Design Engineering, Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
This study is dealt with the environmental planning from a bio-cybernetic and hierarchical systems viewpoint within the context of landscape ecology. This viewpoint requires not only knowledge of the science of ecology but also ecological wisdom in order to recognize the place of humankind in nature. The conceptual and practical approach which is provided will help landscape planners play a useful role in this process. The study looks at the concept of ecology in urban landscape of Poladshahr Newtown, Isfahan. The paper outlines some of the challenges associated with urban regions landscape development in order to achieve the following aims: (1) to apply a landscape ecology approach in conceptualizing a model of thought for urban region landscape development; and (2) to suggest strategies for the important role of networking in different levels of organizational orders in the process of designing urban region identity. The approach is based on ecological processes and mostly focuses on ecological principles which play a leading role in achieving sustainable urban region landscapes. It necessitates that any planning strategy, especially in large-scale urban region landscapes, should consider the concepts of implementing and designing complex ecological networks. In this context, multi-objective urban networks go beyond the ecological improvement of the urban region to address recreation, beautification, flood control, water quality and other infrastructures objectives. Applying the hierarchical view is suggested by the late systems philosophers to the levels of increasing coordination ininterdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity.Itis regarded the latter as the highest stage of multi-level coordination towards a common purpose.
 
Materials andmethods
The research  is to address the design of the ecological networks of Poladshahr Newtown urban region. This is in order to construct a foundation applying landscape ecology in the process of developing urban region landscapes. In this way, the conditions become suitable for conserving both the identity of the urban region as well as the environmental sustainability of the landscape. Because of the increasingly population growth and construction density, the landscape of Poladshahr Newtown possesses very little natural patches, and the corridors formed through urban development have very little effects on environmental quality of the landscape. This has resulted in a condition in which the green patches of the urban structure are few and also far apart and the connecting corridors do not have any significant ecological impact. Using the landscape ecology approach, and with the aim of leaning towards the sustainability of urban region’s identity, a new approach becomes necessary to achieve the design of sustainable ecological networks of the urban region. While this approach offers the possibility of utilizing the hidden potentials of natural landscapes, it also advocates the principles of environmental sustainability; the interaction between urban region and natural landscape while remaining faithful to the issue of place identity within natural and manmade ecosystems.
Poladshahr Newtown lies in the Tabas Plain, 38km southwest of Isfahan and 5km northeast of Isfahan Steel Factory. It also lies alongside the Isfahan-Shahrekord highway. Poladshahr Newtown consists of two large central and northern areas, which have their own unique structure. The central area has a spiral form and the northern area has an ordered orthogonal geometry. The spatial order of the new town follows the spatial pattern of the region landscape, which has been combined with manmade and natural elements within the city to form the current urban structure.
Poladshahr began its existence in 1963 as a new town and since 1984 it has become known as a “Poladshar Newtown”. The current population is over 85000 and the total area is around 7700 hectares. The proximity of the city to the capital city of the province and its easy access to big industries of the region has made the town a very suitable place for urban dwelling. Poladshahr is the oldest new town in the last 50 years in Iran and because of its important features such as unique geographical location, proximity to important transit highways, neighboring to industrial areas and unique urban fabric; it has been considered as one of the most significant new towns in Iran (Naqhsh-eh-Jahan Pars Consultant Report 1387). The Panji and Ashtarjan mountain ranges in the west and south of the city and the farming plains of Lanjan in the east are among the natural features that limit the regional landscape of the new town. New foresting in the south in the foothills of the Ashtarjan mountain range are among other natural features which have created a valuable ecological zone with high natural significance within this part of the region.
Actually when a development plan is proposed to constructan urban region landscape, it is expected that the mechanism of living processes isthoroughly questioned. Here, landscape is the total of abiotic and biotic phenomena and their interrelations in the three dimensional space on the earth surface. It can be recognized by its horizontal and vertical structure and its combination of the variation in attributes: atmosphere, rock, soil, water, vegetation, animals, and man. This holds for the material and organisms for their activities and artifacts.As a new trend in applying the principles of landscape ecology to urban region planning, the concepts of implementing and designing of the ecological networks and urban greenways are gaining increasing attention.
Nowadays, with the ever-increasing expansion of cities, larger areas of natural landscapes fall into urban limits. Maintaining the biological attributes of natural landscapes and qualifying the ecological balances of urban landscapes needsto qualify both ecological processes of natural landscapes and environmental processes of urban landscape services. The answer of landscape planners to this demand is the design of proper landscape ecological networks. This will ensure that the ecological and environmental characteristics of urban landscapes will also have the necessary qualities for conditioning human interactions. Landscapes are increasingly urban in nature and ecologically and culturally sensitive to change at local through global scales. Therefore, multiple perspectives are required to understand urban landscapes and align ecological and societyvalues to ensure the sustainable development of place landscapes. This study brings landscape ecology and place identity together to integrate both ecological and societal processes influencing urban region landscape development. This would enhance citizens quality of life and also direct the excellence process of social programming.
The approach needs to identify the progressive cohesion and unified structural principles that are most deeply embedded in time-space dimensions of purposive and ultimate-programming bio-human systems. Such eco-environmental-societal principles govern the basic institutional orders in an urban region landscape. In this case, ‘structure’ is the mode in which the evolutionary urban landscape expresses itself in ultimate reproduction, and ‘structural analysis’ involves studying the conditions in which ideal bio-socio-spatial systems via the application of generative rules and resources are produced and reproduced in interaction.
 
Results and discussion
Urban regions landscape planning process consists of changing the structure and function of total visual and spatial human space while preventing the breakdown, simplification and degeneration of green and open patches of the landscape. The design should be in such a way that the diversity of activities and the density of the built environment do not cause either the natural and open patches of the landscape to be segregated or the ecological networks of landscape circle of mater, energy and specie to be disturbed. In this context, the necessity to give valueto the principles of landscape ecology in assessing the state of interconnections between natural and human processes is apparent. These principles focus on structures, functions and transformations of landscapes and attempt to find patterns and interactions between landscape elements, patches, corridors, and the matrix. These principles include the principles of ecological network to integrate ecology into sustainable land development. They necessitate the need to investigate the bio-human induced causes and effects of land-use and land-cover dynamics in directing social programming as well as planning for new landscapes. The necessary cybernetic forces act via the fluxes of energy and information. They depend on the measure of isolation and connection (connectivity) between the landscape attributes, and between the mosaic patches and their composing elements.
Conclusion
The investigation of natural and manmade regional landscape of Poladshahr Newtownrequired some information. The information was obtained from Naghsh-e Jahan Pars Consultant Report (2008). This information is then observed through the regional elements of the model of urban region identity components. The Eco, Built and Human logics of the component model were used to observe the Pre-programmed-Purposive-Transcendental quality of the cycle of matter and energy in management of the Eco-Environmental-Societal function of the urban region landscape. According to the principal issues related to the urban region landscapes content composition and spatial configuration, some considerations were provided for the structural and functional improvement of Poladshahr Urban Region landscape system. To determine the state of the urban region landscape, collective components of the proposed model were considered through different levels of organizational orders: ‘living organism’, ‘built system’ and ‘human desire’. These levels were overlaid to provide the overall ecological-environmental-societal structure and function of Poladshar Urban Region’s ecological networks. Landscapes are increasingly urban in nature and ecologically and culturally sensitive to change at local through global scales. Therefore, multiple perspectives are required to understand urban region landscapes and align ecological and societal values to ensure the sustainable development of landscapes.

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Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Environmental Studies
Volume 42, Issue 1
June 2016
Pages 177-194

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