Scalable Green Infrastructure—The Case of Domestic Private Gardens in Vuores, Finland

Outi Tahvonen

doi:10.3390/su10124571

Abstract

The planning, implementation, and everyday use of the built environment interweave the green and grey components of urban fabric tightly together. Runoff from grey and impermeable surfaces causes stormwater that is managed in permeable surfaces that simultaneously act as habitats for vegetation. Green infrastructure (GI) is one of the concepts that is used to perceive, manage, and guide the components of urban green spaces. Furthermore, GI pays special attention to stormwater management and urban vegetation at several scales at the same time. This study concentrated on scalable GI in domestic private gardens. A set of garden designs in Vuores, Finland were analyzed and developed by Research by Design. The aim was to study how garden scale choices and designs can enhance GI at the block and neighbourhood scales to rethink design practices to better integrate water and vegetation throughout the scales. As a result, we propose a checklist for designers and urban planners that ensures vegetation-integrated stormwater management to enhance habitat diversity in block scale and possibility to use blocks of private plots for ecological networks. The prerequisite for garden designers is to be capable to balance between water, vegetation, and soil, and their processes and flows in detail the scale.

Highlights

Ecosystem services support the well-being and health of urban residents
The main driver in this study is to explore the opportunities for developing green infrastructure (GI) from a perspective of garden design
The object was a set of garden designs that simultaneously serve as the means of carrying out the role of garden design in the context of GI in low density housing (LDH)

Summary

Introduction

Ecosystem services support the well-being and health of urban residents These benefits build up in a network of different kinds of urban green spaces that, together, can be considered an urban green infrastructure (GI). The urban fabric and its GI elements provide essential and nature-based benefits for residents as ecosystem services [1]. This approach includes a default definition of GI that comprises all shades of green in the urban context, including both public and private, and planned and unplanned urban vegetation, regardless of the land ownership or planned function. These approaches stress the connection of water and vegetation within GI

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Discussion

Conclusion