Greenway Development Research Articles

Rural greenways for urban environmental demands: Environmentalised urbanisation in the Pearl River Delta

China’s environmental turn is diversifying the country’s urbanisation trajectories. Previously abstracted and exploited as a vast land reserve for urban expansion, the countryside of China now captures the imagination of a growing crowd of green-loving urbanites with its ecological and cultural resources, propelling a new, environmentalised form of urbanisation. In the Pearl River Delta, the development of rural greenways has driven this urbanisation, in which rural lives and landscapes have evolved in response to their encounters with urban users of the greenways. Based on the late John Friedmann’s multidimensional understanding of China’s urbanisation, this paper unpacks four aspects of changes brought about by greenway-driven urbanisation in the Pearl River Delta’s countryside since the 2010s, namely, economic diversification, institutional adaptation, physical reconfiguration, and sociocultural transformation. These changes underscore the need for research on China’s urban-rural relations to pay more attention to the growing centrality of the environment in the politics and practices of urbanisation.

Examining Property Value Increment along Greenways: A Hedonic Pricing Analysis in Chengdu, China

Examining Property Value Increment along Greenways: A Hedonic Pricing Analysis in Chengdu, China

How Do Awareness, Perceptions, and Expectations of an Urban Greenway Influence Residents’ Visits and Recreational Physical Activity? Evidence From the Connswater Community Greenway, Belfast, Northern Ireland

How Do Awareness, Perceptions, and Expectations of an Urban Greenway Influence Residents’ Visits and Recreational Physical Activity? Evidence From the Connswater Community Greenway, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Identifying the integrated visual characteristics of greenway landscape: A focus on human perception

Understanding the integrated landscape characteristics and spatial sequences of greenways and the surrounding visual environments is crucial for connecting fragmented natural spaces within cities and enhancing residents’ natural experiences. However, previous studies have mostly predominantly focused on individual perceptions of greenway landscapes, rather than considering the integrated visual characteristics of both the inner and the visible surroundings. This disparity often deviates from people's actual perception of these spaces. To address this gap, we have adopted a new approach to identify the integrated greenway visual characteristics in inner and surrounding landscapes from a human perception perspective, in the city of Wuhan, China. Our methodology involved the utilization of deep learning systems, text semantic analysis, and other techniques to integrate multi-source data, including street view images, remote sensing images, and perceptual comments, to quantitatively assess the landscape sequences and naturalness of landscape changes along the greenway paths. We identify the positions and characteristics of unique landscape nodes within the greenway. The findings of our study revealed ten main landscape types of greenways in Wuhan, with over 72 % of the greenways comprising more than five types. As the length of the greenways increases, the number of landscape types initially experiences rapid growth before reaching a stable state. Furthermore, the frequency of landscape change exhibits a linear and positive correlation with greenway length. Notably, the naturalness of the majority of greenway inner landscapes closely aligns with that of the surrounding visible environment. The openness of all greenways was positively correlated with the proportion of farmland and grassland in their surrounding areas. Furthermore, people exhibit higher positive sentiment responses to greenways that maintain a high level of natural consistency between the inside and outside environments. Additionally, over 47 % of the unique nodes primarily coincide with a specific landscape type and play a vital role in shaping the rhythm of greenway landscape change. These findings provide valuable insights to support the construction and management of greenway landscapes, as well as guidance for urban planners and designers aiming to harness natural resources effectively in the development of urban greenways.

Greenway service supply and public demand in Guangzhou city, China

Small-size green spaces contain convenient service capabilities for urban residents and satisfy the daily needs of citizens for high-quality ecological products. A greenway is a kind of linear green space, which can create a beautiful and livable environment in a high-density urban area. This study explored whether the services provided by the greenway can meet the daily needs of urban residents for green space in Guangzhou, a mega city in south China. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and the entropy weight (EW) method, both the coupling coordination degree model and spatial autocorrelation analysis were adopted to quantify and determine the coordination degree of greenway service supply and public demand in Guangzhou. The results showed that the comprehensive score of the greenway service supply (GSS) subsystem and the public demand (PD) subsystem in Guangzhou was 0.3865 ± 0.08 and 0.3778 ± 0.03 (mean±s.e., n = 11), respectively. The GSS subsystem score was slightly higher than that of PD subsystem (P > 0.05), indicating that the two subsystems had no significant differences. The supply and demand subsystem of ten districts (excluding Conghua) in Guangzhou achieved different levels of coordination, and the average coupling coordination degree was 0.5885, suggesting that the districts were barely balanced at the city level. The Moran's I value was 0.580, indicating that the coupling coordination degree had significant positive global spatial autocorrelation and showed a spatial agglomeration effect. Furthermore, the local Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation showed that three districts (i.e., Yuexiu, Haizhu and Liwan) formed a high supply-high demand cluster and a spatial difference was detected when coupling the GSS and PD in Guangzhou. Therefore, we proposed the differentiated optimization strategies based on the results of the coupling coordination degree and the development status of each district and the entire city. This knowledge can better guide the subsequent construction and development of greenway in Guangzhou and may be useful for adjacent cities in Asia-Pacific region.

Reconnecting people to the Detroit River – A transboundary effort

Abstract Windsor in Ontario, Canada and Detroit in Michigan, USA are Great Lakes border cities on the Detroit River that have a long history of water pollution. Public outcry over water pollution in the 1960s led to the enactment of environmental laws starting in the early 1970s. As these laws were implemented and water quality improved, citizens started calling for improved public access to the river, including establishing linked riverfront greenways. This paper presents a case study of greenway development in these border cities based on indicator reporting to comprehensively assess ecosystem health. Findings show that waterfront greenways were catalyzed by cleanup of the Detroit River. As greenway systems expanded on both sides of the border, greenway stakeholders began to envision cross-border greenway connections that would stimulate ecotourism, help encourage healthy lifestyles, and enhance quality of life in southwest Ontario and southeast Michigan. Recommended next steps include investing in greenway capacity building, identifying and testing creative financing options for greenways, formalizing institutional arrangements between Canada and the United States for a binational greenway network, and strengthening cross-border greenway connections by reestablishing a cross-border ferry, offering free access to the tunnel bus on weekends for cyclists, and hosting Windsor-Detroit open streets’ events. Robust transboundary greenway partnerships are critical to realizing the full potential of cross border greenway systems, including expanding outdoor recreation and ecotourism, conserving natural resources, and inspiring a stewardship ethic for shared ecosystems.

A study of developing a spatial entity greenway in the case of Irbid City – Jordan

Greenways are urban elements that are designed to show the linear consistency and connectivity between open green spaces and cause a development in the urban texture. As a city starts to grow, the absolute metropolitan development should be followed by an ongoing protection of the rural and urban territories. The nexus between the city development and the fortification of the open agricultural and rural lands is deemed a good strategy in order to result in a homogenous urban fabric of the city. The study aims to present a greenway model of development to work as a prototype applied on an existing route in Irbid City-Jordan by using the methods of testing and analyzing the route during the site visit and by using GIS base maps in order to come up with an absolute combination between monitoring the city growth, maintaining the quality of the agricultural lands and serving the public and local needs in order to result in a more balanced and controlled growth of the city. Irbid city is located in the northern part of Jordan with a radial urban expansion model of growth extending from the historical center and spreading toward the outskirts of the city. Regarding the significant increase in the number of population in Irbid City-Jordan since the 1970s until nowadays and the continuous need for habitats, there was a huge number of housing projects in the inner part of the city that expanded toward the outer part including the rural areas, resulting in a huge lack of agricultural lands and open recreational spaces where people can benefit from. Those spaces form an outlet of the city connected with the inner part by a route. Establishing a greenway along the route raises the integration between people and their lands and encourages farmers to develop and harvest. According to this study, the greenway development, which forms a breath out to the highly built-up area in the city, has become a great tool to result in tremendous beneficial outcomes to the city development.

Can greenways perform as a new planning strategy in the Pearl River Delta, China?

The modern greenway movement in China originated in 2010 when Guangdong Provincial Government launched the Pearl River Delta greenway network. The PRD greenway planning has strategic objectives that respond to issues associated with urbanization in the region. This article presents a conceptual framework that explains the potential impact of several key factors in the planning context on the strategic uses of greenways. The framework is then applied to empirical research carried out in the PRD. The results show that greenway planning is a feasible strategy to promote rural economic development by attracting tourists and promoting the development of service sectors. In general, the PRD greenways function as a social strategy: they create new recreational spaces and provide public goods and facilities in both urban and rural areas. However, the results also show that many greenways lack landscape and ecological strategies and become primarily a transportation strategy that defines space for walking and cycling routes in urban areas. The emerging transportation-led greenways reflect the inconsistency of planning goals and outcomes, which is a compromise to both the centralized administrative system and the inadequacy of greenway resources. This article concludes that although strong leadership is necessary in greenway development, insufficient social participation can undermine the achievement of the goals and priorities of the greenway plan, particularly the ecological goals and functions. How to engage local agencies, interested groups, and affected stakeholders in the planning and decision-making process has become a big challenge for greenway planning in the PRD greenways.

Effects of greenway development on functional connectivity for bats

1 Abstract Fragmentation of ecosystems is continuing worldwide, posing increasing pressures to and loss of biodiversity. Disused transport corridors such as old railways and tramways often return to semi-naturalness, and are increasingly upcycled into multi-use, non-motorised public Greenway infrastructure. This study examines bat activity within a proposed rural Greenway corridor in Ireland. Development scenarios are simulated to predict impacts to woodland ecosystem functional connectivity using Probability of Connectivity (PC) index. Generalised Linear Modelling predicts associations of species activity to Greenway corridor habitat and habitat structure. Spatially explicit connectivity models indicate significant impacts to ecosystem connectivity can arise from Greenway development scenarios, such as decreasing connectivity in half, or increasing connectivity four-fold. Species activity modelling identified habitat conditions along the Greenway route that suggest on-going corridor effects and associations to particular habitats and structure, emphasising the importance to consider a sensitive approach to developing disused infrastructure into Greenways. Conservation implications Potential significant increases in woodland ecosystem reachability for bats are achievable by conserving canopy cover over Greenway corridors. Species-specific habitat modelling results presented are directly applicable to guide woodland enhancement for the sensitive conservation of Greenway woodland habitat, maximising their multi-functional use and connectivity potential. Opportunities therefore exist for European Greenways to conserve and enhance ecosystem connectivity, providing landscape-scale solutions to the problem of increasing ecosystem fragmentation.

Green infrastructure for China’s new urbanisation: A case study of greenway development in Maanshan

China’s recent environmental turn in urban development has been marked by a rush of urban green projects. Many city governments have lately focused on green infrastructure of a specific kind – the greenway. This article provides a preliminary assessment of the contributions of greenways to a new, environmentally benign form of urbanisation advocated by the central government. Through a case study of the city of Maanshan, it reveals that Chinese greenways are not just a sustainability fix for the economy’s sake, as many urban green projects in China tend to be conceived. Although the greenways are far from being effective in stimulating tourism, they can promote urban liveability beyond the symbolic and lend material support to active travel. These findings endorse an analytical approach that gives equal emphasis to both the physical and political nature of emerging green infrastructure initiatives to more fully appreciate the logics and functions in their ongoing popularity.

Electrochemical synthesis of nitric acid from air and ammonia through waste utilization.

ABSTRACTCommercial nitric acid (HNO3) and ammonia (NH3) are mostly produced through the Ostwald process and the Haber-Bosch process, respectively. However, high energy demand and enormous greenhouse gas accompy these processes. The development of economical and green ways to synthesize HNO3 and NH3 is highly desirable for solving the global energy and environmental crisis. Here, we present two energy-efficient and environmentally friendly strategies to synthesize HNO3 and NH3 at distributed sources, including the electrocatalytic oxidation of N2 in air to HNO3 and the electrocatalytic reduction of residual n}{}{rm NO_{3}^{-}} contamination in water to NH3. The isotope-labeling studies combined with theoretical calculation reveal the reaction path of the two proposed strategies, confirming the origin of the electrochemical products. Importantly, the electrooxidation-generated n}{}{rm NO_{3}^{-}} ions may also serve as reactants for the electroreduction synthesis of NH3 in the future. Our work may open avenues for energy-efficient and green production of HNO3 and NH3 at distributed sources.

Greenways, recreational access and landowner willingness to accept: a contingent valuation study of farmers in Ireland

There are ambitious plans to construct an extensive network of off-road walking and cycling routes, known as greenways, across Ireland. However, land acquisition has proven challenging in some rural areas. This paper uses a contingent valuation study, based on the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS) of Ireland, to explore farmers’ willingness to participate in greenway development. The results reveal that farmers are split on the issue of greenway land acquisition: approximately half would not allow a route to run through their farm, irrespective of compensation. Farmers’ main concerns in this regard are: insurance, impact on farming operations and nuisance/crime. Of the farmers willing to participate in greenway development, the mean (once-off) payment required is €56,000 per kilometre of greenway length. These findings suggest that Irish Government agencies and local authorities must work to alleviate farmers’ concerns and undertake extensive consultation to yield acceptable route options.

Landscape typology and ecological connectivity assessment to inform Greenway design

European Greenway developments typically ‘upcycle’ disused transport corridors for multi-use, non-motorised public infrastructure. The linear and relatively undisturbed nature of these disused infrastructures means many currently function as high quality ecological corridors. Corridors providing connectivity among habitat patches can mitigate the effects of fragmentation on biodiversity, allowing species dispersal throughout the landscape matrix. The sustainable integration of Greenway infrastructure and ecological corridor functions requires consideration during design, development and maintenance stages, taking into account surrounding landscape composition and connectivity. This paper presents a method to characterise a proposed Greenway corridor landscape, focusing on habitat composition and ecosystems connectivity. Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) was used to comprehensively describe the structural connectivity of linear and spatial habitats occurring within the study area. A subsequent multivariate classification of structural connectivity and habitat data determined six distinctive landscape characters. Interpretation of these landscape characters highlights the principal habitat compositions and connectivity conditions in terms of habitat core, links and potential linkages. For example one landscape was intensified, yet retained high woodland connectivity, while another diverse habitat landscape supported little connectivity for woodland and grasslands. The results of this study suggest significant opportunities exist to enhance European landscape connectivity through informed Greenway development. Crucial habitat linkages can be optimised along Greenway infrastructure, contributing towards the realisation of European Greenways as Green Infrastructure and true sustainable projects.

Planning a Sustainable, Green Industrial Road with an Ecological Recycling Economy in Mind

With the development of the new rural construction action of beautiful industries, the problem of uncoordinated development of the rural economy and ecological protection has become increasingly prominent. Based on this, in the process of planning, design, construction and management, ecological construction technology was introduced. The planning and design of ecological recycling economy and rural greenway were studied, and the planning types of greenway in industrial villages were deeply explored. Taking the planning and construction of industrial rural greenway in Anji county as an example, the research and analysis were carried out. From the rural road, landscape space, ecology, service facilities, logo and so on, the planning was carried ou, and the greenway network of industrial villages in Anji county was constructed. Combined with practical engineering research, the scientific and rational development of rural greenway in the urban and rural construction throughout the countryn was promoted, the contradiction between urban and rural construction and ecological protection was effectively solved, and the construction of beautiful countryside was promoted.

Zielone Szlaki Greenways jako czynnik rozwoju turystyki w Polsce na przykładzie Szlaku Odry

The aim of this publication is to present the idea of creating Greenways as a factor stimulating and developing tourism. The paper presents the idea and the main premises of Greenways. It shows their significance. The publication describes the roots and the development of Greenways in the world, in Europe and in Poland. An analysis is made of one of the examples of Greenways in Poland—the Oder River trail. The paper presents a positive influence of the Oder River Trail on the development of tourism in selected smaller towns located on the trail. The most important achievements and successes in this area are shown. The thesis formulated in the paper was the assumption that Greenways can be an important factor stimulating the development of tourism, particularly at the regional scale. In particular, it concerns places and towns with lower tourism potential. The paper was created with the use of nonserial book materials, journals, as well as netographic information and personal contacts with Greenways coordinators. The research method used in the publication was literature criticism and a telephone interview. The research findings positively verified the formulated thesis that Greenways positively influence the situation and development of tourism.

The impact of urban greenways on residential concerns: Findings from the Atlanta BeltLine Trail

Urban greenways are receiving increased attention due to the implications they have for the sustainable development of 21st century cities. Although preferences of greenway users have been heavily investigated, research on residents’ perceptions of living in close proximity to these greenways pales in comparison. With this gap in mind, residents living within two socio-economically different neighborhoods adjacent to the Atlanta BeltLine Trail were surveyed about common neighborhood concerns and how the BeltLine’s development alleviates or exacerbates these concerns. By simultaneously asking residents about both neighborhood concerns and the BeltLine’s impact on these concerns, modified Importance-Performance (IPA) graphs were created with four quadrants depicting where the BeltLine is successful and areas where it has aggravated problems. From the 381 responses received, the top five most important neighborhood concerns were crime, property taxes, vandalism, property values, and places for outdoor recreation. The BeltLine was perceived by residents to be improving property values, places for outdoor recreation, and social spaces for gathering, while slightly increasing litter, crime, vandalism, and property taxes. This can be seen on the graphs where most of negatively connoted concerns fell in the “Concentrate here” quadrant with the positively connoted concerns falling in the “Keep up the good work” quadrant. T-test results revealed that the affluent Northside neighborhood viewed the impacts of the trail as more positive than the transitioning Southwest neighborhood. Results suggest that greenway planners should tailor greenway development projects towards individual neighborhoods as they are likely to have different concerns and expectations of urban greenways.

A Cost Analysis of Wall-Hung Mounted Gas Boiler Using in Residential Buildings of Beijing

In order to improve the city environment, and achieve a leap in making reasonable use of natural gas and optimizing energy structure, the Beijing municipal government has established its basic policy to “transform its coal-based energy structure, introduce large amount of natural gas”. As the wall-hung gas boiler has easy operation, flexible adjustment and high energy efficiency, the application of it is becoming more widely considered among the residential building. The work proposes the survey of the heating way about affordable housing and the “two limit” commodity housing in Beijing. The adaptability between the household wall-hung gas boiler heating way and other heating ways is compared. The energy efficiency, initial investment and operating cost of all the heating ways that are being used in Beijing are discussed in the paper. The final analysis is then evaluated by a panel of experts to determine its accuracy and potential for use in a greenway development plan of heating way in Beijing. Analysis shows that the commercial housing is more suitable than affordable housing to use the wall-hung gas boiler. This is mainly be effected by the characteristics of the user’s economic condition and the residences’ distribution.

A SWOT Analysis of Wall-Hung Gas Boiler Utilized by Indemnificatory Housing in Beijing

The construction of indemnificatory housing has been speeded up from 2009 so as to tackle the difficulty in housing for low-income families in Beijing. With an increasing emphasis on easy operation, flexible adjustment and high energy efficiency, the application of the wall-hung gas boiler are becoming more widely considered among the indemnificatory housing building as a competitive or alternative way to district and central heating. The work proposes the survey of the heating way about indemnificatory housing buildings including low-rent housing, indemnificatory housing and policy-regulated rental housing. The SWOT audit is employed to analyze the satisfaction index of the wall-hung gas boiler and other heating ways. The final analysis is then evaluated by a panel of experts to determine its accuracy and potential for use in a greenway development plan of heating way in Beijing.

The Impacts of Building a Greenway on Proximate Residents' Physical Activity.

A significant association has been identified between physical activity and proximity to greenways. However, residents more likely to be active may have selected to live near existing greenways. The purpose of this study was to determine whether development of a new greenway has the potential to increase activity levels of existing, proximate residents. In 2008, survey data were collected before and after 5 miles of greenway were added to an existing greenway. When comparing residents living nearest (≤ .50 miles) the new greenway section with those living further (.51-1.0 miles), days spent walking and participating in moderate physical activity increased. Despite mean increases, no significant interactions were detected. Although evidence is inconclusive, apparent increases in walking and moderate activity suggest development of a greenway proximate to residents' homes is likely to have a positive effect on participation levels. Additional research is needed to address article limitations.

An Analysis and Evaluation on Adaptability of Wall-Hung Mounted Gas Boiler between Indemnificatory Residential Buildings in Beijing

With an increasing emphasis on easy operation, flexible adjustment and high energy efficiency, the application of the wall-hung gas boiler are becoming more widely considered among the residential building as a competitive or alternative way to district and central heating in Beijing. It meets the implementation of the policies in twelve-five year plan of China: improving Beijing’s environment and future sustainable transform on its coal-based energy structure. A survey of the heating way of indemnificatory housing, price-fixed housing and affordable housing in Beijing is proposed. The results show that the heating area using the wall-hung gas boiler in the resident building is 55% of the total heating area in Beijing and 67% of the total heating area in new buildings. Then, the adaptability between the household wall-hung gas boiler heating way and other heating ways is compared. The energy efficiency, initial investment, operating cost and user satisfaction are discussed. The final analysis is then evaluated by a panel of experts to determine its accuracy and potential for use in a greenway development plan of heating way in Beijing.