Road Landscape Research Articles

Free Standing Billboards in a Road Landscape: Their Visual Impact and Its Regulation Possibilities (Lithuanian Case)

Free standing billboards have a significant negative visual impact on the landscape. In the majority of foreign countries construction of free standing billboards is regulated by various legal instruments, guidelines and control manuals. In Lithuania the construction of free standing billboards considering their visual impact is poorly regulated by juridical and spatial planning means. Taking this situation into account the paper aims to review main problems of regulating free standing billboards construction in Lithuania, to assess their impact on the landscape, to present foreign experience in solving these problems and to provide methodological guidelines for regulation of free standing billboards construction considering their visual impact. The proposed stages of the assessment of free standing billboards visual impact are the following: analysis of the landscape spatial structure designating visual spaces perceived from separate road sections, analysis of the possibilities of free standing billboards layout designating visual spaces protected from free standing billboards construction and visual spaces as free standing billboards construction areas, establishment of the possible visual contrast level of free standing billboards and establishment of free standing billboards location in a visual space and a visual contrast character according to the SID theory and results of the visual space evaluation according to the criteria of vitality, complexity, compositional harmony, expressivity, uniqueness, functionality and meaningfulness. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.66.4.5320

Enclosure Exploration of Tianjin Wudadao District

The enclosure of Tianjin Wudadao District is the object of study. It adopts classical theories summarized by predecessors to deeply explore and analyze the causes, form classification and the positive effects on this area. During protection and development of historical scenic area, it is not just necessary to stress the major object, but also attach importance to the enclosure which can create district atmosphere, enclose courtyard space and enrich street landscape. As an indispensable part, street enclosure is also important.

Analysis on Site Design of Road Landscaping in GuangDong

A livable city ought to be ecological, green and well-connected, and sustainable developing as well. Such a city is a goal to Shunde, and the Shunde spot of G105 national highway plays the key role on the way to the goal. Although the greening of G105 has been revised for a few times, since the heavily growing demands of transportation, both quantity and quality of the afforestation have fallen behind the current demands. It is urgently necessary to update the greening design of G105 on the base of original landscaping. The improvement would allow the highway to show its beauty as an ecological gallery in the front of the stage.

A Study on Protection, Renovation and Styles Continuity of Historical Street - Taking the Center Street of Dingzhou City in Hebei Province as an Example

The protection of historical street plays an irreplaceable role in historic continuity of ancient city. This article takes Center Street of Dingzhou city in Hebei Province as an example, the evolution process of Center Street is analyzed, and the value of historical and cultural characteristics is summarized. The major problems and reasons of historical style are discussed from aspects of street scale, land functions and landscape style, etc. Planning thoughts on relocating Center Street, continuing the historical style of Song Dynasty and constructing vigorous commercial streets are proposed. Historic styles remediation goals of Center Street are determined. Specific planning ideas are proposed, including taking streets as axis to form five important historical nodes from south to north, including South Gate, South Street guhuai, Kaiyuan Temple, Dingzhou Museum and Temple, and updating the constructions on streets, continuing historic features of Song Dynasty, enhancing landscape and environmental construction and improving street traffic conditions.

Color Design of Urban Road Landscape

Color design is an important content of urban road landscape design. In this paper, we introduce the color categories and color design principles of urban road landscape, and discuss the key points for color design of all parts that form urban road landscape.

Evolution of Back Lane Design: A View of Terrace Housing in Malaysia

Narrow roads between rows of buildings used as public paths or commonly known as back-lane; the streets neglected by most of people. The unfavorable lane in residential area indeed had existed thousand years ago since the world urbanization. This paper traces the evolution of back lane design particularly in terrace houses in Malaysia, the largest housing type built since colonization and Post World War of more than 40 years ago. The first part provides an overview on the global development tracking back from the Prehistory to Post Modernism. Secondly, it assesses six aspects of evolution through observations approach carried out in two states, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. Critical review is made focusing on the two major elements, back lane physical design and its function with cross reference to literature research and current global issues. Variations of back lane have been discovered particularly in road width, drain condition, pavement material, landscaping, infrastructure and safety elemts.

Landscape Protection and Management Guidelines for Roads: Problems and Amendments for Lithuanian Legal Acts

In 2011 the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania ordered to prepare the “Landscape protection and management guidelines for roads and railways”. Integration of the trends of the politics of Lithuanian Republic and the requirements of legislation, which is related to landscape protection and management, into the road development system is only a part of all the tasks of these guidelines. This part, including the analysis of Lithuanian legal acts, identification of their problems and proposal of amendments, is presented in this paper. As a result, the amendments were proposed for Lithuanian legal acts regarding the road landscape evaluation methodology, visual impact of roads on the environment, road signs, advertising regulation and planting near the roads. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.3.4.4779

Yunjin Road Bridge—Architecturally Sophisticated Design Employing Steel Tubes, Under-Deck Cable and Tuned Mass Damper

In order to meet the landscape requirements of the Yunjin Road landscape pedestrian bridge in terms of its special geographical location and the functional demands of the bridge, the concept of weakening the bridge mass was adopted based on the principle of urban morphology. The bridge has a length of 45,0 m with a main span of 37,0 m. The main beam is a spine-shaped steel tube-truss beam with three steel tubes in the upper part and one steel tube in the lower part. A steel cantilever is flanged at each side of the main beam in which three prestressing cables are arranged. An external prestressing cable is installed in the lower part of the main beam on each side of the steel tube. The bridge pier was designed to take a Y-shape, which was founded on a bored pile of 1 m diameter and 30 m length. In the mid-span of the bridge, four tuned mass damper (TMD) vibration reduction control systems, each weighing 300 kg, were installed to absorb the vibration of the bridge. Escalators were set up at the two ends of the bridge. The design of the bridge achieves the desired span without compromising on aesthetics and succeeds in giving it a contemporary look.

Discussion on the Intergration of Road Landscape Design and Urban Mining and Metallurgy Culture in Huangshi City

Road Landscape design does not exist independently in urban construction but intergrates into the urban cultures by design. This article discusses based on Huangshi Mining and Metallurgy culture the urban road design from the aspects of color, pavement, blind sidewalk, plants, and public environment facilities. Also it proposes the way of design that combines cultural landscape and natural landscape according to the city geographical features, therefore makes the urban road landscape design to be more cultural and representative.

Modeling the indirect effects of road networks on the foraging activities of bats

Negative impacts of road networks on wildlife are of global concern. While direct mortality of wildlife via roads has been well-documented, we know little about indirect effects of roads. Using a simulation model parameterized from empirical data, we explored how roads in proximity to maternity roosts influenced foraging activities of the endangered Indiana bat. First, we conducted manipulated landscape simulations to identify characteristics (such as traffic volume, foraging habitat availability, etc.) that influenced landscape permeability. We used a classification and regression tree procedure to assess which landscape and road-related variables, alone or in combination, influenced bat movement. We determined that roads did act as filters (>10 vehicles/5 min) or barriers (>200 vehicles/5 min) to movement. However, it is a combination of the proportion of foraging habitat accessible without crossing a road, and roost-to-road distance that dictated whether the barrier and filter effects of roads hindered the bats’ foraging abilities. We then simulated movement patterns and foraging success of Indiana bats at 32 existing maternity roosts to identify conditions under which colonies currently persist. We established a foraging success threshold, above which Indiana bats currently persist. The value represents the time virtual bats spend in foraging habitat during the simulation period. Finally, simulations from these landscapes around known maternity roosts demonstrate that the road network and landscape configuration are critical to foraging success. This modeling approach and threshold value are beneficial to road developers and represent an invaluable tool in the ecological design of transportation infrastructures.

中国青島市における並木道空間の形成（1891-1945）

Acacia, False Aacacia and Platanus Acerifolia were three main kinds of street trees planted in Qingdao before the WWII. All of these three kinds of trees were imported to Qingdao from Germany by the German governors since 1898. By doing this, the street landscape in Berlin was reproduced in its colony Qingdao. It turned out that rather than planting trees of their own countries, Acacia, False Aacacia and Platanus Acerifolia were continuously planted in the new areas of Qingdao by Japan and the Republic of China government later. The reason why the continuity of street landscape was well kept is probably because that the street trees were considered as quite important links between the new and old town. However, due to the political reasons, there were no street trees planted in the area where Chinese lived. This problem had not been solved until Qingdao was recovered by the Republic of China government. Nowadays, Cedar is increasingly planted in Qingdao's street and a new feature of street landscape is being created in the city.

城市典型水域景观的热环境效应

城市热岛效应是当前快速城市化进程中最具代表性的生态环境问题之一。热岛效应进一步影响着城市气候变化与城市可持续发展。现存大量研究证明了土地覆被改变导致的热辐射变化及人为热释放共同作用产生了城市热岛。然而,当前对缓解城市热岛效应要素的研究并不多见。以上海市中心城区为例,首先基于SPOT5影像的分类,提取了城市水域景观,再利用Landsat 7的ETM+的热红外波段,定量反演了城市地表热环境温度,然后利用GIS的空间分析功能,探讨了城市水域景观对热环境的影响。研究揭示水域景观在城市热环境中表现出明显的低温效应,而面状水域景观的热环境效应要强于线状河流景观。面状水域景观对热环境影响随着与热岛中心距离的增加而明显降低,此外还受到周围土地覆被的影响。线状河流景观的宽度与流经区域共同决定了其对城市热环境的影响能力。因此,在城市规划设计中,从缓解城市热岛效应出发,水域生态功能区的形态与空间设置可作为考虑因素之一。;Rapid urban expansion has profoundly impacted on urban biodiversity, ecosystem functions, regional climate change, and the quality of life. One of the ecological consequences of urban expansion is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon, which is formed when higher atmospheric and surface temperatures in urbanized areas are observed over the surrounding rural area. Urban thermal environment problems caused by UHI have some further impacts on energy consumption, human health and urban sustainable development. As a synthesis representation of urban environment effect, UHI is jointly determined by the physical properties of land surface and heat release by related socioeconomic activities. Within the urbanized area there are diverse landscape types, such as urban building landscape, road landscape, green space, water body, and so on. Among various urban landscape types, the thermal environment effect of water landscape is quite different. It is important to study how the water body might influence the urban thermal environment. The SPOT 5 and Landsat 7 ETM+ images are applied to derive the spatial pattern of urban water landscape and land surface temperature in Shanghai, and spatial analysis technique will be used to explore the thermal environment effect of water landscape. An intense urban heat island effect is identified in Shanghai City, with its center located on the west bank of Huangpu River. At the same time, a cold island effect is detected for the water landscape patches and corridors. Statistical significance is not found between area and perimeter of water patches (or river corridors) and their impact on local thermal environment. However, the water patch has a stronger thermal environment effect than the river corridor. The impact of water patch decreases as the distance to UHI center increases. For instance, the temperature of water patch in Luxun Park (the closest to the UHI center among all water patches) is 3.65℃ lower than the average temperature of its surrounding region, with only 2.60℃ lower than the average temperature of the region where Century Park is located, which is much further to the UHI center. Besides the distance to the UHI center, the impact of water patch on nearby area is also determined by the land surface composition. For instance, the surrounding area with more vegetation has a lower temperature than the area with more impervious surface. River corridors also influence the local thermal environment. Huangpu River, Suzhou River, Yunzao River and Chuanyang River are compared based on a buffering method, with the river width and the location of the river corridor as the two key factors on the local thermal environment. Flowing through UHI center and with the largest river width, Huangpu River has much higher impact on the thermal environment of the surrounding areas. The findings in this study are helpful to provide some effective policy implications for urban planning and design.

Crash Barriers and Driver Behavior: A Simulator Study

Objective: The study examines how drivers experience a conventional W-beam guardrail (metal crash barrier) along both sides of narrow versus wider roads (single carriageway with 2 lanes) in terms of stress, feelings, and driving patterns and whether subjective experience concurs with the actual driving patterns captured by the quantitative data. Methods: The study used different methods to capture data, including the VTI Driving Simulator III (speed and lateral vehicle position) in conjunction with electrocardiogram (ECG) data on heart rate variability (HRV) and questionnaires (oral during driving and written after driving). Eighteen participants—8 men and 10 women—were recruited for the simulator study and the simulator road section was 10 km long. Results: Driving speeds increased slightly on the wider road and on the road with a crash barrier, and the lateral driving position was nearer to the road center on the narrower road and on the road with a crash barrier. The HRV data did not indicate that participants experienced greater stress due to road width or due to the presence of a crash barrier. Participant experience captured in the oral questionnaires suggested that road width did not affect driver stress or driving patterns; however, the written questionnaire results supported the simulator data, indicating that a wider road led to increased speed. None of the participants felt that crash barriers made them feel calmer. Conclusions: We believe that there is a possibility that the increased speed on roads with crash barriers may be explained by drivers’ sense of increased security. This study demonstrates that an experimental design including experience-based data captured using both a simulator and questionnaires is productive. It also demonstrates that driving simulators can be used to study road features such as crash barriers. It seems more than likely that features such as street lamps, signs, and landscape objects could be tested in this way.

Discussion of the Mitigation on Urban Heat Island Effect Based on Sustainable Development

Several dispersing and small-scale measures such as permeable pavements, green streets, and ecological roofs for sustainable development to mitigate the heat island effect were proposed, and there the following environmental benefits and economic benefits were analyzed. Permeable pavements effectively relieve the negative influence on urban ecology caused by urban harden ground. As well, permeable pavements link up soil and air, making the ground warm in winter and cool in summer, which increase the sense of living comfort in the city. The research shows that when area of the urban roads increase to 25% of the whole city, completely applying the asphalt pavement roads can make the temperature 1 ~ 1. 5 °C lower on the whole in downtown district. Green streets are beautiful street landscapes which planting green plants such as shade trees on both sides of the streets. On one hand it can keep cool, and mitigate urban heat island effect. On the other hand it can absorb the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, and maintain carbon-oxygen balance. Shade trees effectively prevent sunlight from hitting to the ground, and make the sun radiation intensity significantly lower than the harden ground and the lawn. The sun radiation intensity can be reduced by 80% or more on occasion that there have trees. Ecological roofs can adjust the temperature, and form natural air conditioning which is beneficial to improve the air quality. Research data show that in summer, on average, temperature of the ecological roofs are 2.6 °C lower than the bare cement roofs and in winter which are 0.84°C higher than the cement ones. Then the implementation of the feasibility through the above mentioned sustainable development measures to achieve the minimum impact on the environment, which play an important role in reducing urban surface temperature was discussed. The prospect of implementing the technology in China that usually appeared in high densely-populated urban areas was given at the end of this paper.

Aesthetics and Safety of Road Landscape: are they Related?

The problem of unsafe roads is very actual in Lithuania. The solution of the problem is usually found in construction of road equipment. The paper covers another solution: the authors analyze road safety through aesthetic features of landscape. The identification of relations between safety and landscape aesthetic features will enable us to enhance safety by modeling road landscape. This untypical approach would lead to both achievements: decrease of road traffic accidents and increase of visual quality of road landscape. The correlation analysis enabled us to identify weak relations between the quantity of car accidents and some aesthetic properties of road landscape. Regression analysis revealed the factors described by aesthetic properties which influence the quantity of car accidents on Lithuanian roads.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.1.1.2613

Current Status of Green Space and Plant Disposition in the Urban Road Landscape Design

This study conducts investigations on the plants and plant landscaping in the two regions - Huangxing Commercial Pedestrian Street and Furong Road, which are representative and with relative concentration of population flow and traffic flow. The statistics results show that there are a total of 21 families and 25 species of ornamental plants applied in Huangxing Pedestrian Street, of which arbors and shrubs are widely used with 11 species of arbors, and 11 species of small arbors and shrubs; in terms of plant families, plants from Oleaceae, Pinaceae and Celastraceae families are more frequently used. There are a total of 12 families and 15 species of ornamental plants applied in the Furong Road, of which shrubs are more extensively used with 10 species; in terms of plant family and genera, plants from Oleaceae, Rosaceae and Theaceae families are more frequently used. On this basis, and combining with the different plant combinations and collocations, this paper conducts comparative analysis on the regional landscape arrangement modes and features, and points out the shortcomings of plant species richness and landscape levels in the plant landscapes of the two regions.

Individual Spatial Responses towards Roads: Implications for Mortality Risk

BackgroundUnderstanding the ecological consequences of roads and developing ways to mitigate their negative effects has become an important goal for many conservation biologists. Most mitigation measures are based on road mortality and barrier effects data. However, studying fine-scale individual spatial responses in roaded landscapes may help develop more cohesive road planning strategies for wildlife conservation.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe investigated how individuals respond in their spatial behavior toward a highway and its traffic intensity by radio-tracking two common species particularly vulnerable to road mortality (barn owl Tyto alba and stone marten Martes foina). We addressed the following questions: 1) how highways affected home-range location and size in the immediate vicinity of these structures, 2) which road-related features influenced habitat selection, 3) what was the role of different road-related features on movement properties, and 4) which characteristics were associated with crossing events and road-kills. The main findings were: 1) if there was available habitat, barn owls and stone martens may not avoid highways and may even include highways within their home-ranges; 2) both species avoided using areas near the highway when traffic was high, but tended to move toward the highway when streams were in close proximity and where verges offered suitable habitat; and 3) barn owls tended to cross above-grade highway sections while stone martens tended to avoid crossing at leveled highway sections.ConclusionsMortality may be the main road-mediated mechanism that affects barn owl and stone marten populations. Fine-scale movements strongly indicated that a decrease in road mortality risk can be realized by reducing sources of attraction, and by increasing road permeability through measures that promote safe crossings.

Exploration about the Ecological Model of Road Landscape in the Construction of New Rural Landscape

Along with the rapid development of social economy, a new socialist countryside landscape construction is in full swing on the land of China. Handling rural road landscape development problems in new rural construction is the content need to explore and summarize in the practice. This paper, though the analysis about composing factors of agricultural landscape and road landscape, combining with the ecological design principles, explores ecological model of ecological agriculture traffic and road landscape in the future from the aspects of township roads, village roads, field roads.

Small Towns the Street Landscape Design Research - Take Jiangxi Province Ganzhou City Dayu County Nanan Avenue as an Example

This paper analyses the small city street view of the present situation and existing problems of small towns and the idea of the street landscape made some tentative research, quoted ganzhou city DaYuXian nanan avenue facade the example, the hope can through the street landscape systematic design of small towns and discussed, the small town street landscape regulation design provide some of the feasibility of reference.

Rooted in Regional Culture, Creating Urban Characteristics — A Case Study of Dukang Road Landscape Design in Baishui County

Urban road, as the most important aggregation point and generator of the urban life, is an important space for people to experience the city culture and awareness of city character. This paper takes the phenomenon of city character crisis that the city lacks local culture characteristics as the starting point. Through the analysis of landscape design of Dukang Road (E), which is in Baishui county, discusses how to reasonable use local culture in urban road landscape design. With the regional culture as an important creating source, absorb its beneficial "gene," so as to create urban road landscape with regional culture characteristics, thus to better showing the distinct personality and character of the city.