- Open spaces and connectivity in landscape design    530 kb by    Costa, Lucia Maria S A & Soares, Francirose F | lcosta@acd.ufrj.br    Short Outline This paper presents the Urban Vegetation Plan for Nova Iguaçu City, Brazil. Its objective is to expand urban vegetation. It was conceived as green infrastructure, bringing environmental services based on the connectivity concept. Abstract On a natural evolution of the theoretical and methodological territory of environmental studies, some concepts arise in the understanding of landscape transformation processes. From this perspective, Landscape Ecology contributes with the connectivity concept, which has revealed its appropriateness for urban green spaces studies. In short terms, the connectivity concept is related to the capacity that elements of nature have to move within the context of a particular landscape, in different time and physical scales. The connectivity idea, if approached through a perspective of both valuing cultural and ecological processes, can have its scope and efficacy enhanced. The understanding of the connectivity as a mobility potential not only for abiotic fluxes but also socio-cultural ones, can open up new opportunities for a better landscape design and planning focusing on human health, biodiversity and moderating urban climate. This paper presents a proposal for the implementation of an Urban Vegetation and Reforestation Plan for the city of Nova Iguaçu, situated at Rio de Janeiro state, in Brazil. Its main objective is to bring forward a proposal of expansion of the vegetation situated within the urban tissue and the nearby mountains. It relates urban streams, open spaces, vegetation and public use through green corridors. The implementation and expanding of urban vegetation were conceived as a green infrastructure, able to bring a multiplicity of environmental services based on the idea of connectivity. The paper initially presents a discussion of the connectivity concept, stressing the idea of green corridors. This is followed by the presentation of the concept applied in the Nova Iguaçu proposal, as well as the methodological approaches. The proposal is discussed also through synthesis-maps and images. The paper concludes presenting the actual stage of the proposal implementation, pointing up the role of urban green spaces in the construction of low carbon cities. Keywords green infrastructure, connectivity, green spaces Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2009: Low Carbon Cities   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper