- Sustainable Urban Green Network Concept for the City of Gdynia, Poland    1319 kb by    Kowalewska, Agnieszka | akprojekt1@wp.pl    Short Outline The case study is an example of good practice and knowledge transfer, defining the urban green network in terms of space and functions. It creates a planning and organisa¬tional basis for design and management and complies with the development standards. Abstract Sustainable urban green network concept for the city of Gdynia is an ongoing project to be finished by August 2011, unique at a national scale, as it is not a standard element of institutionalized spatial planning. This innovative initiative is undertaken by the Municipality in order to respond current ecological and social challenges. Facing them, urban open space and greenery has to be planned with the same care as the built space, and the way it is managed has to be redefined. Clear delimitation of the green areas’ network will help to stabilize the whole urban system and promote cohesion, interconnectivity and co-functioning of the built environment and green zones. The 85 years old city of Gdynia covers an area of 13 514 ha and contains about 250K people. Nowadays this one of the largest Baltic sea-ports that exhibits a clear urban structure develops west, overtaking its rural land reserves. Due to the urbanization processes, FSC certified forests that create ecological core of the city and make 45,5% of it’s area, are increasingly influenced by anthropogenic changes, crossed with roads and infrastructure, surrounded by new developments, and visited by inhabitants who have not enough space for recreation in their neighborhoods. The project is to define an urban green network in terms of space and functions, as well as create a planning and organizational basis for further coherent design and management of green areas. This will be an operational masterplan, complying standards of development for specific types of green areas, defining phasing and pilot projects. It’s realization can influence positively the quality of city life and help to diminish social exclusion and divide, as well as to revitalize poor districts that need to be enriched in terms of public services. Keywords urban green network concept Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2011: LIVEABLE CITIES: URBANISING WORLD, Meeting the Challenge   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper