Built Environment and Landscape Design as Tools for Climate Resilient Cities and Regions

Abstract

This paper explores project frameworks and design methods in order to reveal innovative ways and processes for creating more resilient cities and regions. Considering major environmental, economic and social challenges and extracting key quality elements from pioneer development schemes, the aim is to identify methods and policies that have a significant impact on the transformation, landscape quality and sustainability of places at city and regional scale. Starting with the model of design quality in project delivery, and looking at a transformation model, the paper discusses best practices for the development of concept and implementation before it considers the model of pan-European collaboration. An investigation of climate adaptation issues through the ‘Room for the River’, a national programme in the Netherlands, demonstrates the significance of landscape design, low carbon and spatial quality as vital aspects of the built environment. The West Midlands National Park (WMNP UK), a major infrastructure proposal, demonstrates how a broader vision can help drive environmental, social and economic transformation in a region, whilst SATURN, an EIT Climate-KIC project, reveals the first stages of a pan-European city collaboration with the aim of reintegrating the natural assets within the climate change impact strategies of the participating cities, and exchanging knowledge between European regions. This paper suggests that landscape design and the built environment are important drivers towards a successful low carbon transition, and they can simultaneously enhance social and landscape identity and boost the economy of a region.