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The Sestri Levante House and Garden project, Genoa (Italy) for ederly people with Alzheimer disease (pre-sented by C. Costanzi), new categories describing green qualities proposed for Berlin by S. Schöbel, main indicator species of ecological group of Mideuropean molluscs (see T. Kucera), walking on greenways or in historical centres in Ceske Budejovice and Prague.

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CHAPTER 6

Epilog Issues of the final open seminar in Ceske Budejovice :

contributions of the invited key-notes speakers and synthesis of the debate session .

Jiri Bendl (key-notes speaker for WG on Policies), Carla Costanzi (key-notes speaker for WG on Human Issues), Tomas Kucera (key-notes speaker for WG on Ecology), Sören Schöbel (key-notes speaker for WG on Policies), Richard Stiles (key-notes speaker for WG on Ecology), Michal Vesely (key-notes speaker for WG on Human Issues), Sybrand Tjallingii (synthesis of the debate session).

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Our policies for green structures in urban planning

Jiri BendlStrategy Department, Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, PragueJiri_Bendl@env.cz

Key-notes speaker for working group on Policies, Ceske Budejovice

Over the last few millions years man and his senses have been in daily contact with nature, plants, animals, weather and water. His movements in the landscape were free and unrestricted. His brain, muscles and subconscious psyche (mind) were construct-ed and genetically encoded in respect to the close relationships with nature. This situation has been interrupted during the last few “seconds” of man’s evolution due to the exponential growth of populations and the subsequent extensive urbanisa-tion. Now the majority of the population lives in the cities and this migration from country to the towns continues over the whole planet. In the European Union 70-80% of children are growing up in the cities, where they spend their childhood, education, social, psychic and physical development. But is it enough nature in the cities for them? Where is nature in the cities? Is it accessible for children and people in terms of quality of life and daily health needs? People and their health require much more daily contact with nature than they think. Another very serious problem for our planet is the loss of biodiversity. Every day we are losing about 100 plant and animal species on the Earth. Population growth and people battling for space are the main reason.The green structures in cities can support both endangered nature and man’s health. They offer space for nature, life and hinterland for biodiversity. There are landscapes around us in the cities, with water streams and often rare ecosystems. There is also a great advantage in the cities there is no agriculture with its pesticides, herbicides; and other biocides. In many places there are much better conditions for wild life which is sensitive to agrochemical contamination (birds, plants, beetles, but-terflies, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, etc). There is no hunting. There are forgotten areas and not used industrial brown-fields with large non cultivated space. Every square meter of green structure in cities should be scientifically and economi-cally well supported using the economical power of cities and because of public par-ticipation and public profit.

There are as well disadvantages for nature in cities like the air, water, sediments and soil, pollution: dust, particles below two or ten microns in size, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, persistent organic pollutants, halogenated hydrocarbons,

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polychlorinated biphenyls, high concentration of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ag, As, Ni, Zn, Cu, Pd), various nitrogen oxides, ozone, photochemical smog, various sulphur oxides, acid rain, noise, fragmentation of green structures by motorised transport. On the other hand all harmful contaminations and emissions from industry, transport, housing and trade in the cities are also dangerous for man’s health as well as the health of living nature and green structures. These negative impacts must be avoided. The innovations, environmental technologies and the environmental law are focusing to improve quality of live in cities.

At the present time the motorised transport in countries of European Union and especially in cities is one of the most problematic issues from health, environmental and economical reasons. One of the most promising solutions to improve situation is massive development of cycling transport and higher quality standard of all facilities for pedestrians. More safety for children “on the street” and more physical activity outdoors is needed (Kids on the Move (2002). High ratio of population will like to use cycling for daily transport to jobs, schools, offices, sport, hobbies, shopping, culture, trips and so one. But what is really missing is safe sophisticated network of cycling routes infrastructure. This network must be as much as possible dense and sufficiently distant from the dangerous busy traffic and from the noisy cars producing harmful pollution.

Optimal solution is to plan and built non-motorised transport and green struc-tures together. Financial sources invested to this modern mode of transport and green structures together will bring in the near future great profit to the society and will open a new freedom in the choice of a clean sustainable mode of transportation – cycling. It calls on local and municipal authorities to establish their own plans of cycling, greenways and green structures for pedestrian, parking places for bicycles at all buildings. All building projects and transport constructions should involve or have a link to green structure, to cycling and walking and should be assessed from this point of view. European financial founding which is focusing to transport infra-structure and to regional development should seriously supported cycling transport and green structures.

How are green structures involved in state policies? Is there any sup-port?The Czech Government approved the State Environmental Policy of the Czech Republic 2004-2010 (SEP) on the 17th of Marc 2004. Many ideas involved in Environmental policy have been in link and conformity with scientific work in frame of COST 11.

The SEP priorities support also green structures in cities : • protection of nature, the landscape and biological diversity• protection of waters and protection against floods

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• reducing the burden on the environment from human activities, improving environ-mental standards for the quality of human life

• increasing public awareness of environmental issues.

There is insufficient coordination of conceptual and planning activities, including limited functioning of the existing system of land-use planning. This leads, for exam-ple, to inappropriate utilization of the built-up areas of municipalities and the new use of un-built-up areas. There are risks for green structures here, especially uncontrolled suburbanization, development on greenfields, the creation of areas devastated by industry and abandoned and not utilizing existing brownfields. In urban areas, there is a danger of a decrease and destruction of green areas, vandalism and annexation of public areas for commercial purposes. Inadequate care for public areas (including maintenance and protection of green areas) also has a negative effect. Decision-mak-ing processes require methodical management on the part of the scientific and central bodies. There must be better use of the EIA and SEA processes and use of financial sources from the European Communities are important. Transfer of experience is very important e.g. “Healthy Cities”, “European Day without Cars”, COST, etc.

A further increase in the intensity of individual and freight automobile transport may also have negative consequences (emissions, noise, occupation of space, accidents). Combination of some weak aspects and external risks could, in the future, lead to an unacceptable worsening of current conditions, especially in large cities and their vicinity. This potential worsening must be eliminated both by strengthening the exe-cution of the state administration and elimination of weak points at the level of the regions and municipalities and also through greater public participation (administra-tive procedures, land-use planning, community planning, EIA/SEA, science).

The decrease in biodiversity is a global problem, caused by the rapidly increasing extinction of species of fauna and flora, the disappearance of natural and almost natural biotopes and the decrease in the genetic variability of organisms. One of the quantified targets of the Implementation Plan, adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, consists in stopping the decrease in bio-diversity by 2010.

In the Czech Republic, biodiversity is endangered by intensification of agricultural production and excessive or unsuitable urbanization, fragmentation of the landscape by transport infrastructure and by emissions from transport, cities and industry. Transition (ecotonic) zones, which have a stabilizing function and are characterized by high biological diversity (lake reed beds, hedgerows, hedges, damp floodplain meadows, etc.), are disappearing and the interconnection of the landscape is decreas-ing substantially (especially as a consequence of linear structures and unification of agricultural properties). Local species of plants and animals are detrimentally affected by invasive species, which are either intentionally planted or spread spontaneously. In

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order to stop the decrease in biodiversity, it is necessary to protect, not only the spe-cies of wild flora and fauna themselves, but also their habitats and genetic fund and the areas of natural and almost natural ecosystems.

There is a list of main stated measures in SEP that have an impact on green struc-tures: Protection of biological diversity • Provide for an improvement in protection and care for important habitats, which are

not part of specially protected territories and the Natura 2000 system.• Create conditions for the formation of substitute biotopes for specially protection

flora.• Provide for the use of measures minimizing the risk of injuring and killing of birds

by electrical transmission line.• Implement lacking elements of territorial systems of ecological stability.• Prepare a set of measures to reduce the spreading of invasive species of flora and

fauna.• Provide for measures to ensure free passage along (existing and newly created)

gardens, plots, buildings, roadways, railways on the migration routes of fauna.• In the framework of construction procedures, reject activities and construction plans

that would lead to destruction of wetlands and lakes.• Create substitute wetland habitats at sites where they have been disturbed or

destroyed through anthropogenic activities.

Aquatic ecosystems, lakes and wetlands deserve special protection in cities as unique natural ecosystems with high biodiversity, but which are very vulnerable towards insensitive anthropogenic interventions, such as sediment contamination, deepening of the channels of rivers, regulation of river courses, excessive pollution as a conse-quence of intensive agricultural up the stream, industrial and municipal activities and intensive fish breeding.Part of the green structures in the cities needs renewal, stabilization, maintenance and subsequent care for the natural aquatic ecosystem.

Protection of the soil• Protect the soil against contamination by hazardous substances.• Protect the soil against annexation and irresponsible spreading of cities and munici-

palities outside of the currently built-up areas.• For decision-making at all levels, define anomalies in high-risk substances occur-

ring in connection with human activities, in soils, rocks, bottom sediments and ground waters and include this information in the limits for development and plan-ning of large territorial units and municipalities.

• Develop procedures for decontamination and remedy anthropogenic anomalies of high-risk substances in soils, bottom sediments and the lithosphere.

• Increase the effectiveness of payments for annexation of land in relation to the

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biological diversity on it as an economic instrument for general protection of the land, e.g. through increasing the values in the tariff list of payments for withdrawal of land from the agricultural land fund.

• Increase the effectiveness of use of built-up areas.

Link with landscape• Provide access to the landscape through the construction of field roads, bicycle

routes, walking tourist routes, nature trails, green-belts and bio-corridors.

Sustainable development of settlements• Protect high-quality segments of a natural character in built-up areas. • Support the formation and extension of green rings around cities.• Improve protection and care for green areas in settlements and other natural com-

ponents of urban areas.

Transport• In the framework of implementation of the National Strategy for the development

of bicycle transport in the Czech Republic, create a denser sophisticated network of safe separated cyclist routes.

• Support the construction of facilities for bicycle transport in combination with pub-lic transport (bike-and-ride system) and pedestrian transport.

• Continue to support the construction of comprehensive integrated transport systems in cities and their vicinities with greater use of rail transport (incl. railways) as environmentally sounder kinds of public mass transport.

• Increase cooperation to promote the preparation and implementation of local plans and programs to improve the environment and the health of the population (Local Agendas 21, Healthy Cities, etc.).

• Increase healthy life style and preventative protection of the health of the popula-tion.

Regional development• Support cities and municipalities in implementing their plans in the area of the

environment, especially where these plans or the intended consequences exceed the boundaries of a single municipality or if they are beyond the financial capabilities of the municipality.

• Support and protect the landscape character of the territory and its features, such as isolated trees, green strips along highways and roads, sources of drinking water, wetlands and minor water reservoirs and water courses, monitoring the occurrence of specially protected species of fauna and flora.

• Provide conditions for pedestrian or cyclist accessibility of the landscape through reconstruction and establishing of field and forest roads in connection with carrying out land-use planning.

• Promote the creation of pedestrian zones in the centres of cities or their historically

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valuable parts and facilitate access for cyclists.• Renew railway lines and railway stations as potential centres for services for envi-

ronmentally sound walking tourism and cyclotourism.

Instruments of strategic planning• Incorporate LA21 into the legislative and methodical framework that will deter-

mine the quality of strategic planning in municipalities/cities/microregions/regions (including indicators of SD and other expert methods).

• Incorporate the territorial systems of ecological stability.• Maximally utilise abandoned or poorly used areas and structures - brownfields - for industrial and other human activities.

Research and development• Introduce research on technologies and facilities for protection and improvement of the environment and sustainable development.• Continue to provide for and improve research in the area of study of the environ-mental impact on human health.• Initiate, promote and develop research on means for creation of an acoustically acceptable environment, including development of installations with low noise emis-sions and the most acoustically favourable transport systems.• A joint, coordinated international approach is the only effective pathway towards dealing with global and new environmental issues.• Improve communication between the central bodies of the state administration, institutions established by them, the regions, academic community, planning, civic society and private sector.

ConclusionGoals and measures of State environmental policy 2004-2010 support some of green structure activities and can be used.

Program COST Action C11 Greenstructure and urban planning helped in this impor-tant issue to majority of EU population and supported decision making in urban planning towards sustainable development and to higher quality of life. The field for consequent detail study is open and large applications to the practice should be financially supported.

From my point of view the main recommendation is to plan and built non-motorised transport and green structures in the cities together and to use green structures for protection of biodiversity. Dense network of green corridors and green elements and consistent dens network of cycling transport could be result of physical infrastructure planning.

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Belts of the verges railways, streams, brooks, motorways and pedestrian zones create ecological bio-corridors in the urban landscape but the scientific approach and ecol-ogy-based maintenance is missing.

Public green spaces, parks, playgrounds and playing fields need to have apparent rules for different steps of behaviour of people and children in the urban nature. In some places they could be very benevolent and in some areas very strict.It is necessary to develop much more ecological skills at planners, investors, decision makers, architects, garden architects, maintenance companies and public. I believe that the meeting in Ceske Budejovice considerably contributed to the imple-mentation of all necessary measures needed to support green structures in urban areas and supported synergy between green structures planning and cycling and walking transport.

References :EC, Kids on the Move (2002), Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,Env-pubs@cec.eu.int, http://www.europa.eu.int, State Environmental Policy of the Czech Republic 2004-2010 (2004) Ministry of the

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Green areas and the quality of life of elderly people

Carla CostanziLocal Administration of Genoa, Italy, terzaetasicura@comune.genova.it

Key-notes speaker for working group on Human Issues, Ceske Budejovice

IntroductionIn this paper I will describe some projects planned in order to improve the quality of urban life for the elderly by means of green structures; I will then refer to a few results regarding the city of Genoa that show interesting correlations between green areas and the health of the elderly people.

The quality of life for elderly people

The situations and the following illustrated projects refer to the main components ofquality of life for an elderly person, summarised in the following aspects: • health and good general conditions

is obviously a basic requisite to be able to speak about quality of life • active life

firstly, physical activity, but also managing their own life, having the ability of making plans, both can be crucial factors in successful ageing

• psychological well-being ageing exposes us to significant risks of depression, states of anxiety, a sense of abandonment; opposing such dangers contributes enormously to complete well-being

• active social roles leaving the working sector for many means the loss of a social purpose for their own life; nevertheless the elderly can still carry out important social roles

• “care” for chronic elderly even elderly people who are no longer in good health must be cared for with ade-quate attention in order to live as best they can with their illnesses.

A few peculiarities of Genoa relevant to the theme being discussed

The town I will speak about is positioned between the sea and the mountains, with little spaces for building and therefore with a high population and low density of green areas available . Very similar to the situation facing the whole region (Liguria), where most of the built-up areas are along the coast, with Appennine Mountains behind

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them.The experiences I will describe are placed in this type of context and furthermore exacerbated by the highest percentage of elderly people in the country (in the 2001 Census : 25,6 % over 65 in Genoa, while in Italy we have 18,2 % ) and, most likely, in the whole of Europe.

This demographic peculiarity is explained by many factors, one of which, relevant for our speech, is the costal migration of population from the agricultural district, previously looking for a job, now moving to spent the retirement years in a pleasant environment. The result is a significant presence of elderly people with a strong affection and life-style connected with rural areas and green spaces.

The main roles that the greens areas can have for the elderly

Green areas and health conditionsThe relation between elevated ambient temperature and mortality in person aged over 65 years or more is difficult to study, because we do not have widely accepted criteria for determining heat-related death.

We know that persons living in urban environments may be at risk for mortality from ambient heat exposure, since urban areas typically have higher heat indexes (combi-nations of temperature and humidity) than surrounding suburban or rural areas. But it is difficult to demonstrate the real magnitude of heat-related mortality: the heat may not be listed on the death certificate as causing or contributing to death.

In Genoa the most relevant outcome in the relationship between green areas and qual-ity of life is indeed the distribution of death-rate during the very hot 2003 summer: in the whole town we had a dramatic increasing of mortality (more 101,9 % in the class of over 75 years old), but in the areas where the percentage of green spaces is higher the death-rate stayed at the average level of preceding decades.

The following table reports the increase in the mortality rate for the over 64’s relative to the summer period of 2002 and 2003: the last three areas of the town (bold in the text) correspond to the two valleys that meet the sea bordering the centre of the town: these are the greenest areas and for their orography more airy and here the registered values are lower; for the first area reported in the table (Centre-East) the low increases in mortality must consider the division of age groups in the right-hand column; it is in fact the youngest area of the town and this is a crucial element to explain that value.

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Association of green areas with elderly mortality during 2003 summerIncreasing mortality in different urban areas: summer 2002 - 2003) mortality dif. (%) ‘02/’03

over 64 pop over 65

• Centro Est 30,77 23,5 %• Centro Ovest 70,83 25,4• Medio Ponente 54,00 24,7• Ponente 100,00 24,6• Medio Levante 84,78 27,5• Levante 47,54 26,1

• Bassa Val Bisagno 21,84 26,0• Val Bisagno 25,64 23,0• Val Polcevera 26,00 23,7

Total : 46,58 24,9

We know, indeed, that green areas, even just grassland, may produce a fall in tem-perature of at least one degree.In urban planning this kind of results needs a lot of attention, opening our eyes to new programs and new solutions. The suggestion we can draw from our experience is that we need prevention programs : heat emergency response plans and environmental and behavioural measures. But especially we need a greater understanding of the impor-tance of urban design to heat.

As expressed by McGeehin and Mirabelli (2001) it appears that : “Urban living is an important risk factor. Populations residing on the top floor apartment buildings, in urban areas, and without access to air-conditioned environments experience higher rates of heat-related morbidity and mortality, suggesting that living conditions of susceptible populations are important”.An interesting solution for the private apartment buildings and for the caring institu-tions, such as hospitals and care homes, is to provide roof gardens that present many environmental advantages:- better buildings climate (warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer)- reduction in energy bills- better urban climate- air cleaning (increasing oxygen levels in the air, decreasing the amount of CO2 and cutting down on dust and air-borne particulates).

Green areas as opportunity for active life

A second important function is related with vegetable gardens in urban areas: as in many others Italian towns, the local Administration of Genoa helps citizens willing

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to carry out some agricultural activities within the city boundaries. Of course the majority of them are pensioners, i.e. less mobile and active people, but with a lot of free time.

This project is part of a largest plan, started recently, to improve the quality of public green areas by using volunteers; the plan covers the whole town and its administrative complexity causes a slow start. There are two main directions in this plan dealing the pensioners:1) the running of the urban vegetable gardens, spaces where they can

grow vegetables, fruits and other for private fruition (but no profit). Here it is possible to regain some agricultural habits

2) the entrusting to volunteers of public green structures (flowerbeds, public gardens, green belt in the middle of the roads,…) : i.e. for public fruition. In both cases main results for elderly people are the opportunity of socialization and the possibility to do some physical exercises.

Green structure as opportunity for active social roles

A smaller project, with similar but more complex aims, is now ongoing and I can explain it in detail because it was organized and managed by my office : the key words of this project are “active citizenship”.The upkeep of public green spaces as a way of ‘governance’ represents a social exper-iment, never seen before in the local council where I work and therefore we designed and described its phases in full details. The intention is to run an evaluation process too in order to have useful information for widening this first realization. The area of regeneration is a small “piazza” in the medieval downtown of Genoa, where the high density of buildings makes precious green areas as rare. The problems we faced were : substandard hygiene conditions, problematic users (homeless, alcoholics, drug-addicts), no maintenance of the green spaces and of the whole area.

We know that is not enough to restore a place, garden or other public area, if we do not make plan for preserving it during the time the restoration is taking place. So we planned a double strategy: the physical and environmental regeneration on one hand and a training programme involving residents to prepare them for the activities of proposing, co-planning and returning to citizens urban spaces on the other.The most significant objectives that inspired the project can be considered to ade-quately prepare residents to enacting the activities of proposing, co-planning and re-appropriating urban spaces, activities that are obsolete in contemporary local com-munities.

The steps followed for the training process may be outlined as follows:1) the goal of the first module was an understanding of the area, in order to strengthen

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analytical abilities and organize information about the district;2) the second one make more explicit the relationships in this specific area within its own context, reinforcing the identity of the residents;3) then the focus was on the real methodology of active citizenship, furnishing a “tool box” for participation;4) the training course was concluded starting up a concrete operative project for the activities in managing the area.

An important element in this project is the comparison made between the labour union organizations and the associations for retired people. Last summer we handed over the management of this regenerated “piazza” to resi-dents in associations, of which a large proportion are pensioners.The targets on which the project is based generated the following activities: managing a small library and an information point, organising cultural activities and celebra-tions, events to revitalise the urban centre, strong cooperation with the schools in this area for both didactic and leisure activities. A “petanque” field has been realised. Elderly people from the area do regularly play there and contests are organised. .

The greenery and the care of chronic elderlyA public garden may even have therapeutic functions: as is the case of “the five senses garden” in a nursing home built in the area of Sestri Levante (a place being part in the Province of Genoa). The garden, designed in particular for elderly people with Alzheimer disease and blind people, is a peaceful environment for all and encourages to spend time outdoors.

The Sestri Levante project

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Given the risk of depression in this type of residential institution and knowing the effects of sun light exposure on the mood, this solution is very clever.

Plants of different smells (aromatic herbs), colours and dimensions may help to improve perceptions and the memory; the sound of the fountain stimulates hearing, the shape of the slightly tilled land stimulates balance, while the circular pathway leaves the elderly people free to roam as there are no risks, allowing them to avoid supporting measures and therefore reducing medical intervention ; finally in the gar-den there are no tall trees, as shadows can generate a panic with these people.

Concluding pointsIn conclusion we can prove that there is a strong link between green areas, tempera-tures and health conditions (not only psychological wellbeing, but even, and above all, general physical condition); this evidence is especially relevant for a frail age group as the elderly are, given that better living conditions means a longer life and in critical situations a slight worsening can make all the difference.For all other elderly people in good general conditions, which to day is the majority inside this age group, the planning of green areas in an urban context offers a double chance : to have an active social role, which is very important for the elderly who, with the exit from the labour market, have lost their most significant roles, and as a consequence the linked status, and to maintain a good fruition of common goods which are otherwise at risk in a period of general financial crisis of public administra-tions.

References :

Basu R. and Samet J. M., Relation between Elevated Ambient Temperature and Mortality: A Review of the Epidemiologic Evidence, Epidemiologic Reviews, Vol. 24, No 2, 2002, pp.190-202Costanzi C., 1997, Promoting Quality of Life for Older People in Institutions, in A. Evers, R. Haverinen, K. Leichsenring, G. Wistow (Eds), Developing Quality in

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Green structures: refuges of habitat diversity in cities

Tomas KuceraInstitute of Landscape Ecology, Na Sadkach 7, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic kucera@uek.cas.cz

Key-notes speaker for working group on Ecology, Ceske Budejovice

1 Introduction Natural diversity is a very important component of human life. The urban environment is more and more often becoming a home not only for humans, but also for different plants and animals. Sometimes these species are specialists of rock or stony environments, and have secondary habitats right in buildings and their surroundings. Urban secondary populations of such species often outnumber the natural ones. Cities have become a paradise for kestrels, peregrine falcons, and swifts over the last few years, as well as for various threatened bats and carnivorous raptors. Barn owls have their refuges in old towers , while stone martens live in old lofts. Even new habitats have house sparrows living inside abandoned woodpecker boreholes in house insulation. Many species of natural open woodlands became naturalized in park and gardens inside of cities. Therefore, active conservation and planning of the city environment is of growing importance. This is caused by the growing number of inhabitants moving to towns, and, paradoxically, by some adverse tendences impacting natural landscapes, but not the urban environment. Many plant and animal species have begun appearing within big cities during the last years (Sukopp et al. 1990). In the past, the occurrence of these species has been in habitats of specially protected natural areas. All of these arguments highlight the necessary role of greenstructures for living things (Nemec 2001).

2 The biodiversity sources of present green structure 2.1 Location of human settlements The origin of cities was strongly influenced by environmental conditions since prehistoric times. For instance, paleolithic sites were concentrated at the foot of hills close to broad river floodplains, while later Celtic oppida were built up on high hills with steep rocky slopes along the canyon-shaped valleys of large rivers. Many cities in Central Europe are situated within the contact zones between different landscape types, in most cases in the boundaries between fertile cultivated lowland landscapes and more or less forested uplands (Lozek 2001). This situation is easily visible on orographic maps, or in altitudinal digital elevation models (Fig. 1). The different landscape types were preferred by humans since prehistoric times. Generally, these sites are characterised by a higher geo- and biodiversity than the

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adjacent landscape. This is the cause for the high number of protected areas and nature reserves, which are exceptionally species rich near or edging cities (Fig. 2).

2.2 Relief and land-cover/use diversity The historical settlement pattern, together with past and present human activities, have affected landscape structure and mosaics, from agricultural managed landscapes to modern types focused on local industrial productivity. The contrast of the land cover/use units illustrate major human needs. Primarily, the community needs fertilised agricultural land for food production in lowland, while, secondarily, the same community needs secure places with good defensive positions against invasion in highland (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Landcover and relief diversity of two Central European cities (Czech Republic). Digital data: CD-ROM GeoCR 500, http://www.arcdata.cz/data.

The red line covers the schematic profile of fig. 3

Fig. 2. Nature reserves and monuments and natural protected areas surround-ing two Central European cit-ies (Czech Republic). Digital data: Agency for Nature Coservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic,

2004.

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2.3 Geodiversity Geodiversity may be described as the morphological and substrate diversity of a region. The historical development of nature express that geodiversity represents is a special independent category of nature and landscape protection that operates at different temporal and spatial scales than biodiversity (Gray 2003). Geodiversity is not only the sum of the total losses gathered over previous centuries, but includes new geodiversification as a result of modern technological society removing more than 20 tons of substrate per person per year. While old quarries are the most popular localities for ecological restoration projects, new quarries are being open at the same time. Querries are also most popular for leisure time for near suburban community. The other example of geodiversity loss are large rivers with their flooding regime chained to lazy muddy channels (Cílek 2002).

2.4 River phenomenon The river phenomenon was formulated as a theory to explain the high concentration of habitats and species near rivers and streams. Diversified relief and outcropping bedrocks were essential factors for the great variety of primeval vegetation. The species richness is partly preserved in numerous refuges and relict sites along rivers and their tributaries. The higher number of habitats is a result of the geohistorical incision of the river channel into the bedrock with the variety of rocks and subsequent topoclimate, soils and vegetation diversity.Physical and biotic diversification along the Vltava river was profoundly altered by humans and expansion of their growing town (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Schematic profile of Vltava river in Prague. Raws: the black boxes show the main zones of secu-rity, fertility, strategical exposure and transport in developing settlement. Columns: the nature/culture zonation show the main zonation of the river environment for local community in the past: 1 – terraces and midland with the agriculture and hunting, 2 – strategical defense point, 3 – steep slopes and rocks with the quarries, 4 – scree slopes with cultivated soil for vineygards and orchards, 5 – cultivated and settled zone on brick clay earth, 6 – riverbed with transport and fishery, 7 – gravel-sand earth, 8 – river terraces with houses, 9 – midland with agriculture hinterland. According Jeník (2001).

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2.5 Biogeographical regions Some cities of the case studies lay on the boundary between two major biogeographical regions. But only one city in the case studies, Vienna, occurs among the three large Pannonic, Hercynic (Continental), and Carpatic bioregions. The enrichment of the flora and fauna is produced by three migration streams (Kucera 2004).

2.6 Gardens and parks These are special habitats similar to open woodlands that are specific for many species, such as small birds (Passeriformes) and mammals (Rodentia). The largest ones are former royal forests or deer-parks, where live small carnivores, like fox and marten, and birds of prey. The highest number of birds live near water bodies, such as ponds, pools, etc. (Fuchs 2001).

2.7 Nature conservation The present nature conservation priorities are in the Natura 2000 network sites: Special Areas of Conservation from the Habitats Directive (EEC 43/92), and Special Protection Areas from the Birds Directive. The national systems of territorial protection are multilevel. Large areas have been declared as National Parks and Landscape Protected Areas for the general conservation status. In contrast, small sized nature reserves are saving local or simple phenomena (Fig. 2). In the Czech Republic, the European Ecological Network is represented by the Territorial System of Ecological Stability. This has become a very important tool for landscape planning (Jongman et Smith 2000).

3 Biodiversity loss vs. enrichment

Biodiversity changes during the last 100 years can be illustrated by the decline of rare habitats, as has been reported in the comparison with urban flora. There were more characteristic species of calcareous fens, mires, river banks and muds, alluvial deposits, wetlands and moist meadows from more localities in 1870 compared to now (Bohác et Kucera 2004). Intensive landscape management and small-scale management were abandoned and the environment eutrophied. Many new non-native species have replaced former native ones. Number of alien species rapidly grows with the city area, the proportion of alien flora should amount up to 50 %, such as in Vienna (Pyšek 1998). The most conservative habitats that appear to be resistant to invasion of ruderal species are dry grasslands on stony and debris habitats and woodlands (Pyšek et al. 2002). These habitat patches may hold also relict species. Relict communities may offer long-term sustainable environment , they are robust, stable, when appropriate management is achieved (Rottherham et Fraser 2001).

4 Conclusion : habitat protection and planning The ecological problems of urban environments are complex and diverse with contextual relations to human problems: demography, sociology, medicine, politics,

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etc. We need to use the multilevel approach for ecological and environmental assessements that consider the spatial and temporal aspects of both geo- and biodiversity, respectively. For the establishment of ecological networks of green structures, a hierarchical approach should be applied: larger trans-national biocentra and biocorridors, being focused at the regional biogeographical scale, should be supported by smaller local networks. The system of small microhabitat reserves should enlarge the present macrohabitat mosaics of seminatural sites.

References : Bohác J., Kucera T., 2004, Development of species biodiversity in Prague during that last 150 years. Zivotn. Prostr. (Environment) 38: 98-102. [In Czech]Cílek V., 2002, The geodiversity. Ochr. Prír. (Nature Conservation) 57: 40-44. [In Czech] Fuchs R. et al., 2001, Atlas of breeding birds of Prague. EnviTypo, Prague. [In Czech] Gray M., 2003, Geodiversity: Valuing and Conserving Abiotic Nature. J. Wiley & Sons.Jeník J., 2001, The river and city interactions: fluvial phenomenon in Prague. Ochr. Prír. 56: 298-302. [In Czech] Jongman R.H.G., Smith D., 2000, The European experience: from site protection to ecological networks. In: Sanderson J., Harris L.D., Landscape Ecology. A Top Down Approach. Lewis Publ . Kucera T., 2004, Greenstructures: the refugies of habitat diversity in cities. Presentation. Greenstructures and Urban Planning, Additional Proceedings, Ceské Budéjovice, 2nd-4th December, 2004. Lozek V., 2001, Natural environments and the origin of cities. Ochr. Prír. (Nature Conservation) 56: 292-295. [In Czech] Nemec J. (ed.), 2001, Praga 2000 Natura Megapolis. Conference materials. Pyšek P., 1998, Alien and native species in Central European urban floras : A quantitative comparison. J. Biogeography 25: 155-163 .Pyšek P., Jarošík V., Kucera T., 2002, Patterns of invasion in temperate nature reserves. Biol. Conserv. 104: 13-24. Rottherham I., Fraser D., 2001, Urban relict communities: their importance to sustainable biodiversity. Ochr. Prír. (Nature Conservation) 56: 308-311. [In Czech] Sukopp H., Hejný S, Kowarik I., 1990, Urban Ecology. SPB Acad. Publ., The Hague .

Fig. 4. The transect of mollusc species along the suburban gradient. The widely distributed ecological group of Mideuropean molluscs (forest species) was chosen as a model group with variable relation to human impact in greenstructures. Figure shows the main indicator species (L. Juricková, orig.).

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Explicit green systems and implicit green structures

Sören Schöbel, Landscape Architect, Berlin, Germany schoebel@out-lines.de

Key-notes speaker for working group on Policies, Ceske Budejovice

The draft of the general outcomes of Cost C11 shows 3 dimensions of dilemmas in green structure planning and policy : the uncertainty about the right track between sprawl and density, defence and integration, participation and professionalization.

The first chapter of the general outcomes gives some conclusions. Green structures can constitute an alternative to both sides of the dilemmas, if they are recognized and developed in• a perspective of as-well-as (instead of either-or)• a perspective of a plural and colourful wide spectrum of elements on different lev-els• a perspective of permanence of as-well-as dynamics• a perspective of qualities more than quantities• a perspective of integrated planning that conquers and implicates other urban and

landscape networks• a perspective of ‘a stable and clear policy’ in spite of flexible greenstructures

I would like to combine these conclusions with some additional theses.Structures are no material objects. Thinking in structures is a way of recognizing, explaining and designing. Green structures are conveyed in discourses, but, first of all, they are based and have to be based on ideas and images. The quality of these ideas and images determines the discourses. In the past, i. e. in the period of the last century, ‘green’ planners tried to recognize, explain and design green structures as formal patterns and systems. They wanted them to be autonomous against the other urban or landscape networks. That attitude may have supported them in a way, but it has also isolated green structure planning and established an either-or- / defense- / technocratic approach.An integrative planning approach also needs ‘stable and clear’ green structure images and ideas, but these have not to be recognized, explained and designed as explicit structures (that means autonomous patterns or functional closed systems) but as implicit green structures. These need special discourses and agreements, but also special procedures and tools.

In the following examples I will refer to a special procedure and some tools which seem to be appropriate to recognize, design and convey implicit green structures.

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• a qualitative analysing procedure that brings together design and science• several implicit planning instruments - such as concepts, categories, typologies - that lead to ideas and images.To overcome difficulties, it may be advisable to consult other disciplines. Above all, social sciences use two different ways of recognizing structures in their object.

So-called ‘quantitative procedures’ are able to prove an existing assumption. Therefore quantitative procedures always start by defining a clear object and by establishing criteria of procedure. By deductive acts of deriving or by inductive measurements, quantitative procedures divide their objects up into categories of contradiction. If these categories fulfil the previously stated (preconditioned) criteria, the quantitative procedure has led to a proof.

But - if neither a clear object nor criteria exist because things have changed and results of quantitative structures do not fit any more, social sciences use a different procedure which is called qualitative procedure. This approach is able to break into new perspectives. As well as quantitative procedures, it analyses data. As previously stated (preconditioned) criteria do not exist, qualitative approaches draw a conclu-sion by a procedure called ‘abductive draft’ (Charles Sanders Peirce). It describes a controlled search of hitherto unknown relations in the mass of data. As a result, qualitative procedures form categories of common ground. These categories cannot be proved, but they give a comprehensible assumption. Qualitative procedures can unify the power of scientific consistence and designing constructiveness.

Examples of explicit green structures, as a rule, are results of quantitative procedures. Abstract patterns of green belts and wedges, autonomous systems of green connec-tions, and separation plans of regional development prerequisit clear criteria and form categories of contradiction (red versus green).

On the other hand, implicit green structures are, as a rule, results of qualitative proce-dures. My first example is a qualitative green structure concept for open space poli-

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cies. The second is a green texture plan for landscape architecture and finally I will present a permanent mosaic for suburban use of land.

A qualitative green structure concept for open space policiesThe final outcomes of working group ‘policy’ say that ‘visions of city’ are a constant, but dynamic issue of the debate. An integrative or implicit greenstructure policy can-not be confined to one singular current vision. A qualitative procedure searches for common ideas among all those visions. It makes it possible to find relations between central terms of the visions, and to condense them on a higher level into a short list of categories. In my example, the analysis of current visions of Berlin’s future led to five new green categories (Open Green, Directing Green, Texture Green, Product Green, Latent

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Green). These categories describe contemporary qualities and tasks and how they are to be located in the urban space.

In a next step, a new tool for green structure planning is developed to recognize, design and to convey one of those new categories - namely Texture Green.

Texture Green is a category that describes permanent green open spaces that complete the urban tex-ture and make it readable. That tool transfers a traditional town planning tool called ‘Schwarzplan’ to green structures. It illustrates the ground plans and the basic forms of urban landscape architecture. The illus-trated greentexture leads to a wide typology of green urban elements. Both the whole structure and the typology can finally be used to get planning benefits.These plans illustrate the greenstructure of part of the north-western inner town of Berlin (in the right bottom corner you find the park and garden of the Federal Chancellor’s new office and the Reichstag). The comparison of situations illustrates greenstructural losses and gains.

A typology of areas, lines and places with a typical, implicit structure of ‘red and green’ (for instance a block type with a frame of front gardens) becomes apparent.The structural overview and typological analysis lead to categories of budget mainte-nance. The typologic elements can serve as models in urban renewal and traffic calm-ing, in reconstruction and revitalization of public space.The last example of analysis is concerned with greenstructures in a regional background. It recognises and develops a permanent mosaic in the cul-tural landscape in the periphery of Berlin.

For the last hundred years, a big part of the regional landscape in the surroundings of Berlin, namely more than 12.000 hectars, were used as waste-water fields. Up to 900.000 cubic meters of waste water per day were pumped by radial pressure lines from the inner city into the landscape. That landscape was divided into thousands

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and thousands of terraces, with dikes and ditches. In those terraces vegetables were cultivated.

Today lots of these terraces and the accompanying technical monuments are still there and shape a landscape which has no other scenic attractions. Different suburban land-uses find a place in this landscape. As long as they accept the greenstructure, they do not affect the scenic, and they do not affect other uses in their neighborhood. In most other landscapes this melting pot of suburban land-use would lead to an abstruse greenstructure. Only some landscape experts damn the old waste-water terraces: 24 of their concern is that the wild geese could avoid the orthogonal structures.

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Networking urban green space in European Cities

– past, present and future

Richard StilesDepartment of Landscape Architecture, Institute of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, Vienna University of Technology, Austria richard.stiles@landscape.tuwien.ac.at

Key-notes speaker for working group on Ecology, Ceske Budejovice

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends.We turn clay to make a vessel;But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.We pierce doors and windows to make a house;And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends.Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognise the usefulness of what is not.Lai Tza, Tao Te Ching Ch. 11

Summary This paper reflects on the outcomes and achievements of the COST C11 Network on ‘Greenstructures and Urban Planning’, and in particular the work of the ecology and green structures working group. It starts by trying to place the issue of urban green structure into a wider temporal and spatial perspective than that which has formed the basis for the study, and argues in favour of a broader definition of urban open space than the one used in the project. It then goes on to identify the broad and structured European overview of the state of the art in green space planning as the most important contribution of the project. In the light of a number of open questions which are identified and of the growing policy importance of the urban landscape, a broad agenda is define and a proposal is made to develop a new long term European partnership for the urban landscape building on the experience gained in the project.

Introduction: green structures and urban planning - The matrix? Reloaded?When we think of cities our first instinct is usually to think of them in terms of their buildings. Yet, if we close our eyes and picture ourselves in any city, we will almost invariably find that in our mind’s eye we are standing, not inside a building but somewhere outside in an open space. This is a fundamental truth which is all too frequently overlooked by urban planners: those parts of towns and cities on which no buildings are standing are at least as important as the buildings themselves, if not more so. “It is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness” – not to mention the qualities and character – “of an urban area depends”1. Over the years individual buildings may come and go, but it is the framework of open space which surrounds them lives on as a skeleton around which the buildings of the city can continue to be renewed. A central component of this framework is urban green space.

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The COST C11 Network ‘Greenstructures and Urban Planning’ is to be congratulated for having performed a very valuable function by drawing attention to the strategic importance of green space as a key component of this open space framework within the context of urban planning for the first time from a European perspective. Before going on to review what has been achieved by the project, it is perhaps useful to take a step or two back and to briefly consider the broader temporal and spatial context of the project.

The matrix?Structural green space is certainly a key element but by no means the only component of the overall open space framework of urban areas, which we can think of as the matrix that both separates and binds together urban buildings to make a city. Municipal parks and public gardens are the classic elements of structural green space and they are frequently complemented by cemeteries and allotment garden sites, by informal green spaces, such as those alongside rivers or canals, by relics of agricultural land or woodland which has become engulfed by urban development and even waste ground which may have had minerals extracted from it or domestic refuse tipped on it. But even this wider definition of green space only accounts for part of the matrix. Such green spaces are complemented by streets and squares, railway and road corridors as well as by the proportion of un-built land which exists on almost every parcel of land within the city, be it officially classified as being in residential, industrial, commercial or public use. It would seem important to recognise that the overall open space matrix is fundamentally indivisible, and that to focus on just the structural green space is at least to some extent arbitrary. This broader definition of the urban open space matrix is particularly important from the ecological point of view, as plants and animals pay little attention to the ownership or official zoning of a piece of urban land of which they choose to make use. Nor are such legal and administrative factors reflected in the differential physical effects of solar insolation, the routes of cool air drainage or ventilation, which drive such urban climate phenomena as the heat island effect.

Reloaded?Let us now turn from the dangers of over-narrow approaches to conceptualising the urban matrix to the lapses of collective memory on the part of urban planning in dealing with it. Here it is useful to remember that the interest in and awareness of the importance of the open space matrix on the part of urban planners, the public and politicians is not at all something new or unusual. It is, however, also by no means unusual for them to suffer repeated lapses of memory with regard to the importance of urban green and open space, and in the intervening periods to take it for granted if not to ignore it completely. It is during such periods in the planning histories of our towns and cities that the urban matrix in general and the green space structure in particular are usually most at risk. This process of apparent mental blackout and rediscovery has been going on for at least two centuries.

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The insight that ‘The Parks are the Lungs of London’ is attributed to William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708 – 1778), who as ‘Pitt the Elder’ was British Prime Minister from 1766 – 682, but as the 19th century began, and with it the speculations of the industrial revolution, awareness of the importance of parks and green spaces rapidly faded. In 1829, in response to a threat to sell off the open land of London’s Hampstead Heath and parcel it up for development, John Claudius Laudon formulated an early strategic concept for the establishment of a series of concentric rings of parks and green spaces around London3. In 1843 Britain’s first municipal park was established in Birkenhead near Liverpool and was later to influence Olmstead’s Central Park in New York (although other European cities’ claims to have constructed the first municipal park go back still earlier – to 1829 in Magdeburg and 1819 in Budapest).

It was not the selling off of land for development, but the threat to fell trees for timber which led eventually to the plan for Vienna’s Wald und Wiesengurtel, the woodland and meadow belt, which was one of the first greenbelt concepts. Its 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year (2005). Maybe it was this initiative of his home town that prompted Camillo Sitte to expand the forth edition of his bible on ‘Urban Design According to Artistic Principles’ (Städtebau nach künstlerischen Gründsätzen) to include a new appendix on metropolitan green space in 1909. Martin Wagner, later to become the building director of Greater Berlin during the Weimar Republic, wrote a dissertation in 1915 entitled Das Sanitäre Grün der Großstädte, (the sanitary green space of cities) focussing on the strategic importance of greenstructures for urban planning. In the rapidly urbanising Ruhr District of the 1920s the Ruhr District Authority, the Siedlungsverband Ruhrkohlenbezirk, under the leadership of Robert Schmidt began to purchase and protect green spaces as so-called Verbandsgrünflächen to prevent them from being lost to the general public through urban development. The closer we come to the present, the more examples of the strategic consideration of urban green space can be found.

Much the same can be said of our awareness of the ecological importance of urban areas, although explicitly ecological approaches did not start until much later. The beginnings of our consciousness of the urban landscape as a ‘natural’ habitat might be traced back to Richard Fitter’s 1945 book on ‘London’s Natural History’. Chandler’s 1965 ‘The Climate of London’ was another pioneering treatment of the urban environment. More recently the publication of Laurie’s 1979 ‘Nature in Cities’ came at the end of a period during the 1970s of intensive focus on urban nature and its role in the landscape of towns and cities. Similarly Ann Spirn’s ‘The Granite Garden’ and Michael Hough’s ‘City Form and Natural Process’, both published in 1984 are other examples of the same trend from the across the Atlantic. On the continent of Europe, it was in particular the isolation of cold war West Berlin from the landscape of its hinterland that can be said to have generated a new approach to urban ecology starting in the 1970s. This was pioneered by Herbert Sukopp and spread from there to many other German towns and cities, as well as to other European countries.

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Urban ecology can be said to have started with a focus on spontaneous vegetation on urban waste ground moving on to more systematic approaches involving habitat mapping in urban areas, before addressing issues of habitat creation and using ecological principles in design, which was first widely popularised by the work of Louis Le Roy in the Netherlands in the early seventies. Seen from this perspective of coming some 20 to 25 years after these seminal works on urban nature and landscape planning, the treatment of ‘Greenstructures and Urban Planning’ at the turn of the 21st century can in some ways be seen very much as a case of ‘the matrix – reloaded’.

Goals and achievements of COST C11The broader historical perspective and more inclusive geographical definition of urban open space outlined above provides the wider context within which the work of the COST C11 Project must be seen. Despite the large amount of pioneering work which has previously undertaken in the field, the COST C11 Project can be seen as having come along at a very opportune time. In the post-modern revolution which both preceded and followed the fall of Communism at the end of the 1980s, both the value attributed to urban planning and the importance afforded to nature and ecology within the urban landscape had suffered considerable setbacks. Over recent years urban planning has given way to the management of individual development projects and landscape architecture has lost almost all interest in ecological issues. Therefore by drawing renewed attention to the vital role of urban green space as a strategic component of the urban environment, which needs to be planned for it has performed an invaluable service in bringing the issue back on to the planning agenda. This, however, is not the main achievement of the ‘Greenstructures and Urban Planning’ Project. COST C11’s most important contribution has been to provide a first truly European overview of the issues concerned. The fact that the issue of green space and urban planning have a long European pedigree does not mean that there has previously been a Europe-wide perspective on the subject. This has been provided for the first time and in a structured manner by COST C11.The report is not only timely it makes a new and important contribution and provides a valuable foundation for a forthcoming debate.

The outcome of the project can be described as a Europe-wide snap shot of the results of recent and current practice in ecologically based green space planning. A broadly comparable framework has been established in order to describe the green structure of the eight selected case study cities from as many countries, within the scope of the urban ecology working group (with further cities being considered by the other working groups). In addition to the broadly descriptive approach to treating the individual case studies, the analytical section attempts to bring together and compare the common themes which have emerged through the treatment of the separate case studies.

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In the eight cities of Munich, Warsaw, Vienna, Utrecht, Oslo, Helsinki, Ceske Budejovice and Herning four well chosen questions were used to analyse and structure the treatment of the ecological aspects of urban green space planning. These questions focussed on the development of the urban green space structure under the influence of natural and historical factors; the nature conservation and ecological functionality of the green space system; the current status of ecological knowledge about the system; and the impact this knowledge has on planning, design and management of the system and its various component parts. Despite this analytical framework, the main character of the treatment of each case study city was descriptive. The limited amount of space available for the publication has meant that these descriptions have had to be kept to a broad outline only. A number of common, cross-cutting issues have also been identified which characterise ecological green space planning in most of the cities concerned. These include biodiversity, water and climate, as well as the overall structure of the green space system.

In all, these descriptions provide an excellent overview of the main issues and in some cases also the threats facing green space planning in the cities concerned, and can be seen as a valuable starting point for further studies. The limited nature of the time and resources which were available to the study has meant that some issues could only be dealt with at a relatively superficial level. While this is understandable within the context of the project, there are a number of questions which could have been addressed in more detail. Some of these relate to the connections between the case study approach which the project adopted for understandable pragmatic reasons, and the historical context of urban green space planning outlined above. What, for example, were the terms of reference of the project, what were the starting assumptions and how was it intended to use the study to build on the legacy of past green space planning? What were the criteria for the selection of the case study cities? What aspects of them meant that they could legitimately be compared with one another and what socio-economic and environmental factors meant that each was a case for itself? The question of the relationship between ecological aspects of green space planning and the role of users and of the planning process is to some extent dealt with in the study as each of these other two aspects were the focus of their own working groups. At the same time, however, this separate treatment of what are closely interrelated, if not in separable aspects, for what were understandable pragmatic reasons, has left the very question of their actual and potential integration largely unanswered. Taken together, these questions can be considered as providing an agenda for a new study which can be seen as a potential further development of the COST 11 Project.

An Agenda for COST C11 IIThree important reasons argue in favour of viewing the COST C11 project not as the end, but the beginning of a process. The first of these are the many still unanswered questions and new issues which were raised by the study and the need to go into more depth on many of the issues raised above. Secondly it would seem important to ensure

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that activities of establishing contacts and communication between key players in city authorities, universities and government agencies across Europe is too important and has been too successful to let it die just when it has proved itself to be so successful. And lastly, there would seem to be a need to break the past repeated cycles of interest in the subject of urban green structure being followed by periods in which all the past progress is forgotten or ignored. The ‘Greenstructures and Urban Planning’ project has also demonstrated that this issue is one which calls for a European approach, as the experiences at the national level are often too isolated to be understood as part of a wider pattern which can be generalised and from which broader conclusions can be drawn. One of the first issues which would need to be addressed in a follow up study is the question of terms and concepts. From the study it has become clear that we lack widely agreed terms to describe types of green and open spaces. As well as a typology for individual components of the green and open space system, we also need some agreement of what happens when we aggregate these to form green wedges, green links, green belts etc., and beyond this we need typologies too at the top level of greens space systems in order to objectively describe what we find in different situations. At an intermediate and perhaps integrating scale within this hierarchy we could also benefit from a means of describing the overall structure urban fabric in terms of the complementary contributions of both mass (the built environment) and void (the green and open space matrix), and the resulting ecological character of the latter.

But the focus cannot be on structures alone. Although it was a dictum of modernist architecture that form follows function, as far as urban structure and in particular green structure is concerned, structure provides the basis for the development of a wide range of functions. These can be summarised under the headings of biological and ecological functions, social and recreational functions and structural and psychological functions. The ability to fulfil certain functions can also be seen as a reflection of the qualitative aspects of urban open spaces. However there is also a need to reflect on quantitative aspects too. This is especially true at a time when increasing urban densities is being seen as a planning policy which is being sold as ecologically sound. However, while the so-called ‘compact city’ may save rural land from development, it also provides a direct threat to urban green space at a time when it is being demonstrated that people need green space close to where they live and work and not just somewhere in recreation areas in the urban periphery. While it is widely acknowledged that quantitative open space standards are an extremely blunt instrument and bring with them no assurance of quality, this does not mean that they should be ignored altogether.

Another key issue is the degree to which green structure and open space planning have been institutionalised in the cities concerned, and what administrative and organisational structures are the best to ensure that best practice can be established and maintained over time. Here too there is a need to develop ways of describing planning

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systems and organisational structures which are independent of the differences in administrative or legal structures from country to country and city to city. There is also a growing European policy context within which these issues need to be developed. This focuses around the European Landscape Convention, which explicitly stresses the importance of urban, suburban and peri-urban landscapes, as well as the European Union’s forthcoming ‘Thematic Strategy for the Urban Environment’ which has also apparently be conceived during one of the recurrent periods when the importance of urban green structure as an all pervasive and integrating factor of the urban environment has fallen victim to a lapse of collective memory. The best antidote to these problems and the ideal structure to ensure that the work which has been carried out on urban green space, both within the context of this project as well as other recent research projects, would seem to be the establishment of a long term network in the form of a European partnership for the urban landscape. This would link universities with municipal authorities and involve national agencies and well as European governmental organisations. Only such an organisation will be able to ensure the exchange of best practice and experience gained within the wider European context and to ensure that it is built upon in a cumulative manner so that the always limited resources can be focussed on issues which are widely recognised and so that the results can have a broad applicability. It is therefore proposed that a long term network centred around an interactive internet platform be established to fulfil this function. The web site already established within the context of the EU funded LE:NOTRE Thematic Network in Landscape Architecture provides a useful model for how such a platform could operate, and the same network represents the nucleus of a group of university departments which have strong interests in the field of urban green structure planning, many of whom also have had links to the COST C11 project.

Notes :1 cf. Lai Chi ‘Tao Te Ching’ Ch. 11 quoted above.2 Quoted by William Windham in Hansard 30th June 1808, coll. From Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Book Club Associates, 19923 Loudon, J.C., 1828, Breathing places for the Metropolis, Gardener’s Magazine, Royal Horticultural Society, London, quoted in …

References :Chandler, T. J., 1965, The Climate of London, Hutchinson, LondonHough, Michael, 1984, City Form and Natural Process, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, New YorkLaurie, Ian C., 1979, Nature in Cities, John Wiley, ChichesterMosser, M & Teyssot, 1991, The history of garden design, Thames and Hudson, London,Sitte, Camillo, 1909, Des Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen, Fritz Vieweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft (Reprint), Brauschweig/WiesbadenSpirn, Ann, 1984, The Granite Garden, Basic Books, New York

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Community planning for functional green public spaces

Michal Vesely Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation Czech Republik Michal.vesely@ecn.cz

Key-notes speaker for working group on Human Issues, Ceske Budejovice

Nowadays it seems that the specialists, architects as well as the general public are becoming increasingly interested in greenery and green areas. Why should this be ? What is the purpose and importance of greenery in urban spaces ? These questions were at the centre of a discussion of experts coming from universities, municipali-ties, state departments consultancy bodies, along with independent experts from 15 European countries involved in the COST “Green Structure and Urban Planning” action. Such diversity in the attendees’ professional backgrounds bought a wide spec-trum of insight to the discussion. As a result of the discussion, an agreement has been reached concerning what is meant by “the green structure”, as summed up in detail in the Ewa Kaliszuk and Barbara Szulczewska paper. This illustrates the broadness of related issues discussed. Green structure has several dimensions:- spatial dimension: all the uncovered urban places as parks, playgrounds, sports fields, allotments, private gardens, green spaces of courtyards as well as street alleys of trees and greenways- ecological dimension: flora, fauna, urban hydrology and climate, - the cultural dimension: history, identity, design - and the social dimension: places to meet, to play, to recover from the stress of grey streets.It seems that behind all of the ideas is the hereditary basic need and to live with or close to nature. Even in the 21th century it is basically not possible to live without it.

History Urban green structures has developed as an integrated concept in urban planning dur-ing the last few decades in Europe. As Karsten Jorgensen mentions in his paper, “the history of urban green structures is related to the history of garden art and especially to the development of public parks in the 19th century. Also in earlier times there have been examples of public urban green areas of different kinds, from medieval commons or so-called pleasure gardens to accessible promenades of royal parks in the 17th and 18th centuries. What was new in the 19th century was that the public parks were delib-erately designed for the benefit of general public, and were, to an increasing extent, on publicly owned ground. The rise of public parks was the reaction to the general

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urbanisation and the poor living conditions resulting from this.” It had probably also relations to a nineteenth century renaissance of romantic love and the relationship towards landscape scenery in art, painting, poetry and prose. The public parks were regarded as important factors for both public hygiene and for general moral.

Today’s tasksNowadays, ecology is more explicitly taken into account, as are the role of green structures such as biotops, biocoridors and clima regulators. What is stressed fur-ther is the importance of greenstructures to human health, both physical and mental. “Parks enhance powers of concentration, lower stress levels and alleviate irritation. A simple stroll in a park may strengthen muscles, provide fresh air and daylight, all important factors for healthy life,” as cited in the Grahn and col. paper. A World Health Organisation campaign suggests a daily 30 minute walk for urban citizens to stay healthy. This inspires urban planners to design not only parks, but networks of foot and cycle paths in order to create appropriate and attractive conditions for non motorised transportation. So called greenways are becoming a world movement, promoting safe trails for pedestrians, cyclists, in line scatters and runners. Greenway is not understood only as a trail, it is a green corridor for fitness accompanied with proper services; it is a trail not just for recreation but for daily transport to work and home as well; it interconnects the urban areas with nature and urban areas together. “If green and blue structures are integrated to grey ones, a network of pleasant and com-fortable paths, usable to reach on foot (or bike) various parts of the city, can become a alternative to car short trips”, stresses Lucia Martincight in her paper.The greenways are discussed and practically promoted and implemented by the European Greenways Association (EGWA). The promotion and the support of sus-tainable mobility is becoming the world trend.

Value of greenstructures and preferred urban environmentValuing the greenstructures is quite a difficult task for economists because the green structures are the public goods, with all the difficulties connected with assessment of the demand curve and flowing problem of assessment of the price. Thus, different techniques have been developed to value green areas and to make cost benefit analy-ses applicable. One of these techniques is the contingent valuation based on question-naires investigating the willingness to pay of the users of the green areas. Another more reliable method described in detail in the Jean-Marie Halleux papers are the hedonic models. This method values the influence of green structures on residential property values. Interesting findings have been found in the last few years. The Finish research demonstrates a 5 % higher price for house with view onto forest, in Dutch research an increase in house price up to 28 % was found out for houses with garden and facing water. This goes on inline with the current tendency of so-called “urban sprawl”, the tendency to leave the densely built inner city and to move into suburbs to the places with the closer contact with the nature, finances permitting.“People tend to seek out places where they feel competent and confident, places

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where they can make sense of the environment while also being engaged with it. If this need is not satisfied, it leads to long time stress”, writes K. Zaleckis in his paper. “Preferred environment is psychologically acceptable environment.”The question is how to connect the preferences of the users of public spaces, ideas of architects, landscape architects and municipality. One of the solutions how to deal with this challenge is described in the Alexander Stahle paper. The Stockholm munic-ipality is developing the new planing guidelines, a Park Program, partly based on the new concepts for public interests, the “sociotop”. It was developed to complement the accepted concept of “biotop”. The “sociotop” is defined as the commonly experienced and used place of a specific culture. The concept raises the questions “For whom?”, “For what?” and “Where?”. A sociotop map of a city describes then the common everyday life qualities of open space, green, grey or blue, public or private.” If the green structure should be functional, the discussion with the different share-holders, with users of the public space, with the “local community” is essential.

The active public participate approach to the public spaces planningWhile the different expert methods and approaches how to value and create the green public spaces are developed, it is overlooked that the local community, the users of the place, are sometimes the best experts. Environmental Partnership is collaborat-ing with several foreign partners such as The Project for Public Spaces New York, Quebec Labrador Foundation Ipswich, Antioch Institute Vermont, Ghel Architects Kobenhaven, The Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture or the Centre for Evironmental Interpretation Scotland, with the aim of developing tools and methods of how to use the citizens potential, how to work actively with people, how to share peoples experiences, ideas, motivation, collaboration and responsibility.

Why do many public spaces not function effectively ?It seems that a lot of pubic spaces, squares, parks, promenades are projected just for the visual effect, not with practical utility in mind. Such places are nice and clean, but empty. They become subject to vandalism, or there are not users of the place, and/or there is no one managing the park.

What makes public spaces attractive ? When the people describes the place which they like, they repeat the words “safe”, “nice”, “beautiful”. But such categories are difficult to measure. Based on the broad survey held by the Project for Public Spaces, it was discovered that for the public place to be attractive, it has to have these basic qualities: accessibility, activities, comfort, sociability.

Place-making - The principles to create attractive and quality green spacesPlace Performed Evaluation , developed by Project for Public Spaces, is a place oriented approach, rather then the project oriented one generally used by planers and

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other professionals. It requires participants to use common sense and intuition along with structured observation and interview skills. This allows them to see quickly the good and bad qualities of a place. It seems to integrate a creative process about how to make a place a ‘great’ place. The evaluation can be done by anyone who is observant from a highly trained professional to a simple citizen. The approach recommends the following principles to be kept to create quality public space : 1. Community has the expertise – the most valuable piece of knowledge about how

the place functions and how to improve it comes from the local people2. Create the concrete place not the abstract project3. It is not possible to make it alone – different partners involved into the project are

essential4. There is always somebody who says that it is not possible5. It is possible to get to know a lot just by observation6. Create your vision – it should by formulate by the users of the place, of the people

which lives or works in the surrounding7. The form supports the function – the most important think about creating of the

public spaces is the architectonic project. But the best projects grow from the knowledge, how the community will use it.

8. Triangulation – association of the components of the public space that way that the users can easily use them.

9. Start up with petunia – start up with small steps which support the engagement of the further shareholders.

10. It is not the question of money - small improvements could have bigger effect and bring more users of the place than the big ones, the effective place management is more important than big investment for the successful place; if the community is involved other people will join to help, and this in turn will generate money.

Conclusions and keynotes to be discussedThe green structure creation is a complex thing. It can be viewed and discussed from different angles.To take practical action the involvement of the future users of the place is essential. To design a park or greenway for the benefit of general public, to create functional green public space the ground- and field-work with the different sharehold-ers is essential for the success. Striving to balance the needs of businesses and local residents and engagement of the public in the planning and implementation of the activities should be the component of every architectonic project. It is important to start up with small but the concrete steps. The enthusiasm and enjoyment of the people involved could significantly con-tribute towards the creation of phenomenal, lively green pub-lic space and help to cumulate additional sources of money. Once engaged in its creation, the community tends to carry on

Picture: Four qualities, © Project For Public Spaces, www.pps.org

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Conclusions and keynotes to be discussedThe green structure creation is a complex thing. It can be viewed and discussed from different angles.To take practical action the involvement of the future users of the place is essential. To design a park or greenway for the benefit of general public, to create functional green public space the ground- and field-work with the different shareholders is essential for the success. Striving to balance the needs of businesses and local residents and engagement of the public in the planning and implementation of the activities should be the component of every architectonic project. It is important to start up with small but the concrete steps. The enthusiasm and enjoyment of the people involved could significantly contribute towards the creation of phenomenal, lively green public space and help to cumulate additional sources of money. Once engaged in its creation, the community tends to carry on looking after for the space when it is finished.I hope that the COST discussion will go a long way in contributing to our living in nicer, neater greener and functional urban places, which is so much needed.

References :Gehl J.: Living between buildings, Creating of public spaces, The Czech Environmental Partnership, Brno, 2003Grahn P. 2004 : Eight experienced qualities in urban open spaces, Halleux J.M. 2004: Valuing green structure, the use of hedonic models, Hanocq P. 2004: Practices in planning and design of urban green areas in Belgium, Jorgensen K. 2004: The origins of urban greenstructures, Kaliszuk E., Szulczewska B. 2004: “Green structure” the term discussion, Martincigh L. 2004: A green-network, green structure and non motorized transport, Stahle 2004 A.: Urban planning for a quality dense green structure, Stockholm map and park programm, Zaleckis K. 2004: Role of the urban green in creation of preferred urban environment,: Greenstructure and urban planning Draft Materials for the final report, COST Action C11

Kovarik M., Ficova J., Mouckova J., Barta J., 2000. The place for life, The Czech Environmental Partnership, BrnoMadden, K.: Place-making, The Czech Environmental Partnership, 2003

Case study – practical small place-makingLet us live our square!

Machov is a small town near the Czech - Polish border. In autumn 2003 the planned recon-struction of the square begun. The old and partly sick trees were cut down and new ones were to be planted; the broken asphalt pavements were meant to be replaced by the flagged ones. The problem was that the public was not informed as well as the local school, which is situated directly on the square. The teachers and students were surprised and started to grumble. It stirred up a discussion. The students wanted to help but did not know how. Due to the inactive of the school headmaster, the students became gradually part of the team which wanted to help actively. The headmaster prepared the questionnaire for them. They had to answer ques-tions as what do the students dislike most at the current square, what they miss most, what

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could be changed and where they think they can help. As a result they made clear what they want and how they imagine the future square. The majority of the answers were the same. Most of the students miss greenery! The students has the chance to look into the architectonic plans at the discussion with the mayor. After the discussion the space in front of the school was assigned to them. At the beginning, there was only unsightly lawn and two old spruces.In the first phase, the students tried to work as architects, presenting their ideas and visions. After the discussion with the landscape architect they realized that the majority of the ideas were not realistic. The discussions opened their eyes and helped to understand the principles of restoration of the public space. They realized how the proper choice of plats suitable for the concrete environment is important as well. The architect, paying attention to the remarks of the children, then designed the space in front of their school.The real work started in spring. The students took pickaxes, shovels and hoes and started to change the space. They planted the herb garden and placed the names of the herbs into it. Now, every student can recognize oregano, mint, sweet balm, lavender or thyme. They placed cases with geranium next to the new installed information tables with names of students who planted them. The new banks were installed at the public space in front of the school. They also built the roofed stand for bicycles, which will serve for the students during the working days and for tourists at the weekend. The new trees were planted in front of the school. Together with the members of volleyball club, students restored the old field and the play-ground for small children as well. The building of the outdoor classroom is prepared for the next spring. Another step to relieve the square was the regeneration of the traditional fair. It was not held in Machov for fifty years.

Lessons learnedThe project enriched the everyday work of the students. It became the binding factor between the school and the municipality. The students learned how to discuss, argue, retrocede and not retrocede. The school became the equivalent partner for the town representatives. The students were happy that they could participate actively on the reconstruction of the public space in front of their school and started to understand that to be interested in the public issues is not a needless caprice.

Note: The project was supported in the School for Sustainable Development – Community Action Program initiated by the Enviromental Partnership and Groundworks U.K funded by Toyota Social Responsibility Fund.

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Green structure and urban developmentIssues of the debate session

Sybrand TjallingiiSchool of Architecture Delft University of Technology, The Netherlandss.p.tjallingii@bk.tudelft.nl

COST C11 Ceske Budejovice Conference

The perceived need to structure the role of green areas, both spatially and in the planning process, made researchers and practitioners from 15 European countries join the COST C11 action Green Structure and Urban Planning. Their shared perception, however, did not imply a full agreement about all issues. In order to articulate different views and arguments, the final conference in the Czech city of Ceske Budejovice selected three statements that were discussed during a lively debate session. The pro’s and con’s of these statements will be summarised in this brief report.

1. We need obligatory green structure plans.

Do we need to oblige municipalities to make green structure plans? ‘Yes’, was the answer of those who argued that urban green policy should also address people who do not feel green areas are that important. ‘No’, said others who argued that top-down imposed plans never work if not supported by people. Therefore, if public support is strong, there is no need for an obligation. This did not convince the proponents of the statement. In many cases public support for green spaces is strong, they argued, and yet policy makers do not sufficiently take green issues into account in their decisions about urban growth. Obligatory plans would force officials and politicians to make green areas play a role in urban planning. Obviously, this requires efforts to integrate green structure in mainstream and general planning practice. Not everyone was convinced of the need to make defensive green sector plans as they might also deepen the gaps between sectors. But there was a broad agreement about the need to integrate green structures in general plans for urban renewal and development.

2. We should have clear boundaries between built-up and green.

At first, this statement created confusion. The meaning of boundaries was unclear. ‘Such boundaries do not exist’, was the first reaction. ‘But we saw them ourselves’ others replied. ‘We saw the clear boundaries between built-up areas and green river valleys, for example. These visual edges, they argued, are important because they make

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people aware of the presence of green structure as a quality of the urban landscape. Obviously, however, these sharp edges do not exist everywhere. Diffuse gradients between wooded suburban garden districts and villas dispersed in the adjacent woodland are hardly visible. More important than visual boundaries, some argued, are legal limits to urban growth. Clear and binding boundaries drawn on the map to stop further development may be most effective. The proponents of the statement agreed with this, but stressed the importance of visual edges that can support legal lines and make it easier to maintain the boundary between built-up and green. In this context, the meaning of green structure plans becomes evident as they may guide decision making processes to determine where and where not urban growth may take place.

3. We have to find out more about people’s need for green spaces and, therefore,

more research about these needs should be funded.

The proponents of this statement brought forward that participants in urban planning processes do not know enough about the need for urban citizens to have access to green spaces. It was assumed that this lack of information weakens the position of green areas in the planning process. Critics of this view argued that there has been done a lot of research, both about human behaviour and about green qualities, but that, all too often, this knowledge is not used. But what is useful knowledge? Some pled for an improved methodological framework for green space studies in order to make research findings more comparable and objective. Others argued for practical research, a process of learning-by-doing focussing on knowing how rather than knowing that. Knowing that green areas are important for human health, for instance, is interesting, but it is not the sort of knowledge that can be used by those who cope with questions of design and maintenance of green areas or about their integration in the urban system. According to some, a much better basis for design and maintenance of green spaces would be generated by public participation than by scientific research. Other debaters challenged this view. The wishes of local residents at one particular moment are important, but this information cannot replace research about biodiversity, long-term health effects or management and design alternatives. Research can also give a voice to ‘silent groups’ like children, immigrants, elderly people or other minority groups who do not participate in spite of the efforts made to make them join the process.

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Short summary of the Action

The COST C11 Action, “Green structure and urban planning”, was launched begin-ning of 2000. Fithteen countries were involved in this action and about 40 delegates and experts participated.. COST C11 belongs to the “Urban Civil Engineering” domain of the COST Programme.

The main objective of this action wa to adress researchers, planners and practitioners about the multitude of roles played by the city’s green structure.Green structure links town and country. In a spatial perspective, green structure is more than the sum of green spaces. Speaking of green structure implies drawing atten-tion to the spatial network that links open spaces, public and private gardens, public parks, sports fields, allotment gardens and recreation grounds within the city to the networks of woodlands and river floodplains in the surrounding countryside. Thus green structure highlights the role of greenways for walkers and cyclists and stresses the importance of ecological corridors for wildlife. Green structure links the past to the future. From a time perspective, green structure expresses a long history and a long-term planning policy to make the spatial structure of green spaces a basis for sustainable urban development.Green structure concerns, the existence, the strategies to maintain, create or improve, differ in a large extend from a country to the next and some times between two cities in the same country, that’s why so useful comparisons elements were gathered through field visits. In order to progress in its work, COST C11 was organized in three working groups: one on the ecological approach of green structure, the second on the ‘human issues’ and a third dealing with the policies aspects.The final seminar was opened to ‘key-notes speakers’ who could then add their own contribution to this report and, to conclude, a kind of synthesis stresses on some ques-tions being still worthful to reflect.

more information on COST C 11 :http://www.map21ltd.com/COSTC11/C11.htm