Green Infrastructure
must be placed at the heart of UK city redevelopment, to create places for
people to flourish, experts have advised.
Leading specialists
from organisations including the Greater London Authority and the Landscape
Institute were speaking at the Polypipe InfraGreen conference, held at the
Institution of Civil Engineers, to discuss how to make UK cities and built
environments more resilient.
A range of challenges
from available skills to urban redevelopment, the health and wellbeing of
citizens to managing climate change in the UK, is driving change at national
policy level. The government is encouraging the construction industry to look
for new ways to build sustainable, resilient cities.
Some 16 specialists,
including Peter Massini of the Greater London Authority, Dusty Gedge, president
of the European Federation of Green Roof and Wall Associations, and Dan Cook,
chief executive of The Landscape Institute, discussed how to establish more
green spaces in urban areas.
Sue Illman, managing
director of Illman Young, set out how delivering multifunctional SuDS through
design can deliver inherent resilience to flooding that not only manages water,
but creates new habitats and networks for healthier environments in which people
can flourish.
This approach was
demonstrated as Dr Phil Askew, director in landscaping and placemaking at
Peabody, outlined the regeneration masterplan to turn the borough of Thamesmead
into one of London’s most biodiverse and sustainable urban living environments.
This large-scale redevelopment of one the biggest post-war residential schemes
will serve more than 100,000 people living in 35,000 homes on the banks of the
Thames.
Ideas put forward by
speakers and delegates throughout the course of the day included calls for the
National Infrastructure Commission to include landscaping and green
infrastructure as an infrastructure class, and for changes to the National
Planning Policy Framework to be made to ensure building product
‘multi-functionality’ is set a parameter for SuDS design.
Polypipe specification director Sean Robinson said: “Policy
makers, urban planners and architects are fully aware of the need to change the
way rainwater is managed in urban environments. For generations, the wisdom was
to manage water away from buildings as efficiently as possible to minimise
long-term damage.
“However, with mass
urbanisation set to continue and cities contributing to a rise in localised
temperatures, there needs to be a change in mindset so that we can harness the
water as a resource to keep our cities cool, by keeping them green.
“The Polypipe
InfraGreen Conference was a great forum to bring diverse thinkers together to
begin the collaboration that will see Green Infrastructure, delivered through
well-designed SuDS schemes, become a key part of many large-scale developments
and infrastructure projects.”
