The Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management at SLU invites STSM researchers to take part in three different research and development projects exploring how to implement green infrastructure with a focus on ecosystem services. All projects can be adjusted to the visiting researchers research experience.

The department works in close cooperation with the City of Malmö to develop the green infrastructure and to implement the perspective of ecosystem services. The department is one of Europe’s largest single organizations for research, development and teaching on landscape issues. We are about 80 employees and currently we hosts about 10 PhD-students. See homepage: http://www.slu.se/en/departments/department-of-landskapsarkitektur-och-samhallsplanering/ .

Contact for the STSM will be senior lecturer Tim Delshammar (tim.delshammar@slu.se )

a)      How can the connectivity between public urban green spaces be improved?

The public urban green areas in Malmö has been planned to form a connected structure similar to the Copenhagen finger plan and the green verges in Stockholm. In practice this has meant that public green spaces have been placed toenable connectivity. However, in practice the detailed design do not allways support the perception of connected green spaces or a green pathway. The aim of this project is to use methods developed for assessing walkability in urban areas to assess the percieved connectivity of urban green spaces. Selected pathways will be assessed to identify the weak links and to identify why these links are problematic.

b)      How can citizens be involved in continuous evaluation and development of the public urban green spaces?

Park user are often involved in planning processes for renewal of green spaces, but do seldom get involved to assess other types of spaces. This is mainly due to the lack of resources to keep a dialogue going with the ordinary park user. The challenge is to develop methods that are maintained at a low cost, makes it easy for users to supply with knowledge and that gives the the park managers data that can easily be processed and interpreted. The aim of the project is to use online tools for smartphones to explore the possibilities for users to get involved in the planning and management of the public urban green spaces.

c)      How can the values of private green spaces be assessed, secured and integrated in the green structure plan

In new development areas the urban structure in Malmö are usually much denser than the existing city districts. Green walls, roofs and front gardens are supposed to partly replace the public green spaces. The aim of this project is to assess the green qualities in a selection of newbuilt districts. What can these types of urban structures supply with? Further, the project will analyze how qualities can be secured from the planning process to the management phase.