Author(s)

F. Gómez, L. Montero, V. De Vicente, A. Sequí & N. Castilla

Abstract

This work addresses one of the most important questions in ecological engineering to do with cities: it is something which interests engineers and architects and, more generally, all those whose duty it is to make decisions on urban planning. A methodology is put forward relating green zones with the environmental comfort of a city since, after establishing this relationship, one can start to formulate comfort indices quantifying green zones for each zone or district of a city. Lastly, certain considerations connected with the arrangement of these green zones are analyzed giving a vital tool for urban planning with an ecological perspective. This paper analyses the impact of green zones on urban environments. To this end the quantity and quality of green areas required for a city to become comfortable, as well as its distribution in the urban tissue, are studied, taking into consideration users’ accessibility to the green zones. Keywords: impact engineering, green zones, urban comfort, urban planning, Valencia (Spain). 1 Introduction In 1800, the proportion of the world’s population living in cities was 3.4%; a century later it increased to 13.6% and at present more than 50% of the world’s people live in urban areas. This trend is furthermore soaring dizzily: in 2000 the population of the big cities was nearly twice as much as in 1986 and in 2005 this

Keywords

impact engineering, green zones, urban comfort, urban planning, Valencia (Spain).