Green City Planning and Practices in Asian Cities

Nineteenth century, the City Beautiful Movement, known as the “white movement,” contributed to the urban design system and attached importance to the cityscape. At the end of the twentieth century, the “green movement” became popular and urban development. More and more countries now attach importance to the planning issues of ecological and livable cities. Under the vision of the “green movement,” a lot of similar urban development being discussed, such as sustainable development, environmental coexistence, sustainable cities, compact cities, healthy cities, quality of life, intermediate cities, eco-cities, shan-shui cities, and so on. The thinking of green city planning were integrated into these series of developmental strategies. An ideal green city is aimed to achieve via the vision, strategy and planning, based on ecological environment approach.In this chapter, the concept of green city and the theories of developmental strategies are discussed, and the policy of promoting a green city is expounded.

The smart house has been a growing field of interest among researchers and entrepreneurs in recent years. The smart house is designed to create a high quality of life based on technologies of functional automation within residential buildings. It provides a platform to monitor and control certain appliances in the house environment. The concept of the smart house is discussed in this chapter.

An in-depth literature study of the smart house was conducted to establish smart house principles and parameters, then these were compared with the principles and parameters of the green house to identified the similarities and the differences between those two concepts. Concept and parameter implementation of the smart house in practice was investigated through a field survey and online materials. Japan, as one of the leading countries in smart house technology, was chosen as a case study. Six smart houses were selected to evaluate the concept implementation and compare smart house concepts with those of the green house.

The results showed that the smart house concept and the green house concept have an intersection of sets relationship. The intersection set parameters are the parameters included in the principles of respect for users, conservation of energy and water, and working with the climate.

This chapter introduces the Three-Star evaluation standards in China, the energy performance of green office buildings, a comparison of occupant satisfaction between green and common office buildings, and three typical green building cases in Shenzhen (a hot summer–warm winter zone), Shanghai (a hot summer–cold winter zone), and Tianjin (a cold zone), respectively.

Rapid urban sprawl and resource exploitation have led to unprecedented challenges to the global environment. An ecological community, which is the integration of architecture, ecology, and society, includes various aspects such as people, construction, the environment, and overall development. The interdisciplinary integration of ecological cogitation and technology reflects harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and also becomes a development model for future sustainable settlement. In 2011, a green building ecological community assessment system, EEWH-EC (Ecology, Energy Saving, Waste Reduction, Health: Eco-communities), for subtropical regions, was promulgated in Taiwan. In this work, the ecological assessment systems used in the UK, the USA, Germany, Japan, and China are reviewed. The categories, items, content, evaluation criteria, and weightings of these assessment systems are studied and analyzed. The results show that the EEWH-EC indicators give more emphasis to ecology and to the living and natural environments. The weightings of the indicators have not been developed yet, therefore the degree of importance of each category and item cannot be determined. With the ecological community indicators established by different countries, social, economic, and humanistic indicators can be strengthened. With reference to the established international eco-community assessment systems, it will be more favorable for the overall development of ecological communities to formulate assessment systems better suited to subtropical regions.

To continuously increase urban space, it is quite unlikely for mountain cities to be able to expand their boundaries. With the lack of natural, ecological land resources and the unrecyclable nature of such resources, the only way out for them is to make the most of their existing resources and to find a new development mode that focuses on the internal renewal of those cities. As one of the largest mountain cities in Western China, faced with a series of grave problems in city development such as economic remodeling, functional updating, and resource reorganization, Chongqing is taking a development tactic focusing on optimizing and integrating resources, which may become a good model for other mountain cities in the same region. In view of the characteristics of the natural ecological and land resources in the mountain cities, the urban design tactics for these cities emphasize two aspects. The first is constructing hierarchical and systematic natural resource protection mechanisms, strengthening the dominant position and restrictive role of natural elements in the mountainous urban landscapes and maintaining the urban spatial texture of cluster growth; at the same time, in light of urban industry restructuring, exploiting the functions and tapping the potentials of the riverside belt as an urban landscape area open to the public, seeking a new model which is fit for the development of the riverside belts in cities. The second is taking resource integration as the main approach to efficient use of the land resources in downtown areas and by constructing three-dimensional public pedestrian systems in the cities, combining the cultural landscape and commercial facilities with urban street spaces so as to save these spaces from isolation; and by forming a compact, land-efficient, and multifunctional urban pattern, which is at the same time adapted for the various transport modes, shifting the mountain cities from an old pattern towards a new, intensive, resource-rich, and economizing pattern.

Ancient Chinese urban civilization has a long history. Many ancient cities were designed with ecological wisdom with regard to the site selection, the space patterns, and the urban forms of the cities, adapted to geomorphological agents, hydrological features, and climate states; thus, natural ecological services could be better utilized in urban activities to create comfortable urban environments. By means of city historical maps and local chronicle data, this chapter analyzes the relation between site selection, space patterns, and building clusters of typical cities in ancient China and the terrain, hydrology, and climate. This analysis shows that these cities have a good relation of adaptability to nature, so that the urban space coordination ecological wisdom of “skillfully utilizing natural ecological resources and creating coordination between nature and human beings” with appropriate street directions, building orientation, and building cluster forms are selected according to different climates to create comfortable temperature and wind environments. This ancient ecological wisdom needs to be blended into contemporary urban planning and design to realize the coordination between urban construction and natural systems. Urban land expansion and urban form planning and design need to conform to natural ecological process rules. Manmade landscapes and natural landscapes need to be blended to realize the balance between urban processes and natural evolution processes and basically maintain regional ecological stability.

Under the background of China’s new normal, urban construction has entered a coexistence trend of incremental planning and existing stock planning, where green space in urban high-density areas are affected by an extreme shortage of land supply. Due to the lack of coordination of complex interests in traditional green space planning which can cause the huge transaction costs. This chapter takes two projects in the city of Tianjin as case studies and discusses existing stock space as a resource for land supply in order to reduce transaction costs for green space. The principle of “dividing levels, connecting networks, and building multi-paths”, and the planning strategy that “turns stock into treasure, connects greens into a network, expands the green to three-dimensional” shows an innovative planning strategy for integrated open spaces of an urban green system, which concentrates on ecological conservation, public service, and community vitality. Through green space networks and three-dimensional and multilevel construction, new planning methods for urban green space systems in high-density areas have been explored for “urban repair and ecological restoration” in this work.

With the rapid development of urbanization in China, ecological problems in cities are increasingly alarming. In order to test the ecological benefits of roof greening on reducing energy consumption, cooling, humidifying, and controlling rainwater runoff, this chapter takes a roof garden at the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University as a case study. This work verifies the effects of cooling, humidification, and lower energy consumption achieved by roof greening. Also, rainwater in the roof garden was monitored to test the utility of the rainwater collection system. Humidifying and cooling were effected significantly in the roof garden, where the temperature dropped by 1.8–4 °C and relative humidity increased by 5–10%. There was also a significant indoor temperature drop after the roof was greened. Furthermore, roof greening can have a significant insulating effect and is able to reduce energy consumption effectively. The monitoring results show that the roof garden also plays a significant role in controlling rainwater runoff.

Under the influence of high building density, the heat island effect resulting from urban microclimates increases the heat load of the environment. Through evapotranspiration and shading effects of plants, the addition of green walls to exterior building walls can effectively lower the ambient temperature and satisfy greening needs. Most existing green wall systems use chemical foams and have a short service life. To effectively enhance the benefits of green walls, this study combined green planning, building–human coexistence, use and reuse of rainwater, and green materials to develop a green wall system that delivers sustainable greening. The proposed novel system is innovative and feasible, enables green walls to deliver long-lasting effects, uses the exterior structure of buildings for energy conservation, and facilitates sustainable development for eco-city.

This chapter discusses green roof policies and practices in Korea and introduces a case study of a rooftop garden at Seoul National University. Seoul City has greatly grown since the 1970s and is still expanding through urban development projects. This rapidly developing urban environment makes it very difficult to conserve green spaces. Since the 2000s, Seoul City’s policy has been increasingly concerned with qualitative growth indicators for green and livable cities. Impervious surfaces cover 48% of the total area of Seoul, i.e., the majority of the urbanized area is covered by impervious surfaces. Therefore, green roofs were included in the 2030 Seoul City Park and Green Space Master Plan, because they are a very effective way of increasing the quantity and quality of urban green spaces. Rooftop greening is a very effective way of contributing to green cities, because it is an economical way to utilize the available space. Previous studies on the value and benefit of green roofs in sustainable cities are summarized, and two types of green roofs are described. The first type is a leisure and recreation space to enrich the green culture in the urban environment, where there is a lack of greenery, while the other type has more ecological effects and aims to enhance the environment through greening of artificial grounds. The type of rooftop garden is decided at the beginning of its installation, which can be distinguished by an intensive or extensive system. In this chapter, the case of the Hanul Madang rooftop garden, built at Seoul National University, is introduced as an example of the use, as well as the ecological and cultural values, of rooftops.

Global warming is worsening. Sustainability is the main goal for reducing the consumption of energy and carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, and ecological architecture is the optimal means of reaching this goal. Vernacular architecture highlights local characteristics, emphasizing harmony with the natural environment and local conditions. Tulou, which have been listed as World Heritage Sites, maintain a livable internal environment that is warm in winter and cool in summer through the appropriate placement of openings and patios. People feel comfortable even without the use of appliances. This design adheres to the concept of sustainable development through ecological and energy conservation, providing an excellent example for modern architectural planning and design. Through field measurements of wind environment comfort, this study adopted a square tulou—the Fuyu Building in Yongding, Fujian, China—as an example, because its climatic conditions and architectural forms are in line with Taiwan’s current environmental status. Through comparisons of temperature, humidity, and wind field, the differences between the internal and external environments of the traditional communal residence were explored. The results showed that ventilation produced positive effects on indoor environmental comfort in the tulou through the placement of windows and patios. This design approach can serve as a reference for future ecological building design.

With rapid urbanization, there are more and more construction projects of public facilities in China. The concept of green building has been introduced into the design process for museum buildings, which is one type of public facility pursuing energy savings. At present, artificial ventilation and heat preservation devices are utilized in museum buildings to maintain a stable temperature and humidity range for indoor exhibits. After equipment installation, energy consumption becomes a big cost of operating museum buildings. With the concept of green building, this work explores passive energy-saving strategies from a practical view of museum design. Lighting and heat preservation are pertinently considered under some special condition requirements, including processing of sloping field topography, adjustment of lighting and room temperature, combination with local materials and local culture, etc. As an example, the authors present a case study of implementation of the green building concept for energy saving in China.

This chapter firstly describes the local climate characteristics of Taiwan, green buildings, and the manner of using green materials in Taiwan by using a literature review analytically, then explains the development model of green buildings for a green environment, green structure, green materials, green living, and green decoration and finishing under a “simplified” concept. Secondly it describes a practical and appropriate residential environment model encompassing a combination of correct temperature and humidity values indoors, reduced building weight of envelope structures and heat gain through windows, avoidance of excessive interior decoration, choice of an envelope material with high resistance to moisture permeability, an air exchange mechanism with a proper intermediary space, and a suitable fitted air conditioning model. Last, but not least, this chapter describes the concept of the “Development of A Simplified Green Building Model in Taiwan” by aggregating case study data and presents a description of the development of the AGS1 experimental house on the basis of the effectiveness evidence of some of the building functions of the AGS1 experimental house, and also presents suggestions for the direction of short thesis research in the future, hoping to facilitate positive development of the green building sector in Taiwan.

Abu Dhabi through its 2030 Vision is reshaping much of its urban identity, creating new forms of architecture that manifest sustainable design and development of new building typologies aimed at retaining its communities and improving the quality of life of its large expatriate community, which in the past has conceptualized Abu Dhabi as a transit city. This paradigm shift from its pragmatic urban fabric, planned in the 1970s, is illustrated by the new forms of architecture and urban spaces that are emerging in mega projects that recontextualize the concept of the brise-soleil and advocate environmental design principles. Masdar provides a prominent example of how to design better buildings and urban spaces to improve the quality of life. Many of its buildings are planned to generate energy and implement passive cooling effects, and act as life-scale icons of sustainability for community education, exhibiting diverse facade treatments and environmental design principles.

By means of “going greener,” “getting smarter,” and “converging smart–green,” an innovation-driven smart city could take steps toward greater sustainability and aim at greater human well-being. Vertical greening means a vertical triumph of greenery in a high-density urban area; it is well suited to displaying the level of smartness and greenness in a city. But conventional vertical greening is used in an open-field way, unprotected, threatened by climate disasters such as high wind speed and heavy rainfall, and with lack of control of climate conditions and plant-response-based circumstances. Then there are the challenges of energy saving, reduced CO₂ emissions, and reductions in water use and in pesticide use. A greenhouse system could instead solve different facets of the problems of conventional vertical greening because a greenhouse system could be developed to achieve an optimal balance between efficient environmental control and efficient plant use of available resources. This appears to be more intellectually justifiable, adaptable, and innovative, and appears to make it much easier to be smart–green and sustainable in a smart city. The purposes of this chapter are to summarize the major concepts and trends in smart city, vertical greening, and new greenhouse technologies and approaches by reviewing relevant subjects of research, and to present a novel prototype, discussing its innovations and advantages to reveal that the proposed green energy water-autonomous greenhouse system (GEWA system), being a sophisticated and multidisciplinary system by using water resources and solar energy in a rational way, could be fit for an alternative technology approach toward sustainable smart–green vertical greening in a smart city. Aimed at improving responsiveness, efficiency, and performance for environmental sustainability, resource sustainability, and material and technological sustainability, and also aimed at greater well-being.