新时代的花园城市

Garden Cities in the New Millenia

在城市发展中,通过接触都市自然环境而产生的城市生物多样性和人类福祉的协同生态系统效益常被忽视,未来30年,随着全球都市趋向密集,这些效益将变得至关重要。回顾园林史可以发现,历史上的园林理想化地重现大自然,提供食物、审美享受、社交、休憩与幸福感。花园和庄园用于激发和恢复使用者的心理能力,而城市公园则将花园对身心的舒缓功效扩展到社会经济地位低的底层人群。数十年来,研究人员证实了接触自然能为人带来多项益处,并且对儿童和社会经济地位低的人群效果尤为突出。除非扭转趋势,否则在未来几十年里,城市密集化只会让花园和城市绿地流失问题更加严重;与之并行的,还有与人类福祉息息相关的生物多样性及生态系统文化服务的丧失。据估计,目前在世界范围内生物多样性的丧失速度比正常水平高出1000倍。这一点之所以重要,是因为生物多样性的丧失关系到生态系统服务的衰减。然而已有城市发展的经验表明,城市绿地的流失并非不可避免。比如新加坡就在增加人口总量和密度的同时增加了公共绿地面积,另外还有一些高密度城市新添了绿色屋顶、绿墙和绿色建筑。像底特律这样的城市也用新的公共绿地扭转都市衰退。回顾更具生物多样性、更受欢迎且有高复原力的景观属性,并总结可纳入城市规划的规范性原则,以打造生物多样性与人类福祉兼备的新型花园城市。

This paper posits that the synergistic ecosystem benefits of urban biodiversity and human wellbeing through contact with urban nature are often overlooked in urban development and that they will become critically important as cities,around the planet,densify in the next three decades.A review of the history of gardens reveals that gardens have historically been idealized representations of the natural world that have provided food,aesthetic enjoyment,socialization,respite and wellbeing.Gardens and estates were intended to stimulate and to restore the mental capacities of their users and city parks were intended as a means of extending the healing effects of gardens to the lowest socio-economic members of society.In recent decades,researchers have confirmed the multiple mental and physical benefits that accrue from contact with nature and the especially beneficial results for children and people of lower socio-economic status.Unless current trends are reversed,urban densification,in the coming decades,will lead to loss of both gardens and urban green space and a concurrent loss of biodiversity and the cultural ecosystem services that support human well-being.Worldwide,loss of biodiversity is now estimated to be up to 1,000 times greater than normal levels.This is important because loss of biodiversity is linked to loss of ecosystem services.However,some cities have demonstrated urban development and loss of urban green space are not inevitable.Cities like Singapore have increased public green space while increasing population and density.Other dense cities have added more green-roofs,walls and buildings.Cities like Detroit are replacing urban blight with new public green spaces.The paper reviews the attributes of more biodiverse,more preferred and more restorative landscapes and closes with a number of normative principles that may be incorporated in urban planning to make New Garden Cities that support both biodiversity and human wellbeing.