Ecological Sustainability and Urban Green Space

RINGKØBING PAPERS Water Management Landuse Planning Waste Management Area Resources Habitat Quality

Urban Density and Green Structure Case Studies Ringkøbing -DK Stocksbridge -UK Oslo -Forsheimer -N Poland- Green networks -PL Tidaholm & Trollhatten -S Social Impacts of sustainable Housing Oslo - city centre -N Helsinki - Espoo -SU Political Instruments Norway - N Click a Topic QUIT Ringkøbing Area Resources Purpose of research Collecting data Data on green space in Køge Green space in Ringkøbing Conclusions References Click a Topic

RINGKØBING CASE STUDY - AREA RESOURCES GREENSPACE IN RINGKØBING To access this information use the bottom left menu or the arrows at the foot of the page Area resources in Ringkøbing For Ringkøbing, which has been studied in less detail, with no detailed field study or statistical data, the total areas of the relevant area use categories which have been measured on the basis of maps (1:12.500). Due to a less developed GIS-system the calculations have been done manually (planimeter). To assess the total amount of "vegetation areas" in the area use categories for Ringkøbing, that is the area potentially available for a change in the use or management practice related to ecological sustainability, a combination of figures from the Køge study and from interpreting air photographs of the planted areas has been used as the point of departure. Fig.2 Køge and Ringkøbing compared - this table shows the percentage of the land-surface classed as Vegetated Area by landuse type Land use Type Køge Ringkøping Single family 53% 60%* Low density 48% 40%* Blocks-apartments 45% 60%* Town centre 25%* 40% New residential 50%* Parks 93%* >70% Institutions - 50%* Industry - 50%* * Ratios used for further calculations in Ringkøbing The areas measured in Ringkøbing have been adjusted in light of the Køge study by subtracting an average of 10% of the total area for public roads. Roads are not included in the data from Køge. Figures on population and on the number of dwellings in the different residential areas of the municipality were available, but not for the town of Ringkøbing itself. The figures on population for the different types of housing are based, therefore, on calculations from existing information of totals for the municipality, the known total population for Ringkøbing itself and the average household size, which is 2.7 persons. Fig.3 Ringkøbing - Table showing the link between the density of development and presence of greenspace (vegetated areas) in residential areas (see below for descriptions of the different types of housing) Ringkøbing - residential areas subdivided by type of housing Single Houses Low Density Apartmt.blocks Town Centre New* residential Persons 4795 1353 846 1884 1392 Dwellings 1998 564 353 785 580 Total area-ha 194.6 30.6 7.8 23.8 47.1 Dwellings per ha. 10.3 18.4 45.3 33.5 12.3 Persons p ha 24.7 44.2 108.6 80.5 29.6 Total vegetated ha 116.8 12.2 4.7 6.0 23.5 Vegetated• area per dwelling 585 sq m 216 sq m 133 sq m 76 sq m 405 sq m * The new residential areas are those planned or being built in 1998 • The "vegetated area" includes both the grassed areas and those planted Single family housing The calculations show that single family houses are by far the most prefered housing type in Ringkøbing. The residential areas of the town are planned to grow by almost 600 dwellings (about 15% more than the present stock). (Fig. 3.) With adjustments for infrastructure, small low-density residential, industrial and trade areas within the structure zones, the 1998 properties of single family houses cover as much as 195 ha. The average is about 975 sq.m per house. This fits in well with the general practice in Ringkøbing of allowing more than 1000 sq.m for older developments and about 700 sq.m for the newest developments. Low density (small terraces mainly) While the size of single family house properties were alike in Køge and in Ringkøbing, the low-density residential developments occupy an area per dwelling which is more than double that of Køge (543 and 256) although the general maximum building ratio differs only 5% (35% and 40%). A large number of the low-density developments in Ringkøbing are social housing. It has not been possible to check the ratios of paved, grass covered and planted areas in low-density developments in Ringkøbing by actual measurements. The large difference of average open space area per dwelling made it necessary to compare the Køge based ratios with the findings of vegetation cover and planted areas in the Ringkøbing as visible on air photographs. These numbers are very rough, but the Køge study has shown them to be a valid point of departure when estimating averages, although not necessarily for describing specific sites. The average vegetation cover from the interpretation of air photographs falls in the category of 30 - 50% of the total area. The planted areas in this category are (much) less than 10% in 7 out of the 8 cases, so it leaves a grass area average of about 40% of the total area (82% of the vegetation area, a percentage which despite the area size difference is close to that of Køge). Consequently these figures were used for further calcuations. Apartment blocks All three apartment block developments of Ringkøbing, the newest of which is from the late 1960s, are social housing. The apartment block developments occupy an area of 221 sq.m per dwelling and so exceeds the 116 sq.m per dwelling in Køge. However, the Køge average covers developments of up to 270 m2 per dwelling, so the Ringkøbing average, calculated from the three developments, is not unusual, especially not in a municipality with a general practice of allowing for spacious housing layouts. The interpretation of the air photographs shows a vegetation area of 50 -70% with less than 10% planted areas, i.e. the larger the green spaces, the more of it is used for lawn, not for planted areas - just like the findings in the Køge study. Due to the specific Ringkøbing findings the ratio of 60% has been used for calculating the vegetation areas in this category and not the Køge ratio of 45%. Town Centre As mentioned earlier both Ringkøbing and Køge have similar town centers of medieval origin with a large number of old 1.5 - 2.5 storey, street facing houses. From the studies of air photographs the old town center has a percentage of "plant-covered" areas of 30 - 50% of the total area, which is as much more or more than for most of the other types of residential areas. This is mainly due to big, old trees being preserved in the narrow yard and garden spaces. The effect of this is also important for the visual appearance of the town center. However, as the air photographs only show the canopy, not the actual area of ground occupied by big trees, the ratio of planted area is assumed to be overestimated. Therefore the more exact 25% ratio of Køge is used. There has also been a difficulty in calculating the number of dwellings in the old town center of Ringkøbing, which makes the results less reliable than for the other residential areas: the structure zones are mixed residential/commercial, and so the calculated area per dwelling might be too high. However, more accurate statistical information is not available and the numbers calculated for the very similar town center of Køge are similar, so we have chosen to use the above mentioned numbers with no further reservation. Other land use types and availabilty of non- built land and vegetated areas Lawn seems to be the predominant surface use of the unbuilt land in the non residental areas Other land use types Parks Institutions Industry Total area-ha 85 71.7 142.3 Total vegetated 79 35.9 71.1 Total grassed 71.5 28.9 59.7 Total planted 7.2 6.1 11.4