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Plenary Lecture

Creating Sustainable Urban Green Corridors Network – A Case Study in the City of Braga, Portugal

Professor Rui A. R. Ramos
Co-Author: MSc Student Martinha E. R. R. Rocha
C-TAC - Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction
Department of Civil Engineering - School of Engineering
University of Minho - Campus of Gualtar
Braga – Portugal
E-mail: rui.ramos@civil.uminho.pt

Abstract: The life quality in urban areas is progressively a competitive factor to the cities. Nowadays, urban green spaces and the existence of a sustainable urban environment are crucial for the urban citizens’ life quality, in addition to the basic necessities of urban life promoted by UN-Habitat Good Urban Governance, i.e., adequate shelter, security of tenure, safe water, sanitation, a clean environment, health, education and nutrition, employment and public safety and mobility.
The main objective of this work is to analyse and discuss the environmental, the connectivity, and the security significance of urban green corridors network in urban green spaces system. Urban green parks, river corridors, woodlands in rural-urban fringe and urban gardens should form a hierarchy of different types, sizes and scales of urban green spaces. In a city, as an urban planning and development process toward a sustainable environment, those several green spaces should be integrated and connected through green corridors network.
The environmental connectivity of urban green spaces promoted by the green corridors should be considered as a strategy of urban overall biodiversity conservation. Also, the network must be based on green pathways to develop and upgrade in a sustainable mode the surrounding streets pattern, and access points placed at major junctions. Integrated, safe and attractive urban green pathways should link the urban green spaces and encourage people to travel to work and school or to access local services on foot or by bicycle. Moreover, well connected urban green spaces that are regularly used also help make the public realm feel safer.
The proposal of urban green corridors network for Braga is seeking to connect the city green spaces and to promote a safe foot and bicycle routes to the city central area. In this way, the network establishes a sustainable transport solution by cycle and walking to several daily destinations, i.e., schools, commerce and business offices, and public services. Through the green corridors network proposed for Braga, urban green spaces and some natural greenbelts would be integrated into a whole system to serve the whole city, giving a powerful support to enhance the life quality of citizens and the stability of urban sustainability.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Rui Ramos is an associate professor of Civil Engineering Department, Engineering School, University of Minho, Portugal. His area of expertise is Urban and Regional Planning and he is a PhD Researcher at Territory, Environment and Construction Centre from University of Minho. In 1993, at University of Minho, he started his regular work as a lecturer and researcher. Since then he published as author or co-author over 70 scientific papers in reviewed journals or presented at international conferences, and 7 PhD and several MSc students were graduated under his technical supervision. Moreover, since 2000, he had the opportunity to be an invited Professor at the Department of Transportation of the School of Engineering of Sao Carlos, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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