Introducing the bioclimatic security concept in green infrastructure planning and design

摘要

Bioclimatic landscape planning and design have developed in the last decades, even if some principles date back to the civilizations of the ancient world. The aim of bioclimatic design is to ensure an optimal level of human comfort compared to the microclimate conditions. Thus, bioclimatic landscape design is strongly related to the security level of individuals and human communities. In this context, the research is focused on deepening the relationship between bioclimatic landscape architecture andthe human security paradigm. By correlating the two notions, the necessity to develop the bioclimatic security concept as a complex tool for quantifying and enhancing the impact of urban green infrastructure on the human comfort is identified and analysed. In terms of methodology, the research is based on synthesizing and correlating the current knowledge in several fields such as horticulture, urban forestry, landscape architecture, human bioclimatology and human security. Thus, various studies regarding the impact of urban vegetation on the microclimate and on human health were analysed. Bioclimatic factors and variables that influence the state of human comfort, as well as the health and environmental dimensions of human security have been studied.This study presents and argues several proposals regarding the definition of the bioclimatic security concept in the context of human security, the classification of the variables of bioclimatic security, the classification of green infrastructure typologies according to the bioclimatic impact of urban vegetation, and the development of specific bioclimatic indicators applicable in landscape architecture. The conclusions reveal the potential to develop specific bioclimatic planning and design guidelines concerning urban green infrastructure and also to improve the methodologies developed so far.