Urbanism In Transformation: The Planning And Implementation Of The Pearl River Delta Greenways

Greenways are normally perceived as linear green spaces and networked land use that are planned,designed and managed based on the co-occurrence phenomena of ecological,landscape and culture resources in environmental corridors.In 2010,the Guangdong Province adopted the greenway concept and applied it to the regional planning policies.Scheduled by the three-year scheme,the Pearl River Delta have not only fulfilled the goals of rapid development in three years,but also continue the greenway development after 2012.The Pearl River Delta greenways can be concluded as a network of non-motorised space that is supported by the landscape matrix of urban greenery and regional green land,and the network of the existing transportation roads and open spaces.Moreover,the Pearl River Delta Greenways represent a shifting trend in the “planning for growth” oriented urbanism with the “anti-urban” concepts.In China,in reference with the Pearl River Delta Greenways,greenway plans are now popular tools in making new public policies and plans.In September 2016,the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development formulated the Guidance of Greenway Planning and Design,which is a milestone for the greenway movement that started in the Pearl River Delta.It can be seen as a symbol that the newly adopted greenway concept is now a basic concept in Chinese planning and social life.This paper focuses on the Pearl River Delta Greenways.The methodology contains two part.First,literature review and semi-structured interviews are adopted to investigate the development of the Pearl River Delta greenways.Second,fieldworks including on-site observation,investigation,and questionnaires are used to study the greenway space,which is the result of the planning and implementation.The main purpose is to demonstrate the process of reference instruction,concept forming,planning and design,implementation and the spatial result,which will lead to the relation between greenways in a different context and the strategies for Chinese context.The research contains three parts.First,this thesis develops the typology of the greenway space and the typology of the greenway benefits.Second,it focuses on the comprehensive result of greenways at county scale and at the city scale,in which the nonmotorised condition and the width of green corridors are specially analyzed.Third,from the perspective of institutional structure and greenway design,this thesis propose optimized strategies considering the special context of landscape context,social economics,and regional governance.The theoretical and empirical research shows that,the American greenways asserted a strong influence on the the concept and appraoches of the Pearl River Delta greenways.In the implementation,the Pearl River Delta greenways are mainly developed in four kinds of land use,namly Agriculture and Forest Land,Urban Transportation Road Land,Green Park Land and Buffer Greenbelt Land.Considering the various landscape and activities in different kind of land use,the greenways can be divided into five types,namly Forest Greenways,Countryside Greenways,Transportation Greenways,Park Greenways and Buffer Greenways.In addition,the empirical case studies prove that the greenways are now densely developed,in which most greenways are used for transportation purposes and managed by various kinds of departments.Although the greenways are highly constrained by the supporting landscape and tight schedule,they still show great potential in providing recreational,ecological and cultural benefits.Therefore,this research provides improvement strategies in two ways.First,it suggests the existing institutional should embrace social capital and provide acess and fundings for social organizations.Second,it proposes the ACCESS mode with improvement strategies for each type of greenways,which includes Attractive,Comfortable,Connective,Ecological and Safe.In this thesis,there are in total nine chapters.The first chapter is Introduction and the ninth Chapter is theoretical strategies.The main body of this thesis is from the second chapter to the eighth chapter,which can be divided into three parts.The first part contains the second and the third chapters.They introduce the greenway practice and related theories in the US and in the international greenway movement.The second part contains the fourth and the fifth chapter.After reviewing the planning background,the concept forming,the planning methods and the institutional structure,this part argues about the special characteristics of the Pearl River Delta greenways in the international greenway movement.The third part contains the sixth,the seventh and the eighth chapters.Chapter Six proposed a greenway typology based on 30 typical greenway cases.The seventh chapter argues the social,economic and environmental benefits of greenways,and then examines them in the case using questionnaires.Chapter Eight analyzes all greenways Zengcheng District and Shenzhen,in which the non-motorized condition and the width of the green corridors are highlighted as key analytical factors.Chapter Nine discussed the special role of the Pearl River Delta greenways in the international greenway movement.It also proposes improvement strategies based on the ACCESS model and the greenway transects.