Sustainable Urban Spaces

Year
1
Academic year
2019-2020
Code
02037047
Subject Area
Applied Geography to Planning
Language of Instruction
Portuguese
Mode of Delivery
Face-to-face
Duration
SEMESTRIAL
ECTS Credits
7.5
Type
Compulsory
Level
2nd Cycle Studies - Mestrado

Recommended Prerequisites

Students should have the basic knowledge acquired in the course units of Physical Geography and the different units on urbanism and spatial planning lectured in the different semesters of the 1st cycle course in Geography.

Teaching Methods

Use of various expository, practical and interactive strategies to allow students to grasp and meet the aforementioned goals. Teaching will be supported by various documents (analyses of practical projects, cartography, photos, fieldwork, etc.), generating a whole set of practical examples of Physical Geography applied to urbanism, spatial planning, and even architecture. At the same time, students will be monitored in the development of a project with a practical application.

Learning Outcomes

• Apply relevant concepts of Physical Geography to urbanism and planning to promote the sustainability of urban spaces;

• Understand the importance of the relation between planning and urbanism, and the physical supports that limit them, reflecting on the role of biophysical constraints in the structuring of the urban space and in the optimization of urban design;

• Gain the ability to interpret the interference of the topoclimate and microclimate in the built environment, and propose answers with regards to the built environment and the endogenous components, understanding the importance of the different natural hazards in the context of the urban space;

• Interpret the different biophysical constraints in their link with the subjects of spatial planning and urban design;

• Develop research methodologies and techniques enabling the adoption of a new framework for the construction, analysis and design of territory to be applied to sustainable planning and urbanism.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

I – Introduction to the role of Physical Geography in the concept of sustainable cities.

A – The hollistic approach of Geography and the importance of Physical Geography for sustainable urbanism

B - Biophilia and its relation with the different intervenient factors in sustainable urbanism

II ‐ Endogenous factors in urbanism – the foundations for human settlements 

A – The substrate

B - Geomorphology

C – Gradients and exposures

III - Exogenous Factors – the atmospheric processes

A ‐ Key climate elements

B ‐ The thermal balance of the urban atmosphere

C - The particularities of the urban climate in spatial planning; climate maps in urbanism

IV – Integrated factors

A – Hydrology in the urban space. Watercourses

B - Aspects associated with natural hazards. Scindinic sciences and urbanism

V - Use and occupation of the urban land. Environmental legislation

A – European scale

B – National and regional scales

C – Municipal and supramunicipal scale

VI - Systemic analysis.

Head Lecturer(s)

António Manuel Rochette Cordeiro

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Synthesis work: 25.0%
Project: 75.0%

Bibliography

Alcoforado, M.J. (2010). Climatologia Urbana para o ensino. Núcleo CliMA, 3, 179p.

Ellis, C. (2015). Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism: A View of the Debate. Journal of Urban Design,20 (3), 303-307.

Farr, D. (2008). Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 256 p.

Farr, D. (2018).  Sustainable Nation: Urban Design Patterns for the Future. Wiley, 384 p.

Haas,T. (2015) Emergent Urbanism: Urban Planning & Design in Times of Structural and Systemic Change (Design and the Built Environment)

Hernández, A. (2013). Manual de diseño bioclimático urbano. Recomendaciones para la elaboración de normativas urbanísticas.IPBragança.

James, E.,‎ Karvonen,‎ E., Raven, R. (Ed) (2017). The Experimental City. Routledge Research in Sustainable Urbanism.

McHarg, I. (2000). Proyectar com la Naturaleza. Gustavo Gili (ed.), 197p.

Romero, M. A. B. (2007). A arquitetura bioclimática do espaço público. Brasília.