Sustainable Urban Spaces

Recommended Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of the subjects taught in other Physical Geography courses of the 1st cycle in Geography or in other 1st or 2nd cycles of studies in urbanism.

Teaching Methods

Use of diversified, expository, practical and interactive strategies, in order to allow students to grasp and fulfill the previously mentioned objectives. The teaching is carried out using various documents (analysis of application projects, cartography, drone photographs, fieldwork, etc.), producing a whole set of practical examples of Physical Geography applied to urbanism, spatial planning and even to architecture. At the same time, students will be accompanied in the creation of a practical application project. 

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 - Introductory context on the role of Physical Geography in the concept of sustainable cities.

A - The holistic approach to Geography and the importance of Physical Geography in sustainable urbanism;

B - Biophilia and natural and naturalized spaces in an urban space. Biophilia and its relations with the different factors involved in sustainable urbanism

II - Endogenous factors in urbanism - the bases of human settlements

III - Exogenous Factors - atmospheric processes

IV - Integrated factors

V - Land use and occupation. Environmental legislation

VI - Metabolism of the city and methodologies used in the implementation of the sustainable city

VII - Mobility in Urban Space and its importance in sustainability

VIII - Energy and sustainable cities

IX - Systemic analysis. 

Head Lecturer(s)

António Manuel Rochette Cordeiro

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Mini Tests: 20.0%
Project: 80.0%

Bibliography

Cordeiro (2021) Morphological System and Urban Settlements. A city from the roman time to the presente. Cuadernos de Vivienda y Urbanismo. 14, Colômbia.

Ellis, C. (2015) Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism:A View of the Debate. Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 20, Nº. 3, pp. 303-307

Farr, D. (2008) Sustainable Urbanism:Urban Design with Nature, N.J. Hoboken. John Wiley & Sons.

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

Evans,‎ Karvonen & Raven (2017) The Experimental City. Routledge Research in Sustainable Urbanism.

Thornbush & Golubchikov, O (2019). “Sustainable Urbanism in Digital Transitions:From Low Carbon to Smart Sustainable Cities”.

Sharifi, A. (2016). From Garden City to Ecourbanism: The quest for sustainable neighborhood development. Sustainable Cities and Society, n 20, 1–16.

Zhang (2019) Remaking Sustainable Urbanism: Space, Scale and Governance in the New Urban Era, Palgra.