The Design of Resilient Green Spaces towards Adapting with Climate Change, Case Study Behesht Boulevard, Borujerd

Human interventions have led to changes in natural systems. Climate change is the most conspicuous change that affects natural ecosystems, particularly in urban environments, which endanger urban sustainability. Resilient urban landscape design could be considered as a solution for this challenge. This paper presents a framework for the design of resilient green spaces towards adapting to climate change

The study area of the research is Behesht Boulevard in Borujerd, Lorestan province, (Iran). The resilience of current plantings was evaluated based on resilient criteria extracted from related literature including plasticity, biodiversity and structural diversity. Furthermore, four vital aspects of urban green space were added and taken into consideration including; economic, aesthetics, social and ecological aspects. The final evaluation conducted through Delphi method, which relies on expert opinion and AHP.

The result showed that area had a fragile landscape suffering from a low biodiversity. Therefore, the new plant species were selected and evaluated based on resilience and additional anticipated criteria. Finally, the new planting design proposed considering resilience and socio-economic dimensions.

Existing green spaces are vulnerable to climate change. Combined cycles such as water scarcity and urban stresses increase the severity of this vulnerability. Applying fundamental principles such as reversible design can improve the quality of these spaces, making them reversible. Finally, based on the results obtained, a general strategy for redesigning urban green spaces to improve and enhance the reversible urban landscape is presented.