The presence of nature in the city gives many advantages to its residents, such as a contribution to improving people’s health, a sense of well-being and the preservation of biodiversity, true “life insurance of human societies”. This is the real problem around ecological design and landscape design of public places, which together form a vegetative framework, shared by the inhabitants collectively and participating in the identity of the city. Public landscaped public spaces are all public or private places with collective use where the plant is present. These places have a wide variety of forms and uses: public gardens, city parks, walks on waterways, roads and transport lines, cemeteries, afforestation, landscaped natural areas, open sections of residential neighborhoods or events, collective gardens, communal, inserts or therapeutic.
The goal set in the manual is to coordinate the quality of response to many existing eco-design problems (soil, water, biodiversity, pollution, waste) and the quality of the landscape created in terms of aesthetics and use. In this regard, environmental design is not limited to the benefits of landscaped public spaces for biodiversity and natural balance, but also to the area of benefits for people. An environmentally-friendly public space project does not portend the type of landscape being created. On the contrary, taking into account environmental problems and offering specific answers for each site in accordance with its characteristics and the desired use, a very wide variety of landscapes is created.
Landscaped public spaces contribute to improving the quality of the living environment and the attractiveness of cities. They answer questions, not only social and environmental, but also economic. The services provided by nature in the city are “non-market” public goods common to all members of the community. In the context of ecology designs, it is important to consider all these advantages of a plant in the city. In 2014, a summary of scientific works related to the advantages of a plant in the city was published based on a very wide international bibliographic review. At the end of this work, the benefits identified can be divided into three components of sustainable development.
Access to natural spaces in the city contributes directly to public health, reducing stress, stimulating physical activity, and improving the environment and health. Indirect effects, such as increasing satisfaction with the living environment through functional activities for sports or recreation, are also determined. All these components are highly valued by residents and users of urban space.
In addition, public landscape spaces, thanks to their attendance and ongoing local activities, enhance social cohesion. They create opportunities for contacts between people from different social and ethnic groups.
These interactions are all ways to participate in community life and develop a sense of friendliness. Benefits for the environment and natural balance. Conservation of biodiversity through the creation of eco farms, eco house. The grid of public landscape spaces plays a key role in maintaining urban biodiversity (flora, fauna, habitat).
Recent scientific work carried out as part of the study has shown the importance of restoring the biological diversity of cities with each other. As a solution, it was proposed to increase the number of eco friendly house. Thermal regulation. In addition, the presence of plants in the city enhances the energy efficiency of buildings by reducing the effect of urban heat island. This effect is problematic due to disturbances caused by heat for health, durability of materials and local climate.
Note. Air quality is a major concern in urban areas to protect public health and the environment and is also an environmental design. This applies to many pollutants (SO2, NO2, CO2, fine particles). The presence of plants in cities greatly affects the quality of urban air (carbon capture, absorption of pollutants, etc.). Improved water flow and soil protection. Contributing to the water cycle and its infiltration, urban vegetation is an asset against environmental risks, including floods, soil erosion, soil stability in relation to groundwater, and water pollution (phytoremediation and phyto-purification).