{"id":4540,"date":"2013-09-18T11:04:08","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T15:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=4540"},"modified":"2015-06-01T15:17:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:17:40","slug":"st-petersburg-towards-integrated-and-sustainable-green-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2013\/09\/18\/st-petersburg-towards-integrated-and-sustainable-green-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg: Towards Integrated and Sustainable Green Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Compared with other countries, Russia came relatively late to the world of market economy. It was a quite painful process as the Socialist planned economy changed to the demands of the market and working with private investors. Rapid urbanisation and new rules of planning require searching for new approaches to design and management of urban green areas in Russian cities.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg<\/a> is the second biggest Russian city, with 5 million people. The city is famous as the cultural capital of Russia with its unique historical monuments and museums. The whole central part of the city is protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site<\/a>, and there are numerous historical parks and gardens. Green areas cover 7,209 hectares.<\/p>\n

\"Summer
Summer Garden is the oldest St. Petersburg green area founded in 1703<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These facts leave a mark in policy discussions and require a special approach to the city\u2019s development policy. The main task in central districts of St. Petersburg is, first of all, to protect existing green areas from densification and growing demand for parking. Compared to the central area, with its very dense built infrastructure, districts that were created later during the Soviet era have quite a high amount of green area. But after years of neglect and lack of management these green areas need extensive repair and improvements.<\/p>\n

New residential areas constructed in recent areas are often lacking any greening.\u00a0There is also another trend directly related to urbanization and globalization: a growing suburbia with individual houses that are \u201ceating\u201d surrounding green belt of native forests and coastal landscapes.<\/p>\n

\"One
One of the Soviet time \u201cmicrorayon\u201d(microdistrict) founded in late 1960\u2019s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"New
New district constructed in 2000\u2019s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"New
New Russian suburbia in pine forest in the outskirts of St. Petersburg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The main and the oldest street of St. Petersburg-Nevsky Prospect<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Ring Road in St. Petersburg (finished in 2011)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St. Petersburg has experienced tremendous growth of private cars, which has resulted in incredible traffic problems. The Old Baroque city structure is really struggling to accommodate such a number of vehicles. Even construction of the Ring Road has not help to solve traffic jams in the City.<\/p>\n

Another recent St. Petersburg phenomenon is directly connected to the new economic situation. Quite a few industrial factories in the central districts are closing and vacated areas are waiting for reuse. Looking at the plan of St. Petersburg it is quite easy to see the limitation of city\u2019s growth. The most important is the Gulf of Finland and a big forest greenbelt.<\/p>\n

\"Map
Map of St. Petersburg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Plan
Plan of St. Petersburg with Gulf of Finland and Forest Greenbelt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the moment the most disadvantage of St. Petersburg is isolation of the small central green areas from suburban residential greening (microdistricts \u2014 \u201cmicrorayon\u201d in Russian).<\/p>\n

All these factors are contribute to the need for a new strategy of green infrastructure development.\u00a0We believe that the following principles should be considered for the new sustainable green infrastructure in the city:<\/p>\n