Urban Green Spaces: An Element of a City’s Balance Between the Built and Natural Environments

Abstract

The article presents a report on the possibility of using greenery as an element of natural balance in the city. The research was carried out in 2016 and 2017 with the aid of Poznan University of Technology Faculty of Architecture students and under the guidance of the authors. The reasons for the growing environmental problems in cities and proposals for remedial measures to prevent a breakdown of the ecological balance have been suggested. In this context, a model equilibrium in the natural spatial plan of the city was proposed, based on the quantification of the basic relationships between biotic and anthropogenic components. It emphasises the need to establish a dynamic balance in the urban environment. Particular significance to ecological engineering based on the principles for adapting biocoenoses to habitat conditions was assigned. Research within this scope focuses on three primary directions: adapting natural sites to the changed environmental conditions, ecosystem protection, formation of new natural ecosystems. The presented method for defining environmental balance was used in drafting detailed designs for rebuilding the natural environment in the Poznan Metropolitan Area.