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European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research - COST Action C11 |
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Case study: The
Greenstructure of Munich 01.06.2002 The City of
Munich has approximately 1.3 Million inhabitants
and covers a surface area of 311 km2 within its
administrative boundaries. The city forms
the core of a fast growing urban region within the
urban 'Blue Banana' of the European Union. The
region has a population of 2.4 million inhabitants,
however, the commuting zone goes far
beyond. The natural
context .... Munich is
situated in the Munich plain, a glacial and
postglacialoutwash of limestone gravel. The Munich
plain is rhombic in shape. It starts in the south
at the rim of the terminal moraines from the last
glaciation at a maxium height of 650 m in the south
and gently slopes towards the north where it ends
at the fringe of hilly countryside near Freising
(450m). The plain has
few geomorphologic features to influence urban
development except the floodplain of the river Isar
with its sequence of river banks and
terraces. While the
groundwater level is below 20m under the surface in
the southern part of Munich, it comes to the
surface at the northern edge of the city, leading
to the formation of extensive fenlands. Therefore,
a distinction can be made between the dry and the
wet part of the Munich plain. Historically,
villages were situated either along the streams, in
particular on the border of the river Isar
floodplain and along the transition zone between
the dry and the wet part of the gravel plain.
Within Munich, breweries follow the line of the
terraces where water came to the
surface. Naturally, the
gravel plain would have been covered by deciduous
woodlands predominantly of oak. These woodlands
have been mostly cleared to give place to
farmland. In particular
in its northern part, the soils on the dry terraces
of the gravel plain are very shallow and infertile.
Water infiltrates quickly due to the coarse gravel.
Therefore, the land was mostly used for extensive
grazing by sheep, and developed into very species
rich, dry calcareous grassy heathlands and grazed
woodlands of predominantly oak and pine. Munich
therefore was once called a 'golden saddle on a
skinny mare'. Thus, while the
Munich Plain is overall homogeneous, a relatively
finegrained sequence of natural units can be
distinguished based on gradients of geomorphology
and moisture. 1 cultural
and political history..... The City of
Munich was only founded in the 12th century on the
western banks of the river Isar. King Henry
(Heinrich der Löwe) tore down the old bridge
over the river Isar further north at
Oberföhring controlled by the Benedictine
monastery in Freising to build a new one, and the
rise of Munich in the crossing of two important
European streets for salt transportation and salt
trade began. Later, it became the residence of the
Bavarian electors and then kings. However, it
remained a small town within medieval boundaries
until the 19th century. The topographic
map of 1812 shows the city still mostly confined
within its medieval limits. The river Isar
formed a continuous belt of floodplain woodlands,
extensive pastures and meadows from south to north.
Outside the floodplain, the woodlands were mostly
cleared in the northern part of the Munich plain,
whereas the woodlands in the south were largely
protected as forests. Clearings around villages
give it a characteristic structure until today.
Thus, the clear differentiation between the 'rich'
south and the 'poor' north of the city was already
founded from the beginning of the city's
development. The first big
projects of city enlargement took place in the
first part of the 19th century, when the elector
Maximilian and King Ludwig I built new
neighbourhoods in the north, and northwest of the
city. These enlargements follow a grid pattern.
They were speculative and very densely built up.
Greenspace was only created in the form of small
squares with a representative character. Another
open space structure originating from this time is
the development of the railway system with a main
corridor reaching from the city centre to the
west. Together with
Nürnberg and Berlin, Munich was one of the
cities chosen by the Nazis to demonstrate their
power. The art museum (Haus der Kunst) at the
southern end of the "Englischer Garten" is an
example of the Nazi architecture (and where modern
paintings were shown as 'Entartete Kunst'). Many
parts of the city were destroyed in WW II. Some
squares and blocks were not rebuilt until recently
(Marienhof, Marstallplatz) or are still awaiting
redesign (Jacobsplatz). After the war
Munich began to develop rapidly. Siemens and some
other large companies chose Munich as their
headquarter. The economy is now mainly based on
information technology, services, banking and the
insurance sector. As a consequence, the Munich
region has a high percentage of highly paid jobs
and one of the lowest unemployment rates in
Germany. In city
statistics, Munich is listed as one of the most
densely built-up urban areas in Germany. Since the
breakdown of the "iron curtain" the good position
of Munich in the competition with Berlin is put
into question. Film stars move to Berlin, but still
the quality of life in Munich and the economic
power of the city are its strong points in this
competition. There is a
continuing strong need to build new houses but land
available for development is scarce. Densification
of the city has been favoured by the planners to
contain urban sprawl and a strategy called 'Compact
- Urban - Green' was adopted. There is a strong
pressure on greenspace in low density residential
areas by infill densification. As a consequence,
gardens with many old trees are lost. Munich is a
concentric and very compact town. It did not
succeed to incorporate the neighbourhood
municipalities, so the big challenge of today is to
cooperate with other cities and counties and find a
functional compensation for notwanted
infrastructure facilities (Nimby-Phenomenon). The
airport today is about 40 km from the center of the
city at Freising and caused huge problems for the
transportation system. This was mainly
realized with the Olympic games in the 1970s and
covers a huge region from Freising to southern lake
distict. The planners think how they could
transform the centre focused system into a better
and mor netshaped system of public transportation.
Waste Management and the cleaning of used Water are
further functions that Munich can only handle with
the help of the region. To spend
recreation and leisure time the region is also
quite important. In the south many big lakes and
the Alps are a big attraction to the Munich people
but until 80 km far away. Since 20 years the
northern region tries hard to provide facilities
more nearly the settlement of the
people. Lakes and
bathing zones are build. They are filled with the
ground water of the Munich plain. The water qaulity
of the River Isar in the north is not sufficient
for bathing, but many people use the river to go
out hiking, biking and skating. More and mor
the farmers are included in the maintenance and
mangement of important landscape zones. They get
help from the municipalities to sell their goods
but they have to fulfill a change in their
selfunderstanding as city farmers. To provide
facilities for recreation is increasingly a task
for regional planning A system of
canals connects the castles and residences in the
northern Munich plain (source: Burkhardt,
2001)....to understand the pattern of green
structures The green
backbone of the city is the floodplain of the river
Isar. Although being largely changed by
engineering, the floodplain is still preserved for
flood retention. The Englischer Garten of Ludwig
Sckell, built at the end of the end of the 19th
century, was situated completely outside the city
in the river Isar floodplain. The southern part of
the city, the Isar still has some non-designed
parts with gravel banks which are very popular for
recreation. In 1984, G. Grizmek, then professor for
Landscape Architecture, started an initiative to
promote this kind of "useful technical landscape"
and he gained a lot of protest by those experts who
held up the qualities of a well designed formal
landscape or garden. The second
important historical greenstructure are the summer
residences of the Bavarian electors, Nymphenburg
and Schleißheim. Originally, these residences
were far outside the city and surrounded by
farmland. They were
linked to the city by avenues and a sequence of
places and small parks. Nymphenburg is today one of
the most important habitat for species in the city
and designated as a nature reserve. The park is
surrounded by villas with large gardens. Sckell
transformed the baroque summer residence into a
landscape park, but maintaining the baroque
structure of the axes. Schleißheim
Castle, another summer residence, lies in the
northern part of the Munich plain. Both residences
were connected by a system of canals feeding the
fountains, but also serving as a transport network,
for instance, to carry construction materials to
Schleißheim. The canals were built by Dutch
engineers and are a masterpiece of engineering with
water being taken from the small river Würm in
the western part of the Munich Plain, then led two
times across the plain to be finally discharged
again into the river Würm. Additionally, water
could be fed into the system from smaller streams.
Most of the canals still exist today. Between 1871
and the turn of the 19th century the city
experienced a dramatic growth from 170 000 to over
500 000 inhabitants. In 1935, Munich had a
residential population of 735000 inhabitants (LH
München 1990). Most of the industrial
development took place in the north of Munich
whereas high qualitiy residential areas developed
in the south, around Nymphenburg in the west and
along the river Isar corridor. The strong
growth in built-up areas at that time was not
complemented by the creation of public parks. Only
big cemeteries were located in each major
direction. Today, the closed blocks of that period
are good places for living in neighbourhoods with
small shops, cafes, etc. Some houses are restored
in a very expensive way. However, there is a great
deficit of greenspaces. It is difficult to increase
the amount of greenspace in the small courtyards
often used as car parks. There is also a
need to regenerate the historic gardens and squares
in the city. Munich did not keep its old ring of
fortifications with the bastions. Only some squares
remind people today of this inner belt along the
inner ring road. The densely
built up inner city and neighbouring 19th century
developments are the most deficient areas of
greenspace. It is important to improve this
situation to increase access to greenspace for
recreation and to improve the
environment. Larger projects
to create new public greenspace were only realised
after a long period since the 1970s, with the
creation of the Olympiapark in the North, the
Eastern Park and the Western Park. Each park shows
a very significant "design language ". The area of
the Olympiapark was the first airfield in Munich.
After WW II, it was filled with the rubble from the
destroyed inner city. That is the reason why the
Olympic park is so hilly and a special attraction
for the population. The mechanism of an
international garden festival, was used in to
transform a former derelict site into the Westpark
in 1983. Garden festivals are a popular means among
German municipalities to create new parks andmake
these known. Though
everytime we discuss the exibition part of such a
festival it is quiet obvious that the people love
to spend their time in huge disney like parks.
Apart from the money they spend with their families
these festival parks create some problems with the
neighbourhood (noise, parkings and streets, etc.)
and the siting of them is not easy. A national
garden festival is due to open in the new
neighbourhood Messestadt-Riem in 2005. The area of
Munich Riem was used as the main aiport until 1985.
With the construction of the new airport near by
Freising the area became available for a mixed
development with residential areas, an exhibition
centre, commercial areas and a modern park. In
turn, the former exhibition centre
(Theresienhöhe) is converted now into a mixed
neighbourhood in the inner city. Thus, urban
development in Munich resembles a Merry-goes-around
play. Areas used for infrastructure facilities
become usable by rebuilding or modernising the
infrastructure. However, the scale of impact
increases with every cycle. The new airport and the
new exhibition centre are much larger than their
predecessors. This increase
in size is of course connected with the loss of
green space outside the city such as the fenlands
in the Munich plain. In the North,
the municipality now plans a big leisure centre and
a new stadium for football to be opened at the
world championship in 2006. The debate was decided
by a public poll (Bürgerentscheid). Also the
river Isar is undergoing restoration in the
southern part of city in order to improve flood
protection, the ecology and provide better
recreation facilities. The inner and
the middle ring road are today some of the most
problematic places to live in because of the heavy
traffic. Today the function of these roads is an
issue of great political debate. In 1996, the green
stakeholder groups lost a public poll to reduce the
capacity of the street. Instead it was decided to
put the street underground and keep the capacity.
In the north, greenspaces will be built on top of
the covered roads (Petuelpark). In summary, the
greenstructure in Munich reflects on the one hand
natural determinants in particular in the form of
the broad green corridor of the river Isar flood
plain and the lack of development in fenland areas
until recently. However, due to
the lack of natural physical boundaries, urban
growth was elsewhere largely unrestricted. Parks
and forests of the Bavarian electors and kings were
created outside the city but were later
incorporated into the urban fabric. To 'step upon
the grass' was the metaphor for a new concept of
greenstructure management in the 1980s To 'step upon
the grass' was the metaphor for a new concept of
greenstructure management in the 1980s Major
cemeteries and recent parks are further large green
spaces in the city. While these greenspaces form
large islands, there is a lack of connecting green
networks, in particular in east-west direction. The
redevelopment of parts of the main railway area
provides a rare opportunity to remedy some of these
deficits. It is discussed right now, how these old
infrastructures can be used for this
purpose. In summary,
Munich is a strongly developing city where land
prices are amongst the highest in Germany. In
particular the city region is experiencing very
strong growth threatening the ecological and
environmental assets. On this level, co-ordinated
efforts of the different local authorities and all
other stakeholders are required to protect and
develop the greenstructure of the future regional
city. The city of
Munich itself is already very densely built-up. The
population has remained stable since the 1970s.
However, due to increasing per-capita space demand
and the need to locate new industries and services,
the pressure on greenstructure continues to be very
high. Significant
areas of greenspace important for nature
conservation, environmental quality and recreation
have been lost. The city is
aware of the need to protect its greenstructure.
The new neighbourhood in München Riem is an
example for the creation of greenspace where
ecological and environmental considerations played
an important role. The so called social land use
regulation requires that a tax is levied on the
added value from development, and this means is
also effectively used to implement social and
ecological measures. Mitigation banking is
considered today as an instrument potentially very
effective to link urban development with the
creation of new greenspace. Mitigation
banking allows to develop coherent greenstructures
through concentration of compensation measures from
urban development. However,
overall the greenspace balance is negative, and the
role of greenspace planners and nature conservation
is weak in the case of hard conflicts. The
conversion of disused railway areas will provide an
opportunity for larger and new greenspaces the
social land use tax enables the creation of
greenspace Click
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