gadeplan - Region Midtjylland

ABSTRACT
Street Plan - Climate change adaptation and
regeneration of Copenhagen through the transformation
of specific points of impact on the
streets of Copenhagen. This thesis is a 30 ECTS
point master thesis in Landscape Architecture and
Urban Design at Forest & Landscape, The Faculty
of Science, University of Copenhagen.
The thesis deals with the development and illustration
of a method for climate adaptation of
cities using the municipality of Copenhagen as an
example. With a focus on the existing use of the
streets in Copenhagen, the thesis points out the
discrepancy between the current unilateral use of
the streets and the changing need for an alternative
use of the areas that the streets occupy.
Through attention to this discrepancy combined
with a focus on the climatic challenges that
Copenhagen is facing, this thesis addresses and
illustrates a method for identifying specific streets
for transformation and adaptation to climate
change. The method suggests juxtaposition of
three GIS-based maps (the urban heat island
effect, the normalized difference vegetation
index and the accumulation of stormwater) for
a climatic analysis of the city in order to identify
relevant areas for adaptation to climate change in
Copenhagen.
By the methodological approach a number of
areas, which is facing excessive climatic challenges,
are selected. Subsequently, the area
around the meatpacking district of Vesterbro is
selected for further analysis. This is mainly due
to the fact, that this area has major problems
with accumulation of stormwater, the urban heat
island effect, and the abundance of vegetation. At
the same time the area is a densely populated part
of the city. The area is analysed further in order to
locate a specific street, which is relevant to use
for transformation and adaptation to the climate
change. The analysis of the area addresses the
traffic conditions, the stormwater conditions and
statistics together with the conditions of the urban
structure. This argues and directs the attention
towards Gasværksvej as a possible street to transform
and adapt to the climate changes. After an
analysis of Gasværksvej a conceptual proposal for
the transformation of Gasværksvej is presented.
The thesis illustrates a method for analysing the
Municipality of Copenhagen, or any other place,
in order to identify a specific street and illustrates
what a transformation could look like. The transformation
conceptually demonstrates how this
former street area will be able to handle much of
the area’s stormwater in everyday and extreme
situations, and how the increase of vegetation
can be added in order to mitigate the urban heat
island effect. This is tailored to create and improve
conditions for the green mobility, and illustrate
how the area has gained a new recreational space.
This use of street space for climate adaptation of
cities is questioning the mono-functional use of
the street, which takes place today. It provides a
proposal for an alternative use turning the street
space into places for people.
Based on the methodology and analysis that
moves from city scale across area scale to the
street scale, this master thesis describes how the
city can be renewed, improved and adapted to
climate change.