URBAN BIODIVERSITY; GENERAL SITUATION AND DESIGN APPROACHES ACROSS THE WORLD

Abstract

Among the most comprehensive and important topics of the discourses over recent years related to conservation and sustainability is the concept of biodiversity, which appeared in the world agenda after 1992 Rio de Janeiro Conference as a target in the conservation strategies. It is stated in the studies that by 2050 two – third of world population is estimated to inhabit urban areas and therefore, the conservation of biodiversity in rapidly populated cities is also on the agenda as a vitally important issue. In the present study, various aspects of urban biodiversity, its importance and contributions to city identity and urban landscape, urban areas representing green areas and biodiversity, reasons for the richness of urban flora, design approaches to contribute to urban biodiversity are evaluated by considering recent literature in urban biodiversity, present situation of the topics in the world countries and their design approaches. It can be seen when analysing worldwide the design approaches to urban biodiversity that European countries, USA, Australia and New Zealand work incessantly on biodiversity designs and sustainable planning, where they open ways in urban landscape works to new and important designs for the sustainability of urban biodiversity such as park and garden designs as well as roof top gardens contributing to urban landscape, green infrastructure systems, green ways, rain gardens and landscape canals. At the end of the study, importance of urban biodiversity and related designs is evaluated and some suggestions are proposed for the present conditions.