A városi zöldfelületek rendszerében kulcsszerepet töltenek be a közterületen álló fák, melyeknek egyre nagyobb kihívásokkal kell szembenézniük az urbanizáció, a klímaváltozás és az emberi beavatkozások hatásai miatt. A zöldterületek jelentősen javítják a mikroklímát, támogatják a biológiai sokféleség megőrzését, és esztétikai értékük is jelentős, ezért védelmük és fejlesztésük kiemelten fontos. Kutatásunk a budapesti szabadterek lombkorona-fedettségét értékeli a telepítési sűrűség függvényében, különös figyelemmel a terek és utcák fás szárú növényeinek telepítési távolságára és az ebből adódó borítottsági értékek összehasonlítására. Vizsgálataink során figyelembe vettük a telepítéskori, jelenkori és a teljesen kifejlett lombkorona arányának mennyiségi és minőségi változásait, hogy az egyes fafajok igényeit és sajátosságait (koronaforma, növekedési erély) figyelembe véve ideális telepítési ajánlásokat fogalmazhassunk meg. Második esettanulmányunk során a Szent Gellért tér faállományát vizsgáltuk. Az értékelés során megállapítottuk, hogy a lineáris facsoportok egyedei – taxontól függetlenül – habitusuk, lombkoronaformájuk és telepítési sűrűségük alapján közel ideális feltételek mellett fejlődnek, és várhatóan a jövőben is jól fejlődhetnek. Ezzel szemben a zöldkazettákban álló fák közül elsősorban a facsoport külső egyedek bizonyulnak hosszú távon is értékesnek az ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatások szempontjából. A jelenlegi nyílt lombfelületek aránya 97%, mely a vizsgált szabadterek között a legjobb értékek közé tartozik, azonban a fák kifejlett korában a zöldkazettában ez az arány 52%-ra, míg a lineárisan ültetett facsoportok esetében 71%-ra esik vissza ezért kijelenthető, hogy a zöldkazettákban álló taxonok a rossz telepítési sűrűség következtében jelentősen akadályozni fogják egymás fejlődését és kedvező hatásaikat sem képesek teljes mértékben kifejteni majd a jövőben.

The increasing urbanization process of the last decades has resulted in negative impacts and changes in the quality of the urban environment, as reflected in mortality and morbidity data (Páldy, 2018). The quality of the environment, the urban climate, the increased frequency and duration of extreme weather events, ultimately threaten human well-being. To design and build liveable cities, the quality of the urban environment must be improved, and improving micro- or local climate is an important factor in this. Increasing the proportion and quality of biologically active surfaces, i.e. the ecosystem services provided by green spaces, is one of the most effective tools for urban conditioning and enhancing human well-being. Determining the proportions of the green area, the design of vegetation, the choice of pavements and microarchitectures all determine the microclimate of an open-space. This has been confirmed by a large body of research and implemented work, but it is also important for designers to make a preliminary prediction of the impact of any intervention on the climatic conditions of the design site. These predictions will help cost-effective designing to determine which intervention will result in climate change. This research uses two specific examples to examine the effectiveness of each landscape designing tool and to show which designing tool produces what and how much climatic impact. For these studies, we used a climate modeling program (ENVI-MET), which runs simulations to infer the climate modifying effects of landscape planning tools. In the course of the research, we have shown that the local climate of hospital gardens could be significantly influenced by favorable, environmental-friend paving, a higher green cover ratio, and a well-developed and sufficiently dense tree canopy, and various water features.

Institutional gardens are special green spaces offering different functional and ecological benefits that can effectively support the well-being of urban residents. However, the role of institutional green spaces has changed throughout history, within various socio-political systems, and there have been many historical examples of the public use of institutional gardens. Today, institutional gardens are considered part of urban green infrastructure, but due to restricted public access – differing from completely private to semi-public use – we cannot state that they are essential open spaces for regular residential recreation. Continuously increasing urban density prompted new ideas in this field, which are worth analysing in detail. The article aims to give a general overview of the main historical examples of the public use of institutional green spaces, and the ideologies and the social or environmental factors affecting the functional change. After that, the authors – based on a literature review and professional experience – overview the current characteristics of the various types of institution gardens, then investigate the opportunities to open them for public use. Finally, the challenges of public use are systematically analysed. A case study analysis is presented on how educational green spaces could contribute to climate adaptation. The case study also aims to show that there is great potential in systematic thinking and reconsidering the role of institutional gardens in urban green infrastructure.

Climate change significantly affects the well-being of urban populations. Thus, there is an increasing need for public green spaces in cities, as biologically active surfaces play a critical role in modifying the urban climate—cooling temperatures and providing shelter. Some institutional gardens, like cemeteries and hospital gardens, are hidden treasures: they are open but excluded from citizens’ mental maps, while usually having a rich green mass. This article aims to explore these hidden green surface elements, presenting their advantages and disadvantages by measuring their local climate effects. Three institutional gardens located in different urban environments were selected for analysis in the sample area of Budapest to explore how the surrounding built-up areas of the city modify the urban climate. The climate analyses were prepared with the ENVI-met climate simulation program. In the case of both hospital gardens and cemeteries, our studies show that their green spaces have great potential to increase the sense of comfort for both users of the green spaces and inhabitants of the neighborhood. In densely built-up urban areas, it is particularly important to involve institutional green spaces in public use, because with appropriate development they can contribute to cities’ adaptation to climate change.

The discipline of landscape architecture is witnessing a radical shift in approach. With the emergence of nature-based solutions in urban public space development, the extensive maintenance of green spaces has also come under the spotlight. The focus of this research is on the ways of establishing and expanding consciously created green spaces dominated by succession, also known as urban wilderness areas. The planning and management of these areas as a whole and of their components is still a complex task that raises many questions. In this article we define the concept of urban wilderness. In addition to the characterisation and interpretation of urban wilderness, we will also discuss its impact on the mental well-being of urban dwellers, i.e. its passive recreational aspects. The theoretical foundations explored are put into practice in a university workshop. The workshop, as an experimental laboratory, sought to answer the question of how theoretical research findings can be integrated into domestic, classical planning practice. As a result, four student concept designs were developed for a real site.