Not just a corridor: Ecological landscape design for the Panke River in Berlin to improve both the natural ecosystem and environmental justice

In urban areas, river courses have often been modified to a large extent to meet human needs. This modification has led to a decrease in ecological quality and biodiversity at both local and regional scales. Berlin is an example of a city with substantially modified rivers and decreased biodiversity. Rivers have been modified the most in dense neighborhoods near the city center. There is a need to improve urban river ecosystems in the context of a nationwide and worldwide decrease in biodiversity. The importance of urban green spaces increases for people in cities as well in the context of climate change. However, green spaces and their benefits are not equally distributed throughout the city, with socio-economically disadvantaged people generally having poorer access to green spaces and suffering more from environmental stress factors, such as noise pollution and heat stress. This environmental justice problem can be mitigated by making neighborhoods greener, but open space is often rather limited in the city. Therefore, this graduation project aimed to improve the ecological value of rivers and environmental justice simultaneously with ecological design for existing green spaces. The project focuses on the Panke River, a highly modified river that flows through neighborhoods with a substantial environmental justice problem. Design principles have been formulated based on scientific theory about ecological design and design for equitable green space access. These principles were combined in a design vision for a small area along the Panke River in the district Gesundbrunnen. The resulting design showed that it is possible to significantly improve both the ecological value of river ecosystems and environmental justice with ecological design for existing green spaces. The Panke River can be both an ecological corridor and a green structure that connects neighborhoods. The diverse riverbank landscape with an alternation of ecological and recreational focus areas is a high-quality public green space with improved ecological quality.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Landscape Architectur