Greener Ipswich Oasis Project: A Pathway to Urban Regeneration
The route of the Urban Climate Walk - Ipswich Town; this figure shows the urban layout of Ipswich, the density of its historic town centre, the level of open space and its waterfront. The route of the walk is shown as the pink dashed line and includes the 9 stops. The Ipswich Town Urban Climate Walk, May 16th 2024 - Buildings heights via Emu-Analytics
The Greener Ipswich Oasis Project: A Pathway to Urban Regeneration, a daylong event focused on exploring the urban landscape of Ipswich town centre
Overview: The Greener Ipswich Oasis Project: A Pathway to Urban Regeneration was a collaborative event organised by Greener Ipswich (GI) the University of Suffolk (UoS) and Dr Julie Futcher, funded by RECLAIM Plus. The aim of the event was to explore the built form of Ipswich's urban landscape and its impact on climate and biodiversity resilience. This daylong event included an Urban Climate Walking Tour & Challenge Lab, focusing on enhancing urban sustainability through discussions, networking, and collaborative problem-solving.
Key Aspects of the Workshop:
Activity 1 – An Urban Climate Walking Tour: An educational experience exploring the interdependent relationship between the form of the urban landscape and climate.
Activity 2 – Challenge Lab: Post-Walk collaboration to develop strategies for enhancing Ipswich’s GBGI, extending efforts into neighbouring areas.
Outcome 1- Exploration of Urban Challenges: Interactive discussions on the implications of urban spaces for thermal comfort, air quality, and health and wellbeing of all living things.
Outcome 2- Integration of Local Initiatives: Incorporating community ideas to promote sustainable practices.
Outcome 3 – Secured additional funding from the Policy Support Funding of Research England to establish and strengthen partnerships and collaborations. This funding supports guidance-based policy through knowledge exchange activities, facilitated by the Urban Climate Walk.
The Urban Climate Walking Tour offers a unique, interdisciplinary perspective of our built environment by linking urban disciplines at the scale of the city street. It investigates the built form of the urban landscape as critical urban (climate) infrastructure essential for supporting healthy green, blue, and grey infrastructure (GBGI). The tour demonstrates the dynamic relationships between built form, the surface quality of the urban landscape and the biotic and abiotic outcomes of the urban system.
Built form at all scales is shown to significantly influence local climate, affecting natural energy, hydrological, and circulation systems. Urban structures redistribute natural resources, channel winds, shade surfaces, and redirect solar energy, creating extreme spatial and temporal climate variations across the urban landscape. Understanding these relationships is vital for better urban planning and GBGI development.
The route of the walk, designed to maximise exposure to a diverse range of built form outcomes, provides a structure that highlights the interdependent nature of buildings and outdoor spaces. This structure provides a natural dissemination route for communicating complex urban climate science, which is often overlooked or misrepresented or underestimated in non-urban climate literature. By demonstrating the interdependencies of urban systems, the walk fosters discussion on the role of built form as critical urban (climate) infrastructure. It supports informed decision-making and the creation of climate-resilient urban spaces through a coherent and engaging narrative. Participants explore the natural, human-made, and physiological aspects of the urban landscape.
By exploring these relationships walk participants gain a deep understanding of the role of urban morphology in modifying the background climate.
Figure 1: The importance of open space -Stop Number 1 of the Urban Climate Walk Ipswich (Christchurch Park Looking North)
This figure represents the start of the walk, showcasing the various surfaces under very wet conditions. It highlights the difference between dry hard surfaces and wet permeable surfaces. At this location, we discuss the importance of open spaces. Both green and grey open spaces are associated with cooler air and surface temperatures, especially at night when radiative heat loss is greater, often resulting in localized cool islands.
Urban vegetation offers numerous benefits, including reducing the overheating risks associated with the urban heat island effect, offsetting negative microclimate outcomes, improving air quality, reducing stormwater runoff, and increasing urban biodiversity. These benefits contribute significantly to the health and well-being of urban populations.
The value of urban trees is particularly well-known. They provide localized shade, lowering cooling needs, improving thermal comfort, and reducing wind speeds, which is especially beneficial on hot, sunny days.
Photo credit: Nerea Calvillo Gonzalez – RECLAIM Network Plus
Key areas covered during the tour included the historic urban landscape, the waterfront, and a scenic park, offering participants insights into the interdependencies between the physical form and materiality of urban spaces and their social implications (Figure 2,3 and 4).
Following the tour, the Challenge Lab engaged stakeholders in deeper discussions about urban challenges. The experiential journey deepened participants' understanding of the urban landscapes and its influence on climate, air quality the health and well-being of all living things. The Challenge Lab facilitated group collaboration, developing actionable strategies for enhancing Ipswich’s GBGI and extending efforts into neighbouring areas.
Heavy rain on the day of the event demonstrated the vulnerability of urban landscapes to extreme weather, underscoring the necessity of effective surface-water management. This real-time example highlighted the importance of expanding traditional GBGI palettes and optimising existing urban landscapes to handle extreme weather events, emphasising their role as critical urban infrastructure to support climate resilience.
The walk and subsequent activities illustrated the need for an holistic approach towards climate-responsive urbanism. This perspective promotes the integration of built form accessibility to natural light, ventilation, and thermal comfort. Ipswich's Greener Oasis Project exemplifies how historic towns can lead the way in sustainable urban development, setting a benchmark for urban regeneration and sustainability through community engagement and holistic environmental stewardship.
This event resulted in further funding for a series of urban climate walks through Ipswich town centre.
Figure 2: The Role of Urban Geometry - Stop Number 2 of the Urban Climate Walk Ipswich (Lloyds Avenue Looking North)
At this stop, we discuss the role of urban street scale geometry. The average building height (H) to street width (W) ratio, along with orientation, determines the levels and timing of solar exposure and modifies air flow. A compact configuration with narrow streets and relatively tall buildings (high H/W ratio) results in increased shading and lower exposure to radiation. In contrast, wide open streets (low H/W ratio) increase solar access. We also discuss the Sky View Factor, which is the proportion of the sky visible from a point on the ground. This factor is important in determining nocturnal heat loss, as a greater view of the sky can enhance radiative cooling at night. A key driver of the Urban Heat Island
Figure 3: Stop number 3 of the Urban Climate Walk Ipswich (Cornhill looking south towards the Town Hall)
At this stop, we discussed the value of public space. Here we see the stand-alone structure of the town hall with the flags demonstrates air flow. The historic town square in the centre of Ipswich has served as a gathering place for many centuries. This iconic square is a focal point of the town, reflecting its rich history and vibrant community life.
The public square now includes a water fountain, popular with local children, and serves as an important public space. It is an excellent example of a usable public area that addresses seasonal variations, featuring tree canopy cover and shaded seating to provide comfort throughout the year.
Figure 4 the role of urban geometry. Stop number 8 of the Urban Climate Walk Ipswich (St Peters Dock looking north)
At this stop, we discuss how the building mass blocks the air flow from the River Orwell; and how at the building scale, the form a building takes not only influences its own energy performance—where the surface area to building volume ratio affects access to solar gains and ventilation opportunities—but also impacts the performance of neighbouring buildings. This can include overshadowing and alterations to air flow. Recognized for its importance, air flow provides street-scale ventilation opportunities, which are crucial for removing both heat and pollution.
Acknowledgments: Recognition of the support from the UKRI-funded RECLAIM Network Plus grant (EP/W034034/1).
Greener Ipswich Project: Greener Ipswich is a community initiative collaborates with local authorities to develop GBGI elements, reshaping Ipswich's urban landscape. Celebrating Ipswich’s unique setting, characterized by its parks, river frontages, marina, and docks, the project leverages the town’s economic and demographic diversity to pioneer urban sustainability projects. Emphasizing interconnectivity, the project creates a cohesive and sustainable urban ecosystem, crucial for the town's climate resilience strategy.
Dr Julie Futcher RIBA MIntP: Julie is a chartered architect from professional practice with a strong background in sustainability and environmental design, specialising in climate-responsive urbanism. Her research focuses on the dynamic and far reaching influence of emerging urban morphologies on the regulation of energy exchanges in densely built urban landscapes, and the development of an interdisciplinary planning framework that integrates existing urban knowledge from a diverse range of built environment disciplines at a fundamental level.
Dr Alison Pooley: Alison leads the Sustainable Healthy Communities theme within the Suffolk Sustainability Institute. She has extensive experience in higher education, particularly in architecture and the built environment. Her research is dedicated to innovative approaches that respond to the environmental imperative through transformative practice.