The role of housing estates' green surfaces in forming the city climate of Budapest

Abstract

The concept of housing estates is closely connected to urban developments after World War II., most significantly in the residential developments of former Socialist countries. Since the 1950s many new public functions have appeared in housing estates, and a variety of different design styles and fashions have changed. The goal of our research is to clarify, how the green surfaces of these housing estates influence the present urban ecological system of Budapest and to determine principles and physical data, which might have an influence on today's open space- and green-system planning. In our research, the sizes and proportions of green surfaces and tree canopy, the multi-leveled vegetation and the proportion of fragmented green surfaces are analyzed on different testing sites. These data are evaluated in the light of relevant building codes for residential developments effective in each period. Areal and spatial photos help to evaluate the present plant-coverage by the help of Vegetation Index. The edification of our research is that these housing estates have developed an extremely high vegetation index by the present day. Thanks to their large open spaces, proper supply of green surfaces and significant index of tree canopy, these housing estates have a good urban ecological effect today. © 2012, ALÖKI Kft., Budapest, Hungary.