Infrastructure, Landscape Ecology and Urbanism; Linking Theoretical and Practical Frameworks in Design and Delivery: A Case of Melbourne’s EastLink

The relationship between landscape ecological and landscape urbanist approaches and landscape architectural practice in design and delivery of transportation corridors, i.e. urban highways are studied in the current research. The aim of the research is to link theories of landscape ecology and urbanism to landscape architectural practice in urban infrastructural projects to find out how and to what degree these can be integrated in planning, design, construction, and operation process and help the project sustainability.In order to determine the values of urban built infrastructure, specifically movement corridors, at the scale of an urban project, a case study is conducted on EastLink, a large scale infrastructural transportation project in Melbourne, Australia, to present a frame for observing and mapping actual design and delivery process. The case study is done using Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating scheme developed by the Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC). As a result, the research presents an approach for urban infrastructural projects based on the mentioned principles and provides a framework for assisting designers of built urban infrastructure to enhance them from an ecological perspective in interaction with other urban land uses for multiple functions

Keywords:

infrastructure , transportation corridor , landscape ecology , urbanism , rating systems