Urban landscapes and streaming structures as a basis of urban construction planning

Purpose This paper sets out describe the creation of sustainable urban planning concepts based on optimized urban landscape functioning. It gives an account of the formation and transformation processes of natural and artificial streaming structures. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines the present‐day approaches to the environmental assessment and zoning of urban territories. This was achieved by creating the conceptual methodological basis for the assessment and classification of urban landscapes. Findings Based on an analysis of the urban planning development of the Moscow agglomeration, principles have been proposed for the shaping of sustainable urban planning structures – landscape planning that can be applied to the management of the territorial growth of large cities and urban agglomerations. First, the shaping and reconstruction of the city structure, including the structure of land management, as well as the mutual arrangement of functional areas, should be based on the need to preserve the axes – the lines and planes of mass, energy and information transfer of landscapes of various orders. Second, the order of preserved landscape axes depends on the organisational complexity of a territory. Third, assessment of the sustainability of the structure of a city and agglomeration should be based on the criteria of river systems along their borders, such as the quantity and composition of water, its temperature, retention of the annual functioning cycle and biodiversity. Finally, urban planning control regimes should be established across the entire city and they should be determined by the position of the territory in the city's landscape structure. Originality/value This work will provide a better understanding of integrated environmental systems to enable development of best management practices in the city of Moscow.