Greenway Development as a Tool for Abandoned Railway Route Revitalization
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Date
2021-01
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A.A.U
Abstract
Nowadays greenways are being used for different variety of functions which gives them
multi-functionality. They are used by planner as a tool to increase environmental quality of
landscapes, heritage conservation and revitalization, green corridor creation and protection of
fauna and flora. It is recently being used to revitalize disused railway routes for public use. The
research used the old Ethio-Djibouti Route as a case to investigates the potential of greenway as
a tool for abandoned Ethio-Djibouti railway route landscape revitalization in the vicinity of
Addis Ababa. For the better understanding of the physical and cultural experiences, key
informants from the community of design and urban planning professionals were interviewed. In
addition to these, representatives from responsible bureau in Addis Ababa city administration
working on green development, heritage landscapes and the Ethio-Djibouti railway corporation
were interviewed. Discussions were held also with people working and living along the route to
get the intimate relationship of the public with the route. Direct observation of the case is held
aby the researcher and notes were taken and maps were developed. the findings show that the
basic concept of the greenway is understood by the design a and planning professionals, and the
Addis Ababa City Beautification and Cemetery development and few local residents. At this
stage, the old rial way route is degraded infrastructure stretching from the outskirt to the CBD of
the city acting as a back yard to many neighborhoods. On the other hand, it is understood from
the findings that the route has very strong possibility of becoming alternative green corridor and
public recreation space in the city even if there are physical barriers, limited know how among
the professionals, government offices and the local residents as a challenge. The strong public
memory, linearity and non-physical social aspect of the route are positive values to revitalize the
route with its historic sense while providing public services if programs are selected carefully
and designed with involvement of the public. Finally, this research at theoretical level will
contribute on how we can approach abandoned historic landscape revitalization and at a
practical level, it presents an alternative approach to the application of landscape design in
converting abandoned landscape in to useful public space.
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Keywords
Greenway, revitalization, abandoned railway, historic landscape