Suchergebnisse

In the context of urban densification and central urban areas' lack of open spaces, new forms of small-scale urban gardening practices have emerged. These gardening practices respond to urban pressures and open new modes of green space governance, presenting alternative and multifunctional ways to manage and revitalise cities. Focusing on the case of Geneva, the article unfolds two levels of discussion. On the one hand—and with reference to the theorist Habermas—it examines how multiple actors with different interests interplay and cooperate with each other in order to negotiate over open space, while discussing implications for local politics and planning. On the other hand, it describes how these negotiations result in new, innovative, and hybrid forms of public green space. The main findings indicate emerging forms of collaboration, partnerships, and governance patterns that involve public and private sectors and increase participation by civil society actors. Cooperation amongst several interested groups and the collective re-invention of public urban spaces increase these spaces' accessibility for multiple users and actors, as well as present possibilities for alternative and diversified uses and activities. This might underline the hypothesis that future cities will be governed in less formalised ways, and that urban forms will be created through spontaneous, temporary, mobile, and adaptive negotiation processes.

When discussing the priorities and leverage in urban development, we usually use such concepts as "economic potential", "financial investment", "a great quantity of constructions1", etc. However, the final result should in fact strive for human happiness, health, love for your city, wish to live there. The urban structure of a city always contains a system of open green spaces. These areas are important not only from ecological and aesthetical point of view, but also for social communication as well as raising the economic value of plots. The paper, giving an example of contemporary development of the resort of Palanga, deals with tendencies and problems resulting from the privatization process and great mistakes in locating urbanized plots in the areas of the Lithuanian seaside. The areas, which in the Master Plan are foreseen for new parks, forests and hydroparks, started to be used for construction of private buildings. Generally, in Lithuania not only resort areas, but also any open spaces and even outer wood areas suffer from a bad tendency to treat them exceptionally as potential plots for building construction. In the case of Palanga we meet with the danger of continuous urbanization of the seaside, what consequently means decrease of the quality of the resort as well as fall in land prices in future. Progressive examples from foreign countries and the European Union directives are given, where the quantity of green areas in a city is considered as one of the most important criteria of its modernity and quality. The paper is based on a continuous experience of the author and on the recent work at Institute of Architecture and Contraction on the impact of land privatization on land prices and urban development. Reasonable balance between private and public interests is nesessary, and we still lack it. Miestų žaliosios erdvės socialinių ir ekonominių interesų balanso aspektu Santrauka Analizuojami viešųjų ir ypač žaliųjų erdvių ir visuomenei neprieinamų privačių teritorijų santykio su grynai ekonominiais interesais klausimai. Pateikiama naujausia Palangos pajūrio zonos tyrimo medžiaga, taip pat pavyzdžių iš kitų miestų ir kurortų. Palangos situacija palyginama su kitų šalių pavyzdžiais. Reikšminiai žodžiai: žaliosios erdvės, visuomenė, privatumas, interesai, ekonomika, teritorija, pusiausvyra. First Published Online: 21 May 2013

Numerous studies have been published that consider the relationship between open spaces and property values. In this study, we examine the potential impact of water restrictions on the value of different types of green space. Restrictions on the use of water on outdoor areas are a popular means for governments or utilities to limit water use in urban areas. In this paper, a hedonic pricing model is used to analyse the effects that increasingly severe water restrictions might have on the perceived value of public and private green spaces in Adelaide, South Australia. A hedonic pricing model is estimated that contains housing characteristics, neighbourhood amenities, fixed effects to control for unobserved neighbourhood characteristics and temporal control variables for inflation. The findings suggest that water restrictions are not having a significant impact of the value of outdoor spaces on private properties. There are indications that substitutions may be occurring with the proximity to playgrounds, which are watered more regularly, becoming significant with increasing severity of water restrictions. However, close proximity to large public parks with trails for walking which remain in a natural state throughout the year (brown and dry in summer) is negatively correlated with the selling price regardless of water restrictions. This suggests that households in this market may be using some public green spaces for recreation in lieu of private areas but not all public open spaces are equal. This has implications for urban and landscape planners, especially given the likelihood of ongoing water restriction under climate change. Crown

With increasing urbanisation, urban green spaces are expected to be crucial for urban resilience and sustainability, through the delivery of ecological, economic and social benefits. In practice, however, planning, management and evaluation of urban green spaces are rarely structured and evidence-based. This represents a missed opportunity to account for, track and foster the multiple benefits that green spaces are expected to deliver. To gain insight into this gap, this study assesses the availability and uptake of relevant evidence by city governments. Interviews, focus groups and quantitative surveys were applied in four medium-sized European cities: Coimbra (Portugal), Genk (Belgium), Leipzig (Germany), and Vilnius (Lithuania), covering the main governance and climatic gradients in Europe. Using straightforward data exploration and regression, we analyse which ecological, economic and social indicators are typically chosen by cities and why. Together with the city stakeholders, we derived a common set of benefit categories and key performance indicators which can be adapted to diverse local contexts. We conclude that cities tend to make pragmatic decisions when composing their indicator sets, but nevertheless cover multiple urban green space dimensions. Finally, we explore how indicator choice could be optimised towards a complementary and credible indicator set, taking into account a realistically feasible monitoring effort undertaken by the cities.

Although urban green spaces are increasingly important both for humans and wildlife, an increase in urban green spaces may also increase human–wildlife conflicts in urban areas. However, few studies have examined the relationship between the size of green spaces and the level of conflicts with wildlife in multiple taxa, including invertebrates and vertebrates. To better understand current pest statistics and predict changes that will occur as the area of green spaces increases, we analysed a dataset compiling the number of pest consultations in 53 metropolitan districts in Tokyo over a 20-year period and its relationships with the area of green space. Stinging insects (e.g., wasps) made up over 50% of pest consultations, followed (in order) by rats and other nuisance animals (e.g., snakes). The number of consultations per unit population did not correlate, or was even negatively correlated, with the proportions of green spaces (mainly forest) for many indoor pests, but did positively correlate for some outdoor pests, such as wasps and snakes. Therefore, wasps and snakes can increase when urban green spaces increase. Because even minor nuisances are relevant for urban lifestyles, considerations of ways to minimise conflicts with wildlife are critical for urban green space management. ; This study was supported by the Advanced Research Program of the Asian Human Research Fund by Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Although the term 'quality' has a universal positive connotation and typically is framed by a focus on improvements, its application includes as well as exclude the access, values and world views of particular actors and interests. In this article we highlight the relevance and implications of such 'inherent politics' through a case study of a widespread approach to operationalizing quality in urban green space management. We conclude that adoption of any quality model has both limiting and enabling implications for public participation and decision-making and that a critical stance is needed within both research and practice for the development of quality models that connect to values of broader societal relevance. ; Although the term 'quality' has a universal positive connotation and typically is framed by a focus on improvements, its application includes as well as excludes the access, values and world views of particular actors and interests. In this article, we highlight the relevance and implications of such 'inherent politics' through a case study of a widespread approach to operationalizing quality in urban green space management. We conclude that adoption of any quality model has both limiting and enabling implications for public participation and decision-making and that a critical stance is needed within both research and practice for the development of quality models that connect to values of broader societal relevance.

Green spaces can facilitate sustainable urban environment in a number of ways: Purifying air and water, filtering noise, and stabilizing the microclimate. Therefore, city planners have to design optimal sites to provide new green spaces. The present study addresses the genetic-algorithm-based multiobjective modeling of optimal sites for multitype green spaces considering multiple objectives. A new model has been developed and applied to identify the optimum sites for green spaces, particularly parks and open spaces (POSs). We considered six criteria: population, air quality, noise level, air temperature, water quality, and recreational value, including barriers for placing new POSs. The model thus developed was applied to Dhaka as a case study. The spatial functions of GIS are used to quantify, analyze, and represent the six objective criteria of our model. The modeling results show a successful optimization of locations for new POS. In addition, a suitability analysis is performed to find locations of various POSs using GIS. This study provides an indication of how to site multitype green spaces to make a sustainable urban environment.