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10 - Bringing cities alive: the importance of urban green spaces for people and biodiversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Jon Sadler ,
Adam Bates ,
James Hale  and
Philip James
Edited by
Kevin J. Gaston
Kevin J. Gaston
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Summary

Introduction

A plethora of papers exist that trumpet the value of urban green spaces as providers of benefits to both people and wildlife (James et al. 2009). This body of work emphasises five means by which such spaces improve the urban environment: (i) shaping the character of the city and its neighbourhoods (Pauleit 2003); (ii) engendering a sense of place for city inhabitants (Frumkin 2003); (iii) providing a range of physical (Maas et al. 2006) and psychological (Hartig 2008) health benefits to people; (iv) supporting rich assemblages of wildlife, including many rare and endangered species (Gibson 1998; Mortberg & Wallentinus 2000); and (v) possessing important environmental functions that scale to provide a wide range of ecosystem services (Bolund & Hunhammar 1999; Elmqvist et al. 2004).

It is estimated that the number of urban areas with over a million people will grow by over 40% by 2015 (Crane & Kinzig 2005). To accommodate this rapidly increasing population and to reduce the deleterious impact of global sprawling cities (European Environment Agency 2006; Irwin & Bockstael 2007), in many countries regulatory bodies have created a range of policies on urban living, housing provision and city development that appear to be in conflict. On the one hand, policies exist espousing the utilisation of as much open space in cities as possible to meet construction targets for new-build housing (e.g. ODPM 2002a), while on the other hand different policy documents highlight the provision of green space for people and wildlife to enhance quality of life (e.g. EEA 2009).

Type
Chapter
Information
Urban Ecology , pp. 230 - 260
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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