Session summary - The accelerating need for Urban Green Spaces (UGS) in cities and how to best accommodate it
Other conference contribution, 2021

Urban Green Spaces (UGS) are vegetated open spaces that provide a multitude of ecological functions that are essential for the physical and mental well-being of the citizens as well as for the urban environment. However, land is an extremely competitive resource in cities that are struggling to sustain the ever-growing urban population and UGS are constantly under threat of urban encroachment. Even the well spread out cities are pressured to densify by the more commonplace ‘sustainable dense urban neighbourhood’ approach that in turn, increases the pressure on open spaces such as UGS. But UGS are lacking both by quantity and quality in most cities to support the need of the citizen. Their shortage and inadequacy of UGS were made obvious during the Covid-19 pandemic when the quarantine restricted the mobility of the urban populace and made UGS an essential, and often time, the only outdoor element in everyday city life. As well as lacking in quality and quantity, the pandemic and the resulting extended quarantine also pushed forward the inherent social issues with UGS; such as their unequal distribution, access, ongoing privatisation, ‘green gentrification, etc. The session focus was on the multifaceted challenge for UGS management and governance and how to accommodate the growing necessity of UGS in cities that are heightened in a world with Covid-19.

contaminated sites

sustainable land use

sustainable land management

urban tenure,

sustainable development

COVID-19

urban planning

Author

Shaswati Chowdhury

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Paul David Drenning

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Yevheniya Volchko

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Jenny Norrman

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Muhil Nesi

PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Janssen Calvelo

Erasmus University Rotterdam

José Luis Gallego

University of Oviedo

Diego Baragaño

University of Oviedo

LANDac Annual International Conference 2021 – Land, Crisis and Resilience – 2 July 2021
ONLINE, Netherlands,

Opportunities for preparing urban contaminated land for bio-based production

Formas (FR-2017/0007), 2017-01-01 -- 2019-12-31.

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Architecture

Landscape Architecture

Human Geography

More information

Latest update

6/29/2022