Green space functionality under conditions of uneven urban land use development

Abstract

Traditionally, cities have been perceived as ‘aggression against the environment’ and urban land uses are supposed to have profound negative impacts on surrounding ecosystems. According to these notions, cities are suffering from an increasing deficit of green spaces and habitats. Green spaces and recreational areas are becoming a precious good within the urbanised world and a resource to preserve and enlarge if possible. Although a variety of urban ‘green land uses’ exists, this article focuses on examining their functionality in quantitative and qualitative terms using the concepts of quality of life and ecosystem services. We develop an integrative scheme that incorporates components of both concepts, and we ask further how they might be affected by uneven spatial development of shrinking cities possessing ‘islands of growth’. Using this approach we can show, first, that both concepts partially are complementary using similar variables, but following different mental models. Second, we make explicit the fact that shrinkage has positive as well as negative implications for urban green land use patterns and functionality.

Published in

Journal of Land Use Science
2010, Volume: 5, number: 2, pages: 143-158

UKÄ Subject classification

Other Earth and Related Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2010.481081

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/89673