CHAPTER 4: GREEN SPACE PLANNING
4.2 Defining „green spaces‟
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other open nature areas and are seen as the key approach in areas where residential plot sizes are inadequate, or the housing stock is dominated by multi-storey buildings (McConnachie & Shackleton, 2009:244). Beachfronts are not regarded as green spaces as they do not fulfil the definition requirement of being vegetated spaces (Shackleton & Blair, 2013:105) (as previously defined by Shackleton and Blair (2013:106) and Barbosa et al. (2007:188)).
Public and private green spaces both play a critical role in supporting biodiversity and providing important ecosystem services in urban and rural areas. They also provide the primary contact with biodiversity and the ‗natural‘ environment (refer to previous definition of natural surfaces as defined by Shackleton and Blair (2013:107)) for many people and may therefore influence the physical and mental well-being of those people (Barbosa et al., 2007:187) as well as contribute to their overall quality of life (Lange et al., 2007:245).
Furthermore, Young (2010:313) significantly enhances the importance of managing green spaces in order to produce ecosystem services such as enhanced energy and climate management, water quality and habitat, and biodiversity - with ecosystem services regarded as more important than the traditional services associated with green spaces planning (like tree planting and maintenance, social outputs like beautification and the enhancing of public health). Other objectives contributing to healthier environments (and therefore creating more lively communities) are tabled in Table 16 below.
Table 16: Methods to enhance ecosystem services
OBJECTIVE METHOD
Urban heat island effect Planting trees or vegetation to shade impervious surfaces
Planting trees or vegetation to shade buildings
Planting trees or vegetation to shade water bodies
Green roof plantings
Carbon neutralization/sequestration - Using wood from municipal trees for fuel
- Using wood from municipal trees for construction
- Planting fast growing species as a carbon/air pollution sink - Planting long-living species as a carbon/air pollution sink Water quality management o Increasing permeable surfaces
o Planting vegetated buffer strips o Maintaining wetlands
o Increasing canopy cover for rain interception o Engaging in watershed planning
Chapter 4: Green space planning Page 99 Habitat Constructing non-vegetative habitat (i.e. rock outcroppings)
Maintaining and expanding wild areas
Enhancing migratory habitat
Planting species that provide food and/or shelter Biodiversity Planting native species
Minimizing invasive species
Using integrated pest management Source: Adopted from Young (2010:318).
Based on the above, Young (2010:315) provides a clear and concise definition, regarding (municipal) green spaces as ―...publicly managed natural resource assets in a city or town including street trees, parks, ―natural areas‖, cemeteries, utility rights-of-way, and the grounds of public buildings‖. Young (2010:315) also agrees with Barbosa et al. (2007:193) that aspects such as privately held and managed land (including individual residences, private parks, corporate campuses and commercial and industrial areas) should also fall within the general definition of green space.
A further important concept regarding the understanding and conceptualizing of green spaces is their influence on and contribution to shifting the paradigm of spatial segregation of urban landscape functions into complete multifunctional landscapes (Shackleton & Blair, 2013:105) wherein ‗quality‘
regarding these spaces are linked to the ‗value‘ associated with spaces by recognizing the need of these spaces to reflect the changing social, economic and environmental conditions. This concept of
‗multi-functionality‘ is defined by Natural England (2009:70) as ―...the ability to provide multiple or ‗cross cutting‘ functions, by integrating different activities and land usage, on individual sites and across a whole green infrastructure network‖.
These ‗multiple functions‘ (as previously mentioned by Natural England (2009:70)) include many (i.e.
‗multi‘) ecological, psychological, social, and economic benefits (Shackleton & Blair, 2013:104). Odindi and Mhangara (2012:653) support this multifunctional aspect of green spaces, referring to their significance in economic benefits like the enhancement and provision of economic prosperity that becomes evident when preserving and enhancing natural ecosystems (like these public green spaces).
Within the multifunctional concept, public green space (PGS) therefore also has a particular value and role to play in the sustainability and liveability of towns and cities, the provision of which requires appropriate planning approaches, implementation strategies and financial resources (Shackleton &
Blair, 2013:105).
These public green spaces further address and therefore contribute (in many ways) to sustainable development beyond merely providing recreational value (Wilson & Hughes, 2011:121) but rather
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making a valuable contribution across the spectrum of social, environmental and economic benefits (Swanwick et al., 2003:103), as formerly mentioned by Shackleton and Blair (2013:105). Within the Sheffield City Council‘s (2008:1) approach to ‗Valuing Attractive Landscapes in Urban Economy‘, three factors also need to be present in order to obtain successful green space outputs. These factors include (1) people (engaging stakeholders and access knowledge on green infrastructure and green space planning), (2) values (scoping valuation tools for application to green infrastructure investment in order to identify optimum evaluation techniques at city/regional scale and site scale) and (3) green spaces (innovations in green infrastructure management). This supports the multidimensional principal component analysis of Baycan-Levent (2007:1) as approach for the effective provision and maintenance of green spaces. It also encompasses Shackleton and Blair‘s (2013:105) similarity between the quality and value of green spaces as well as the contribution and relevance of people- driven, publicly participative green spaces to be discussed in the following sections.
The following table conclusively summarizes and reflects the full range of types of urban green spaces that together form the ‗green fabric‘ or ‗green infrastructure‘ of the urban area (refer to Table 2:
Glossary for a clear definition of the concept of green infrastructure. They may be publicly or privately owned and managed, and may or may not be accessible for public recreation (Swanwick et al., 2003:99).
Table 17: Typology of green space
MAIN TYPES OF ALL URBAN GREEN SPACE Recreation Green Space
Parks and gardens Informal recreation areas Outdoor sports areas Play areas
Incidental Green Space
Housing green space Other incidental space Private Green Space Domestic gardens
Productive Green Space
Remnant farmland City farms Allotments Burial Grounds Cemeteries
Churchyards
Institutional Grounds School grounds (including school farms and growing areas)
Other institutional grounds
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Wetland Open/running water
Marsh, fen
Woodland
Deciduous woodland Coniferous woodland Mixed woodland
Other habitats
Moor/ heath Grassland Disturbed ground
Linear Green Space
River and canal banks Transport corridors (road, rail, cycle ways and walking routes)
Other linear features (e.g.
cliffs) Source: Adapted from Swanwick et al. (2003:97).
The definition of green spaces for the purpose of this research, is therefore similar to that of Shackleton and Blair (2013:106) and includes any formal or informal green areas (also including school grounds provided that they are accessible to the public after school hours), sports fields, designated parks and remnant patches of indigenous vegetation, but (other than Barbosa et al. (2007:193)) excluding spaces like private gardens, hard open spaces and green road verges or pavements within the boundaries of the town.