CHAPTER 5: INTERNATIONAL CASE STUDIES OF GREEN SPACE PLANNING AND APPROACHES
5.4 Discussion and implications of findings
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involvement and awareness. Integrative X Public
inclusion and participation
X
Lived experience
X
QUALITY
Managed and maintained facilities
X
Functions Safe
perspectives, inputs and ideas. Despite these successes, the reference or inclusion of activities and various functions is not mentioned and therefore influences the level of success achieved by the project.
Source: Own creation (2013)
The table analyses the approaches discussed in previous chapters. It identifies which of these international approaches were successful (or failed) in terms of the issues of measurement, obtained from the theoretical investigations (Chapter 4) regarding the planning and provision of green spaces.
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Spaces
The best practice is based on the high priority placed on public inclusion and participation – the creation of ordained local markets and other informal developments. These can become an even more successful practice if elements of maintenance, management and accessibility for all are ensured and enhanced.
City Repair Project 10 out of 11 Highly successful in terms of all three key aspects. It lacks a sense of diverse activities for all.
This can overall be regarded as a successful practice, if and when the community leads the initiative in a sustainable and guided manner.
Regeneration 6 out of 11 The success of the regeneration strategy might seem extremely relative because of its focus on improving current spaces, not the creation of community-included projects for creating places. It mostly lacks the human aspects – participation, diverse activities and functions, attractions, lived experience, etc. whilst physical aspects of the space are addressed, i.e. Accessibility, visibility, maintenance, etc.
The best practice lies in the sense that planning for and including the upgrading of current space (especially their security, accessibility and maintenance) is a necessity, although it cannot stand alone.
Upgrading of Transport Systems
5 out of 11 As mentioned in the measuring table previously, this approach should not be included as a singular approach to create lively places.
Therefore the success is limited to a certain aspect of ‗lively‘ and
‗place‘ – accessibility and its associated impacts.
However, the best practice lies in the evidence that, even though not successful on its own as a lively and public place planning approach, it received a 50% rating when simply focusing on a single subdivision of an aspect of a key concept in planning for lively public places – i.e.
emphasizing the importance of including the upgrading or provision of accessibility and/or efficient and affordable transport opportunities within any space.
Source: Own creation (2013)
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In the same manner as Table 27 above, the number of measurements was determined in table 25 (i.e.
10 measurements). Then (as per step 4 of the methodology steps discussed in subsection 5.2.1) the number of measurements successfully present in each of the international green space planning case studies was counted and expressed as a score out of 10 with relevant comments and discussions in order to identify each study‘s best practice elements.
Table 28: Success summary - International green space planning Pilot test Scores in terms of
measurements Comments Europe (EEA
and EN) 2 out of 10 Only successful in terms of addressing access to green spaces, but excluding the importance of other public, green and quality measures.
The approach cannot be seen as a best practice when only planning for one aspect of green spaces.
The Netherlands 5 out of 10 This approach receives similar critique as above with the focus on improving access and not green space planning overall. However this approach includes access on a recreational, publicly inclusive manner by providing safe and integrative opportunities for walking and cycling.
Best practice in this approach lies in the fact that it is a good starting point for creating public green spaces. The inclusion of better ‗quality‘
and ‗green‘ aspects would suffice in uplifting the approach‘s success ability.
England 8 out of 10 A very successful approach in terms of including necessary and relevant ‗green‘, ‗public‘ and ‗lively‘ aspects.
The success factors of best practices in England lie within their diversity in terms of approaches, projects and objectives. The inclusion of eight (8) different projects or approaches to creating green spaces ensures that most aspects needed for creating successful public green space planning (i.e. ‗green‘, ‗public‘ and
‗quality‘ and their corresponding measurements) or included in various projects that can be regarded as ‗phases‘ are contributory to the overall vision of public green space planning. Specific (and unique) best practices include the provision of an ‗incentive based approach‘ – i.e. the green flag award in which people are motivated to create quality green spaces worth of the award, rather than merely providing green open spaces.
Käferberg (Switzerland)
8 out of 10 Equally successful in terms of the successful provision of necessary green aspects with regards to public green spaces as England.
Whereas England‘s overall approaches lack lived experience and adequate functions, Käferberg lacks the DIRECT inclusion of
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management and safety (although these aspects are still indirectly provided in terms of permanent on-site farmers).
The best practice noted in this approach is the surveys distributed to a wide and diverse range of users to exactly determine the
community‘s needs and wishes in terms of green space planning in order to compile and plan successful spaces in terms of what the people want whilst protecting the natural environment and promoting a safe and accessible recreational environment for any user.
UN (Sweden, India, Philippines - ecoBUDGET)
3 out of 10 ecoBUDGET is, as was the concern of previous unsuccessful approaches, an approach directed at monitoring, controlling and protecting natural resources as opposed to planning for public green spaces.
Practices that can be noted are the continuous inclusion of the public and the creation of a standard to be included as part of local authority routines to protect (potentially successful planned) green spaces.
University of Wisconsin (Native landscaping)
3 out of 10 The economic use of green spaces is not included as a primary necessity for the successful planning of green spaces, but by including the sole vegetation of local plants within best practices, numerous unmentioned but potentially relevant aspects may be addressed i.e. protection of local vegetation against endangerment, potential tourist attraction, sustainable environment, etc.
North America (Urban forestry)
4 out of 10 The lack of including or providing for public activities and/or functions hampers the mere protection of green spaces to be regarded as successful. Even though the replacing of street trees and management are good features and need to be considered in the planning of green spaces, the importance of ‗public‘ cannot be excluded and should remain one of the primary aspects of green space planning and provision.
Netherland, UK, Belgium (Urban Habitats Project)
6 out of 10 As mentioned previously in terms of the success of England‘s diverse approaches and initiatives, the collaboration of different ideas, approaches and methods is successful based on the generating of a broader and therefore more accurate concept of best practice – what works successfully and what does not. The importance (as is lacking in this approach) of including functions and provoking human activities and interaction are key aspects of successful green space planning and should therefore not be overlooked.
Source: Own creation (2013)
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