Enhancing urban nature and place-making in social housing through community gardening

There is a growing body of literature examining the multifaceted benefits of community gardens for environmental and social wellbeing. While there are studies examining the increase of grassroots urban gardening initiatives in low income and vulnerable communities, there remains a need for research that explores the lived experiences of individuals in social housing communities with urban nature and community gardens. Individuals living in urban social housing may experience inequalities in access to green infrastructure both within their housing estates as well as the surrounding community. For the past two decades, the Community Greening program at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Australia, has implemented outreach initiatives to support the development and maintenance of community gardens in social housing communities in New South Wales. This article presents the findings from a study conducted with participants at six new community gardens built in social housing communities, focusing specifically on focus group interviews with residents and staff questionnaires to examine the perceived impact of the Community Greening program. The participants’ narratives highlight program outcomes across the key themes of community gardens as sites for knowledge generation and connection to nature, sense of community, and improving residents' sense of pride and public perceptions of public housing. The findings suggest that community gardens enhance green infrastructure in social housing estates and their broader urban locales by improving access to green space and promoting place-making in social housing contexts. We conclude with a discussion of the recommendations and lessons learned that may help to inform future policies and practices when setting priorities that promote social and environmental sustainability in social housing.     

The usage,constraints and preferences of green space at disadvantage neighborhood: A review of empirical evidence

Neighborhood green space is closely related to the lives of every city dweller. However, some evidence showed that residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods do not fully use the green space due to quality, safety, and distance issues. Therefore, it is essential to understand how disadvantaged groups interact and use green space in these communities. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive evaluation. This research systematically sorts out the relevant literature and collects various attributes of the use, constraints, and preferences of the residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods on the green space through a systematic review method from the perspective of social ecology. Through a literature review of 4 databases (Science Direct, Scopus, web of science, and CNKI), 42 articles (N = 42) were finally included. This article concerns peer-reviewed papers published between 2008 and 2021. The research results showed that residents of disadvantaged communities' use of nearby green space are affected by personal, social, physical, and other attributes. Finally, a conceptual framework for the use, constraints, and preferences of disadvantaged neighborhood green space is proposed to help planners and designers design and improve community green space more effectively and ultimately achieve a harmonious living environment that meets various needs.     

Negotiating the green obstacle course: Ranking priorities and problems for municipal green infrastructure implementation

This paper sets out the results of a study exploring, and ranking in order of perceived significance, the priorities and obstacles faced by smaller cities when implementing green infrastructure (GI) projects. The study captured the views of 49 municipal officers and elected representatives in cities of less than 500,000 population across four countries in northwest Europe, using a closed card sorting methodology as part of a semi-structured interview format. The results show a clear hierarchy in priorities, with particular attention paid to anthropocentric benefits to residents, especially the importance of aesthetics and liveability as a key objective in GI delivery, and the desirability of securing visible benefit to residents within the electoral cycle; longer-term objectives linked to environmental and economic challenges, although acknowledged in corporate policies, attract a lower priority when it comes to delivery, and may encounter trade-offs against other desired benefits. The greatest obstacle to GI delivery is not funding, as found in other studies, although this remains significant; rather, it is difficulty of collaborations and fragmentation within the city organisation which participants attributed to a lack of leadership and prioritisation of green initiatives. Capacity is also a clear issue, and the results highlight a lack of resources (including funding) but also skills in assembling evidence in support of projects, and staff time to bid for and deliver new GI proposals. When comparing these findings to others from larger cities, particularly those with a population over 1 million, the results suggest differences in prioritisation, critical mass, resources and capabilities and capacities influencing GI implementation, these are important to consider as they may prevent transferability of GI best practices from larger cities, who tend to be more active and innovative, to smaller scale cities. Co-production of knowledge, could offer considerable potential to improve GI implementation, but the design of any such schemes should recognise the issue of capacity by providing resources to allow participation of practitioners in smaller municipalities. Finally, respondents highlighted increasing environmental awareness of local communities and whilst the effect of this is yet to be seen, this was considered as having considerable potential in improving GI implementation in smaller municipalities.     

Accessibility to urban parks: Comparing GIS based measures in the city of Padova (Italy)

Accessibility to urban green spaces is essential for urban dwellers’ health and well-being. For planning purposes different accessibility measures and indicators have been used. Some are only based on availability, others consider distance from residences, yet others rely on gravity-based methods that consider both supply and demand. Different indicators often provide diverse and sometimes contradictory results and many issues remain in developing a comprehensive measure of accessibility, and representativity problems remain in matching indices with reality. In this study different accessibility measures have been developed and applied to the urban parks of the city of Padova, in northeastern Italy. Effectiveness and reliability of ten indicators derived from these measures, in identifying needs, inadequacies and disparities in park access have been tested at the urban unit scale. The study confirmed that multiple indicators need to be used to provide a useful planning tool for the provision of adequate and equal opportunities for open space access to the citizens. The study has also shown which indicators can be replaced by each other without losing important information.     

Value negotiation and professional self-regulation – Environmental concern in the design of the built environment

Built environment design professionals balance competing requirements for human comfort, aesthetics and ecological integrity in their projects. Among them, landscape designers play an important role in optimising the benefits derived from urban green spaces. This study critically considers value dimensions and domains that impinge on professionals’ decision making and environmental values that are applicable to built environment design. It specifically identifies the dominant group-based value domains and environmental values in local practice and examines how landscape designers determine the relative importance of competing values in urban South Africa. The study made use of semi-structured interviews with long-standing figures in the industry. The findings indicate that the political change, the economy and the varied climate and landscape character are contextual influences that strongly shape regional social constructions of urban nature. These constructions emphasise instrumental utility values that juxtapose fundamental values and overshadow less urgent eudemonistic and intrinsic environmental values. In the design process, designers trade off artistic pursuits for utility values, with implications for aesthetics and quality. The contextual influences undermine value pluralism. Current trade-offs arguably perpetuate a local legacy of the uneven distribution of quality green spaces. Promisingly, designers show environmental concern and value for sustainability, indigenous plants, utility, quality and safety. The potential for designers to strengthen bonds with urban nature lies in the creation of aesthetic experiences that build on existing local affinities to landscape character and indigenous species. Professional bodies have an important task to assist built environment designers in creating cities that preserve human-nature relationships.     

Spatial statistical analysis of the relationship between self-reported mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown and closeness to green infrastructure

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced alterations in the behaviour and psychological health of people, who have had to learn living under uncertain circumstances escaping their control. This situation has been aggravated in those countries applying strict home confinement rules to try bending their epidemic curve. This is the case of Spain, where the stringent lockdown period was extended over three months. This study aimed at proving a research hypothesis whereby living close to Green Infrastructure (GI) during the confinement period was beneficial for mental health. To this end, La Palma (Canary Islands) and Zaragoza (Peninsular Spain) were taken as case studies, since both locations distributed a questionnaire to address citizenry’s self-reported mental health under strict lockdown conditions. A spatial statistical analysis of the responses collected by these questionnaires revealed that variables such as stress, anger, medication use, alcohol consumption or visits to the doctor significantly decreased if citizens were close to GI, whereas people having very high expectations of enjoying the city after the confinement were positively correlated to proximity of green areas. Although these outcomes are limited by the inferential capacity of correlation analysis, they point out to a sense of relief derived from having visual contact with vegetated landscapes and feeling stimulated about using them for recreation, aesthetical or sporting purposes. The joint consideration of these psychological gains with the social and environmental benefits provided by GI emphasizes the importance of approaching urban regeneration through the design and implementation of interconnected green spaces.     

The discourses,opportunities, and constraints in Canberra’s Green Infrastructure planning

Nowadays, Australian state and local governments consider Green Infrastructure (GI) planning as a mitigation and adaptation approach to make cities more resilient. Moreover, decision-makers have acknowledged and addressed social values, biodiversity, and habitat connectivity in policy documents. Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), is a unique Australian city since it is totally designed as the National Capital of Australia and is built on a grassland plain, inspired by the Garden City concept. The green and open spaces have a symbolic value, representing Canberra as the national capital. However, Canberra is experiencing increasing urban development pressure, which threatens its green and open spaces. Thus, it is critical to explore the GI status in governance and decision-making in Canberra to guide its future planning. This research explores ten policy documents using a reflexive analysis to interpretatively critique policy documents and to diagnose the existing opportunities and constraints in Canberra’s GI planning. The documents were selected from 4 main defined scopes, Australian Government land-use responsibilities, ACT Government land-use planning and strategy, ACT Government greenspace planning, and Tree management regulations and mechanisms. This research identified dual governance (national/territory) and dual nature character (native/exotic) in the policy documents, which has intensified the complexity of GI planning. Another constraint was the lack of district level planning and a structured bottom-up approach. More flexibility in governance and collaboration between different governance levels and agencies is needed to make a more effective GI network, using the existing opportunities such as open space systems. Although GI principles have been addressed at Canberra’s strategic level, more comprehensive GI planning is needed to address all types of greenspaces.     

Advancing research on urban greenspace experiences and perceptions in disadvantaged communities: A social housing perspective

Empirical assessments of the experiences and perceptions of urban green space (UGS) in a social housing context are scant. Studying UGS perception in these contexts is important to understand how people experience and derive benefits from UGS in disadvantaged communities. This short communication provides interdisciplinary and methodological guidance on how to conduct empirical assessment of UGS experience and perception in social housing neighborhoods. For conducting these types of studies, we suggest researchers go beyond simply calculating UGS abundance around communities and consider assessing UGS experiences and perceptions. We suggest designing studies that account for the mixed nature of many social housing communities and that develop useful UGS perception measures that can be associated with wellbeing and community indicators. Finally, we also recommend: (1) designing studies at the local scale and developing strong relationsihps with the social housing communities before and while conducting these studies; (2) considering safety as a key component of UGS perception measures; (3) considering the association between UGS perception measures and wellbeing and community experience indicators to strengthen existing models of UGS benefit provision.     

Where to construct new urban green spaces to be at the recommended distance from users and to complement existing ones? A study in five cities of northern Portugal

The proximity to urban green spaces (UGS) is important to facilitate their use by citizens, mainly by the most vulnerable groups in society who are usually unable to walk long distances. Furthermore, there are several ecosystem services from which the population can only benefit if UGS are close. In addition to being important to identify areas without a UGS nearby, it is also important to indicate possible locations for a new UGS, thus avoiding wasting resources by overlapping coverage areas or leaving gaps in coverage. It is also important to understand among all possible locations where the construction of a UGS is most needed. The present study aims (i) to identify possible locations for future UGS and order them by construction priority, (ii) to develop and test a methodology for decision-makers and urban planners and (iii) to contribute to increasing and developing UGS in cities. Considering residential areas, the results reveal a deficiency in UGS coverage in all the cities studied, as only 43.86–57.09% of residential areas have a UGS within 300 m. Construction of proposed UGS will lead to a 12.30–26.15% increase in coverage. The proposed methodology needs further improvement, but it can be a valuable tool for urban planners and decision-makers, and can encourage the construction of more UGS.     

Why don’t we go outside? – Perceived constraints for users of urban greenspace in Sweden

Urban greenspace (UGS) is important for human wellbeing, particularly physical and mental health, and is claimed to support social cohesion. However, the expansion and densification of urban centres in recent decades has occurred largely at the expense of UGS. This risks its attractiveness for users. Although recent research has identified various factors that influence the use of UGS in different contexts, few studies have taken an explicit, bottom-up approach to understand which factors constrain willingness to use it. This study analyses responses from an online survey in Sweden (N = 2806) to identify the main constraints to UGS usage, and for whom these are constraints. Respondents could select from 22 different types of constraints – relating to incivilities, management, accessibility and availability, safety, and personal issues. Respondents could also provide comments to identify additional constraints. Incivilities were the most perceived problem. For example, litter was selected by 53% of respondents, while vandalism was selected by 24%. At the same time, many respondents perceived few or no constraints – 59% stated that nothing prevented them from using UGS, while 35% stated that they saw no problems. Safety-related and accessibility/availability constraints were not strongly identified although many respondents commented that UGS in Sweden is inadequate given the large number of users, and that the UGS that people want to use the most is often inaccessible without a car. Multiple binary logistic regression was used to investigate relationships between perceptions of constraints and fourteen predictor variables. Odds ratios were used to determine whether significant (p < 0.05) relationships were meaningful. Our findings show that different groups have starkly divergent perceptions of constraints relating to UGS. Several key factors – including age, self-reported nature-connectedness, distance to UGS, and frequency of use – were associated with a heightened likelihood of perceiving different groups of constraints. However, relationships between constraints and factors relating to environmental justice were not straightforward. These findings indicate the complexity of UGS planning challenges relating to densification, the New Urban Agenda and promotion of societal benefits, and a need to further integrate multiple user perspectives, especially of younger adults and infrequent users.