TY - JOUR

T1 - Parks in context

T2 - Advancing citywide spatial quality assessments of urban green spaces using fine-scaled indicators

AU - Kraemer, Roland

AU - Kabisch, Nadja

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the author(s).

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Urban green spaces have gained attention because of their increasing relevance to human well-being in the context of challenges related to urbanization and climate change. Detailed, systematic, citywide assessments of specific urban green space characteristics that provide a sufficient understanding of resident interactions with green spaces and respective ecosystem service flows are lacking. We chose the city of Leipzig, one of the fastest growing cities in Germany, as a case study to assess the quality of publicly available green spaces by incorporating spatial context as a key dimension in determining their actual quality. We established 33 indicators that describe (1) natural elements, e.g., the types and configuration of vegetation and the proportion of water bodies; (2) built elements, e.g., various recreational facilities and path density; and (3) the embeddedness of green spaces within the built, social, and natural environment (context), e.g., the number of neighboring residents, nearby green or blue elements, and exposure to traffic. Based on these indicators, we developed a scoring approach that provides an evaluation of green space quality in terms of the potential to provide recreational ecosystem services. We identified and discussed spatial gaps and deficits in the quality of green space supply as well as leverage points for making operational improvements at the individual green space level. Our study provides urban planning guidance for identifying untapped potential for ecosystem services provision, e.g., because of usage barriers, and may help to balance the tradeoffs between benefits for citizens and ecology and thus improve green spaces for both people and nature.

AB - Urban green spaces have gained attention because of their increasing relevance to human well-being in the context of challenges related to urbanization and climate change. Detailed, systematic, citywide assessments of specific urban green space characteristics that provide a sufficient understanding of resident interactions with green spaces and respective ecosystem service flows are lacking. We chose the city of Leipzig, one of the fastest growing cities in Germany, as a case study to assess the quality of publicly available green spaces by incorporating spatial context as a key dimension in determining their actual quality. We established 33 indicators that describe (1) natural elements, e.g., the types and configuration of vegetation and the proportion of water bodies; (2) built elements, e.g., various recreational facilities and path density; and (3) the embeddedness of green spaces within the built, social, and natural environment (context), e.g., the number of neighboring residents, nearby green or blue elements, and exposure to traffic. Based on these indicators, we developed a scoring approach that provides an evaluation of green space quality in terms of the potential to provide recreational ecosystem services. We identified and discussed spatial gaps and deficits in the quality of green space supply as well as leverage points for making operational improvements at the individual green space level. Our study provides urban planning guidance for identifying untapped potential for ecosystem services provision, e.g., because of usage barriers, and may help to balance the tradeoffs between benefits for citizens and ecology and thus improve green spaces for both people and nature.

KW - Context

KW - Ecosystem services

KW - Green space quality

KW - Indicators

KW - Leipzig

KW - OSM

KW - Spatial assessment

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110018208&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5751/ES-12485-260245

DO - 10.5751/ES-12485-260245

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85110018208

VL - 26

JO - Ecology and society

JF - Ecology and society

SN - 1708-3087

IS - 2

M1 - 45

ER -