Chiesura, A., 2004, The role of urban parks for the sustainable city, in: Landscape and Urban Planning, , 1
- Author : Chiesura, A.
- Year : 2004
- Journal/Series : Landscape and Urban Planning
- Volume Number (ANNUAL: Counting Volumes of the Year shown above) : 1
- Pages : 129-138
- Abstract in English : International efforts to preserve the natural environment are mainly concerned with large, bio-diverse and relatively untouched ecosystems, with individual animal or plant species, endangered, or threatened with extinction. Less scientific and political attention is being paid, on the other hand, to that type of nature close to where people live and work, to small-scale green areas in cities, and to their benefits to urban dwellers. Cities’ sustainability and regeneration strategies mainly focus on fabricated and built components of the urban environment. In comparison, attention to the natural components and the green spaces of urban structure is still poor. Low appreciation of green spaces is also reflected in the recent cuts in the maintenance of budget of many towns. Increasing empirical evidence, however, indicates that the presence of natural areas contributes to the quality of life in many ways. Besides many environmental and ecological services, urban nature provides important social and psychological benefits to human societies, which enrich human life with meanings and emotions. The main concern of this paper is to address the importance of urban nature for citizens’ well being and for the sustainability of the city they inhabit. Public involvement, citizens’ participation and a qualitative appraisal of their needs and interests are believed to help urban communities to articulate commonly share values that, in turn cab serve as reference criteria for local planners to envision more sustainable city strategies.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: sustainability, quality of life, participation, urban parks, policy, nature experience.UTILITY: lecturers/teachers, academic research, students of universities of professional education.