Creating a Map of the Social Functions of Urban Green Spaces in a City with Poor Availability of Spatial Data: A Sociotope for Lodz

Edyta Łaszkiewicz,Piotr Czembrowski,Jakub Kronenberg

doi:10.3390/land9060183

Abstract

Many cities lack complex spatial databases that can answer the question “What does a given green space offer?” This complicates the lives of inhabitants, planners, and local authorities. One of the ways to obtain a complex picture of urban green spaces is to link multiple data sources. This article presents such an attempt to link multiple data sources to obtain a map of the social functions of urban green spaces in a city without a comprehensive spatial database on urban green spaces. We do so by adapting a method of mapping the social functions of urban green spaces—sociotope mapping—to the Central-Eastern European city of Lodz (Poland). Our results feature a map of the main social functions of urban green spaces (divided into five categories: nature, physical activity, social, play, and aesthetics) and GIS databases, with spatially explicit information on the 48 attributes of 196 urban green spaces in Lodz. According to our results, the greatest effort in sociotope mapping involves collecting data from different sources as it requires collaborating with various stakeholders—the owners of the data. Our study fits into the general trend of linking official data from municipal records with additional data on inhabitants’ preferences for urban green space planning and management.

Highlights

Where is the nearest playground to where I live? Do people in this particular district have enough green spaces that cater to the needs of dog walkers? These and other questions are often asked by urban inhabitants and decision-makers alike
There is a growing need to provide access to the in-depth spatial data on urban green spaces, which could support decisions made by urban planners [1,2]
None of them, used as a single data source, can guarantee a complex picture of urban green spaces [1]. These databases do not offer any supporting information on urban green space features, such as their social functions, which are important from the perspective of potential green space users

Summary

Introduction

Where is the nearest playground to where I live? Do people in this particular district have enough green spaces that cater to the needs of dog walkers? These and other questions are often asked by urban inhabitants and decision-makers alike. There is a growing need to provide access to the in-depth spatial data on urban green spaces, which could support decisions made by urban planners [1,2]. None of them, used as a single data source, can guarantee a complex picture of urban green spaces [1]. These databases do not offer any supporting information on urban green space features, such as their social functions, which are important from the perspective of potential green space users. The lack of one spatial database, which could inform, “what does a given green space offer/what is there?” has several consequences for everyone: the inhabitants, the planners, and the authorities

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion