Abstract
Informal urban green-space (IGS) such as vacant lots, brownfields and street or railway verges is receiving growing attention from urban scholars. Research has shown IGS can provide recreational space for residents and habitat for flora and fauna, yet we know little about the quantity, spatial distribution, vegetation structure or accessibility of IGS. We also lack a commonly accepted definition of IGS and a method that can be used for its rapid quantitative assessment. This paper advances a definition and typology of IGS that has potential for global application. Based on this definition, IGS land use percentage in central Brisbane, Australia and Sapporo, Japan was systematically surveyed in a 10×10 km grid containing 121 sampling sites of 2,500 m2 per city, drawing on data recorded in the field and aerial photography. Spatial distribution, vegetation structure and accessibility of IGS were also analyzed. We found approximately 6.3% of the surveyed urban area in Brisbane and 4.8% in Sapporo consisted of IGS, a non-significant difference. The street verge IGS type (80.4% of all IGS) dominated in Brisbane, while lots (42.2%) and gaps (19.2%) were the two largest IGS types in Sapporo. IGS was widely distributed throughout both survey areas. Vegetation structure showed higher tree cover in Brisbane, but higher herb cover in Sapporo. In both cities over 80% of IGS was accessible or partly accessible. The amount of IGS we found suggests it could play a more important role than previously assumed for residents' recreation and nature experience as well as for fauna and flora, because it substantially increased the amount of potentially available greenspace in addition to parks and conservation greenspace. We argue that IGS has potential for recreation and conservation, but poses some challenges to urban planning. To address these challenges, we propose some directions for future research.
Highlights
Dunn et al argue that global conservation efforts depend on the interest people have in nature conservation, an interest formed largely through experiencing nature within the cities that people inhabit[1]
Questions yet to be answered include: what proportion the different types of Informal urban greenspace (IGS) contribute to the total amount of IGS in a city, and how does IGS quantity differ between cities? We know little about the spatial distribution of IGS, its vegetation structure, or its potential accessibility, which are again important factors determining its potential for recreation and conservation
This paper reports the results of a study that asked the following four research questions: (1) how does the land use proportion of total IGS and individual IGS subtypes differ between urban core areas in two cities? (2) how do the characteristics of IGS differ between urban core areas in two cities? (3) does distance from the city center influence IGS quantity, and (4) how accurate is the IGS land use proportion survey method employed for estimating potential IGS quantity? This study contributes new knowledge in two ways
Summary
Dunn et al argue that global conservation efforts depend on the interest people have in nature conservation, an interest formed largely through experiencing nature within the cities that people inhabit[1]. We know little about the spatial distribution (within a city or in different geographical settings) of IGS, its vegetation structure, or its potential accessibility, which are again important factors determining its potential for recreation and conservation Compounding this problem, scholars presently lack a shared or agreed definition of these taken for granted socio-ecological spaces (though we propose such a definition below). We lack a reliable, comprehensive rapid assessment method that can be applied in different geographical contexts and is useful for estimating IGS quantity as a first step in urban planning initiatives to ‘green’ cities. We take up these tasks in this paper
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