Metropolitan mountains: Sainte-Victoire as a public park in Aix-Marseille Provence Metropolis, France?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Metropolisation leads to the physical, functional, and symbolic integration of urban natural areas. In this context, can metropolitan mountains be considered vast public parks in their own right, adapting to new scales of functionality within their territory? To tackle this question, we carried out a questionnaire-based survey among local residents and users of Sainte-Victoire mountain in the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, France. Its results highlight the existence of proximity-based perceptions and practices towards Sainte-Victoire. In this respect, the mountain possesses certain characteristics that are associated with intra-urban green spaces. However, it differs from intra-urban green spaces in that its users’ patterns of frequentation can be categorised as exceptional and episodic, and that access to and specific uses of it strongly depend on owning a car. This article therefore calls for an environmental management strategy that better coordinates emblematic urban natural spaces, such as Sainte-Victoire, with other metropolitan green spaces.