Abstract
The opening up of green spaces could provide significant benefits to society. This study develops a framework to assess the economic benefits and costs of public interventions providing citizen access to urban green spaces. The Thinking Fadura project in Getxo (Spain) was used as a case study. A method for participatory benefit-cost analysis is developed, where a stakeholder-participatory evaluation is combined with a standard cost-benefit analysis. The participatory evaluation followed a bottom-up approach in a sequential evaluation including three main focal points: key stakeholders and experts, visitors and the general public. The assessment demonstrates that the Thinking Fadura project’s benefits outweigh the costs. The results suggest that projects designed with the purpose of improving green space accessibility to the general public can be beneficial from a societal perspective. The highest economic benefits were an increase in the amenity and recreational value and an increase in people’s physical activity. The participatory evaluation indicates that giving access to people of lower socio-economic status and vulnerable groups and improving recreational use were perceived as the most beneficial. An increase in noise, dirt, and risk of criminal activities as well as potential conflicts between green space users were perceived as the most negative impacts of opening a previously restricted area to the general public. The economic assessment of Thinking Fadura project could serve as a model in the decision-making process in locations where the use of greenspaces is restricted.
Highlights
The proportion of people living in urban areas is expected to rise from 46.6% in 2000 to 69.6% in2050 [1]
A number of impacts not identified before such as greater influx of dogs, possible conflict between users and greater possibility of teens drinking were detected. These negative impacts were not included in the economic evaluation due to its complexity to convert into monetary terms
This paper explores the use of a Participatory Benefit-Cost Analysis (PBCA) to evaluate the benefits and costs of the Thinking Fadura project considering impacts from the point of view of society as a whole
Summary
The proportion of people living in urban areas is expected to rise from 46.6% in 2000 to 69.6% in2050 [1]. As a result of this increase in urbanisation, green space in urban areas is facing increasing pressure. The project aimed to design a new public space where sporting facilities coexisted with open green spaces. FMSC’s facilities occupy around 20 hectares along the Gobela River. It has many green spaces and numerous sports facilities such as indoor and outdoor swimming pools, gym, soccer fields, rugby, basketball, tennis and paddle tennis, among others. The new public park had 8.2 hectares of green land surrounded by both public and private sports facilities. At the time when the assessment was performed in 2018, only around five hectares of the greenspaces were open to the general public
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