Reshaping Neighborhood Parks for Biodiversity and People: A Case of Unsung Socio-Ecological Systems in Bangalore, India

Abstract

Urban green spaces have recently gained a lot of attention, as they are known to provide various vital ecosystem services to the community. Bangalore, a south-Indian city, which was called the “Garden City” of India, has several large green spaces. It is only in recent years that small pocket green spaces such as neighborhood parks have been created. Although the importance of neighborhood parks is known, they are ignored and readily sacrificed for developmental projects, while the large heritage green spaces receive more attention and are conserved. The concept of the large spaces providing more services seems to have filtered into the minds of citizens, thus resulting in complete negligence towards the neighborhood parks. Cities are required to implement newer concepts which focus on small green spaces too, which could enhance the services they currently provide to the community. Thus integrating multiple concepts that not only focus on the ecological functioning but also the social needs of the community could help increase the stewardship which is currently lacking around neighborhood parks and much needed attention towards small green spaces. In this chapter, through an interdisciplinary approach, we suggest concepts that could help conserve smaller green spaces through better green space management in developing cities.