Abstract
In recent years social, economic and environmental considerations have led to a reevaluation of the factors that contribute to sustainable urban environments. Increasingly, urban green space is seen as an integral part of cities providing a range of services to both the people and the wildlife living in urban areas. The use of urban green space, and especially increasing the use, has become a hot topic for many green space managers during the past few years as the assumed link between use of urban green space and sustainable urban development is becoming more visible. Up to this time, there is little systematic information about urban green space including natural water bodies in the City of Kazan, Russia, its use and the main factors that influence this use. As green spaces play a crucial role in supporting urban ecological and social systems, it is important to make investigations in the amount of provision, the distribution and characteristics of urban green space in the city. The main concern of this paper is to address the importance of urban nature for citizens’ well being and for the sustainability of the city they inhabit. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n24p356
Highlights
Economic and environmental considerations have led to a reevaluation of the factors that contribute to sustainable urban environments
During the present research it has been investigated that surface area of all Urban green spaces (UGS) is around 39,5 km2 (3 952 ha) that composes 6.45% from the overall area of the city (613 km2)
On territory of the city there is a total number of 156 UGS including formally designated open spaces and other actual green spaces
Summary
Economic and environmental considerations have led to a reevaluation of the factors that contribute to sustainable urban environments. It is widely recognized that urban green space is an important part of complex urban ecosystems and provides significant ecosystem services contributing to sustainable development. It benefits urban communities environmentally, esthetically, recreationally and economically [3,4]. Protection and development of urban green-space has become recognized by international agencies and donors as important tool in improving the quality of urban livelihoods and urban environment [5]. Many recent national and local health policies, as well as city planning policies, are mentioning the positive effects of the use of green space [6]
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