Urban Greenways: A Systematic Review and Typology

Olivia Horte,Theodore Eisenman

doi:10.3390/land9020040

Abstract

Greenways are multifunctional linear landscapes that provide a range of socio-ecological benefits. As a domain of landscape planning research, greenways gained traction in the late 20th century and today, there is substantial interest in greenway planning and design. This is especially true in urban areas, as noted at the sixth Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning. Yet, cities encompass biophysical flows, sociopolitical relationships, and formal structures that are distinct from non-urban areas and urban greenways may reflect an evolving type of landscape planning and design that is related to but distinct from greenways writ large. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no previous review of scholarship on greenways in an urban context. We address the aforementioned gaps by reporting on a systematic assessment of peer-reviewed literature. The review encompasses 52 refereed articles using the term “urban greenway” or “urban greenways” in the title, abstract, or keywords drawn from three prominent academic databases. Our analysis covers seven research categories, and this undergirds a typology and definition of urban greenways. In so doing, we seek to illuminate typical traits of urban greenways to inform future landscape planning scholarship and practice.

Highlights

In scholarly literature, greenways have been defined as “networks of land containing linear elements that are planned, designed and managed for multiple purposes including ecological, recreational, cultural, aesthetic, or other purposes compatible with the concept of sustainable land use” [1]
We address three objectives: (1) illuminate the ways that urban greenways may be a distinct subset of greenways writ large; (2) systematically review scholarly literature on urban greenways; (3) develop a typology and definition of urban greenways
We conducted a systematic review as there has, to the best of our knowledge been no review on urban greenways, yet greenways are common in urban areas and there is a sizable scholarly literature on this topic

Summary

Introduction

Greenways have been defined as “networks of land containing linear elements that are planned, designed and managed for multiple purposes including ecological, recreational, cultural, aesthetic, or other purposes compatible with the concept of sustainable land use” [1]. Whyte’s The Last Landscape [3], which describes greenways as critical linkages and connectors in a hierarchy of urban green spaces. There is substantial interest in greenway planning and design. This is especially true in urban areas due to the growing concentration of people in cities [12], and the limited amount of available space in increasingly built up settlements.

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Conclusion