Urban street greenery as a prevention against illegal dumping of household garbage—A case in Suwon, South Korea

Abstract

While greenery in the city provide a number of important functions, the prevention of illegal dumping of household garbage (IDHG) has rarely been mentioned. Literature review on IDHG implied that greening on dumping sites can be understood as an effort to prevent such behaviour by modifying the physical characteristics of the site, in which case the physical characteristics of the greenery itself (i.e. the physical design) is also a potential factor. Therefore, this exploratory study attempts to answer (1) whether urban street greenery can function as a prevention against IDHG and (2) what relationship exists between the physical design elements of street greenery and its effectiveness. The study examined a recent IDHG-preventive greening project implemented in Suwon, a South Korean city. A quasi-experiment comparing the street greenery sites with non-street greenery sites and a binary logistic regression among the street greenery sites was conducted respectively to analyse the above questions. Results suggest that while street greenery does appear to function as a preventive method against IDHG, certain physical design elements notably related to the greenery's spatial features also tend to influence its effectiveness. A possible explanation may be that these elements might contribute to its effectiveness by reducing the actual space available for dumping garbage. It is hoped that this exploratory study could provide insight and universal implications regarding the relationship among urban greenery, its physical design, and its function as a prevention against IDHG.