Managing urban greening for improving well-being in European cities

Improving the provision of ecosystem services becomes increasingly important in the design and management of urban green areas.
Considering that most people today live in cities, providing healthy living conditions is a main duty of public administrations.
Health and well-being related ecosystem services are directly related to a good quality of urban green areas.
The perceptions, criticisms and wishes of the residents are fundamental in order to manage the green areas and entice people to spend time in them.
The relationship between the design and management of urban green areas and the health-relevant ecosystem services that provide the typical housing structures of European cities is being studied, using the city of Berlin (Germany) as a case study.
The floral composition and the main components present in the residential green have been analyzed.
In the summer 2018 a questionnaire will be given to residents in order to understand their expectations.
In general, residential greeneries are well kept and rich of a wide range of elements (e.g., shade providing shrubs and trees with banks, playground, flower beds, gardens, lawns and meadows). Green facades and swales are rarely implemented.
Compared to the younger housing estates (1960-1980), residential greenery of block-edge developments of the Wilhelminian era (1870-1920) is limited to few shrubs and trees within the narrow courtyards and along streets.
We highlighted conflicts within usage among local citizens, that can be reduced by the implementation of co-design and co-maintenance strategies in the semi-public residentially greenery.
The combination of high-quality residential greenery with green buildings, the participative management of green space are key requirements for healthy and liveable cities of tomorrow.
This paper presents preliminary results.
The same methodology will be applied in 2019 in Turin (Italy).

XXX International Horticultural Congress IHC2018: VII Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture, IV Conference on Turfgrass Management and Science for Sports Fields and II Symposium on Mechanization, Precision Horticulture, and Robotics

L. Battisti, L. Pille, F. Larcher, S. Butenschön, I. Säumel

green areas, health relevant parameters, urban planning, co-planning, co-design and co-maintenance

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1279.9