IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v9y2020i5p162-d360762.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Incremental Demise of Urban Green Spaces

Author

Listed:
  • Johan Colding

    (Department of Building Engineering, Energy Systems and Sustainability Science, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, 80176 Gävle, Sweden
    The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Åsa Gren

    (The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Stephan Barthel

    (Department of Building Engineering, Energy Systems and Sustainability Science, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, 80176 Gävle, Sweden
    Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Kräftriket 2B, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden)

Abstract

More precise explanations are needed to better understand why public green spaces are diminishing in cities, leading to the loss of ecosystem services that humans receive from natural systems. This paper is devoted to the incremental change of green spaces—a fate that is largely undetectable by urban residents. The paper elucidates a set of drivers resulting in the subtle loss of urban green spaces and elaborates on the consequences of this for resilience planning of ecosystem services. Incremental changes of greenspace trigger baseline shifts, where each generation of humans tends to take the current condition of an ecosystem as the normal state, disregarding its previous states. Even well-intended political land-use decisions, such as current privatization schemes, can cumulatively result in undesirable societal outcomes, leading to a gradual loss of opportunities for nature experience. Alfred E. Kahn referred to such decision making as ‘the tyranny of small decisions.’ This is mirrored in urban planning as problems that are dealt with in an ad hoc manner with no officially formulated vision for long-term spatial planning. Urban common property systems could provide interim solutions for local governments to survive periods of fiscal shortfalls. Transfer of proprietor rights to civil society groups can enhance the resilience of ecosystem services in cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Colding & Åsa Gren & Stephan Barthel, 2020. "The Incremental Demise of Urban Green Spaces," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-11, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:5:p:162-:d:360762
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/5/162/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/5/162/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Catarina De Sousa Silva & Inês Viegas & Τhomas Panagopoulos & Simon Bell, 2018. "Environmental Justice in Accessibility to Green Infrastructure in Two European Cities," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-23, November.
    2. Ostrom,Elinor, 2015. "Governing the Commons," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107569782, June.
    3. David Martimort & Flavio Menezes & Myrna Wooders & ELISABETTA IOSSA & DAVID MARTIMORT, 2015. "The Simple Microeconomics of Public-Private Partnerships," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(1), pages 4-48, February.
    4. Cervero, R. & Duncan, M., 2003. "Walking, Bicycling, and Urban Landscapes: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1478-1483.
    5. Zorica Nedović-Budić & Sasha Tsenkova & Peter Marcuse, 2006. "The urban mosaic of post-socialist Europe," Contributions to Economics, in: Sasha Tsenkova & Zorica Nedović-Budić (ed.), The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe, chapter 1, pages 3-20, Springer.
    6. Samuelsson, Karl & Barthel, Stephan & Colding, Johan & Macassa, Gloria & Giusti, Matteo, 2020. "Urban nature as a source of resilience during social distancing amidst the coronavirus pandemic," OSF Preprints 3wx5a, Center for Open Science.
    7. Cervero, Robert & Duncan, Michael, 2003. "Walking, Bicycling, and Urban Landscapes: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt6zr1x95m, University of California Transportation Center.
    8. Gunilla Lindholm, 2019. "Land and Landscape; Linking Use, Experience and Property Development in Urban Areas," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-15, September.
    9. Colding, Johan & Barthel, Stephan, 2013. "The potential of ‘Urban Green Commons’ in the resilience building of cities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 156-166.
    10. Johan Colding & Stephan Barthel, 2017. "The Role of University Campuses in Reconnecting Humans to the Biosphere," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Melissa Schumacher & Pamela Durán-Díaz & Anne Kristiina Kurjenoja & Eduardo Gutiérrez-Juárez & David A. González-Rivas, 2019. "Evolution and Collapse of Ejidos in Mexico—To What Extent Is Communal Land Used for Urban Development?," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-21, October.
    12. Elinor Ostrom, 2000. "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 137-158, Summer.
    13. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01109351 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Sonia Hirt & Atanass Kovachev, 2006. "The changing spatial structure of post-socialist Sofia," Contributions to Economics, in: Sasha Tsenkova & Zorica Nedović-Budić (ed.), The Urban Mosaic of Post-Socialist Europe, chapter 6, pages 113-130, Springer.
    15. Judith Westerink & Dagmar Haase & Annette Bauer & Joe Ravetz & Françoise Jarrige & Carmen B.E. M. Aalbers, 2013. "Dealing with Sustainability Trade-Offs of the Compact City in Peri-Urban Planning Across European City Regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 473-497, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tania Noël & Benoit Dardenne, 2022. "Relationships between Green Space Attendance, Perceived Crowdedness, Perceived Beauty and Prosocial Behavior in Time of Health Crisis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-18, June.
    2. Jörg Priess & Luis Valença Pinto & Ieva Misiune & Julia Palliwoda, 2021. "Ecosystem Service Use and the Motivations for Use in Central Parks in Three European Cities," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    3. Víctor García-Díez & Marina García-Llorente & José A. González, 2020. "Participatory Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Madrid: Insights for Landscape Planning," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Shaswati Chowdhury & Jaan-Henrik Kain & Marco Adelfio & Yevheniya Volchko & Jenny Norrman, 2023. "Transforming brownfields into urban greenspaces: A working process for stakeholder analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(1), pages 1-25, January.
    5. Alessio Russo & Giuseppe T. Cirella, 2021. "Urban Ecosystem Services: New Findings for Landscape Architects, Urban Planners, and Policymakers," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-5, January.
    6. Jeonghee Choi & Gunwoo Kim, 2022. "History of Seoul’s Parks and Green Space Policies: Focusing on Policy Changes in Urban Development," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-28, March.
    7. Adriano Bressane & Rogério Galante Negri & Irineu de Brito Junior & Liliam César de Castro Medeiros & Isabela Lopes Lima Araújo & Mirela Beatriz Silva & Amanda Louisi dos Santos Galvão & Graziele Cora, 2022. "Association between Contact with Nature and Anxiety, Stress and Depression Symptoms: A Primary Survey in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-10, August.
    8. Alessio Russo & Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez & Annick St-Denis & Mark G. Tjoelker, 2025. "Native vs. Non-Native Plants: Public Preferences, Ecosystem Services, and Conservation Strategies for Climate-Resilient Urban Green Spaces," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, April.
    9. Marcin Feltynowski & Jakub Kronenberg, 2020. "Urban Green Spaces—An Underestimated Resource in Third-Tier Towns in Poland," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-19, November.
    10. Karolina Zięba-Kulawik & Piotr Wężyk, 2022. "Monitoring 3D Changes in Urban Forests Using Landscape Metrics Analyses Based on Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, June.
    11. Hernandez, Edward Russel & Sy, Patricia Breanne & Cirunay, Michelle T. & Batac, Rene C., 2024. "Power-law distributions of urban tree cover," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 643(C).
    12. Wing Shan Kan & Raul P. Lejano, 2021. "How Land Use, Climate Change, and an Ageing Demographic Intersect to Create New Vulnerabilities in Hong Kong," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-8, April.
    13. Johan Colding & Karl Samuelsson & Lars Marcus & Åsa Gren & Ann Legeby & Meta Berghauser Pont & Stephan Barthel, 2022. "Frontiers in Social–Ecological Urbanism," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, June.
    14. Bo Li & Yue Wang & Tong Wang & Xiaoman He & Jan K. Kazak, 2022. "Scenario Analysis for Resilient Urban Green Infrastructure," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-19, September.
    15. Nordström, Jonas & Hammarlund, Cecilia, 2021. "You win some, you lose some - compensating the loss of green space in cities taking heterogeneous population characteristics into consideration," AgriFood-WP 2021:3, Lund University, AgriFood Economics Centre.
    16. Mariusz Starzec & Sabina Kordana-Obuch & Daniel Słyś, 2023. "Assessment of the Feasibility of Implementing a Flash Flood Early Warning System in a Small Catchment Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-43, May.
    17. Peter Brokking & Ulla Mörtberg & Berit Balfors, 2021. "Municipal Practices for Integrated Planning of Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Development in the Stockholm Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-20, September.
    18. Koudoua Ferhati & Saliha Chouguiat Belmallem & Adriana Burlea-Schiopoiu, 2023. "The Role of the COVID-19 Crisis in Shaping Urban Planning for Improved Public Health: A Triangulated Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-26, February.
    19. Jonas Nordström & Cecilia Hammarlund, 2021. "You Win Some, You Lose Some: Compensating the Loss of Green Space in Cities Considering Heterogeneous Population Characteristics," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johan Colding & Matteo Giusti & Andreas Haga & Marita Wallhagen & Stephan Barthel, 2020. "Enabling Relationships with Nature in Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Regine Gerike & Caroline Koszowski & Bettina Schröter & Ralph Buehler & Paul Schepers & Johannes Weber & Rico Wittwer & Peter Jones, 2021. "Built Environment Determinants of Pedestrian Activities and Their Consideration in Urban Street Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Singh, Abhilash C. & Faghih Imani, Ahmadreza & Sivakumar, Aruna & Luna Xi, Yang & Miller, Eric J., 2024. "A joint analysis of accessibility and household trip frequencies by travel mode," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    4. Irina Tumini & Paula Villagra-Islas & Geraldine Herrmann-Lunecke, 2017. "Evaluating reconstruction effects on urban resilience: a comparison between two Chilean tsunami-prone cities," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(3), pages 1363-1392, February.
    5. Chandra, Shailesh & Jimenez, Jose & Radhakrishnan, Ramalingam, 2017. "Accessibility evaluations for nighttime walking and bicycling for low-income shift workers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 97-108.
    6. Paula Villagra & Carolina Quintana, 2017. "Disaster Governance for Community Resilience in Coastal Towns: Chilean Case Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-24, September.
    7. Koh, Puay Ping & Wong, Yiik Diew, 2013. "Comparing pedestrians’ needs and behaviours in different land use environments," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 43-50.
    8. Ao, Yibin & Zhang, Yuting & Wang, Yan & Chen, Yunfeng & Yang, Linchuan, 2020. "Influences of rural built environment on travel mode choice of rural residents: The case of rural Sichuan," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Spencer, Phoebe & Watts, Richard & Vivanco, Luis & Flynn, Brian, 2013. "The effect of environmental factors on bicycle commuters in Vermont: influences of a northern climate," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 11-17.
    10. Mohammad Paydar & Asal Kamani Fard & Marzieh Khaghani, 2020. "Pedestrian Walkways for Health in Shiraz, Iran, the Contribution of Attitudes, and Perceived Environmental Attributes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Rasha A. Moussa, 2025. "Humanization of Street Median Islands: Utilizing Pedestrian Quality Needs Indicators for Saudi Urban Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-30, February.
    12. Acheampong, Ransford A. & Siiba, Alhassan, 2018. "Examining the determinants of utility bicycling using a socio-ecological framework: An exploratory study of the Tamale Metropolis in Northern Ghana," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-10.
    13. Paul Swagemakers & Maria Dolores Dominguez Garcia & Johannes S. C. Wiskerke, 2018. "Socially-Inclusive Development and Value Creation: How a Composting Project in Galicia (Spain) ‘Hit the Rocks’," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-21, June.
    14. Yang, Zhuo & Franz, Mark L. & Zhu, Shanjiang & Mahmoudi, Jina & Nasri, Arefeh & Zhang, Lei, 2018. "Analysis of Washington, DC taxi demand using GPS and land-use data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 35-44.
    15. Lin, Jen-Jia & Wei, Yi-Hsuan, 2018. "Assessing area-wide bikeability: A grey analytic network process," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 381-396.
    16. Nasar, Jack L. & Holloman, Christopher & Abdulkarim, Dina, 2015. "Street characteristics to encourage children to walk," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 62-70.
    17. Hao Huang, 2022. "Moderating Effects of Racial Segregation on the Associations of Cardiovascular Outcomes with Walkability in Chicago Metropolitan Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-14, October.
    18. Lindsey Conrow & Siân Mooney & Elizabeth A Wentz, 2021. "The association between residential housing prices, bicycle infrastructure and ridership volumes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 787-808, March.
    19. Millward, Hugh & Spinney, Jamie & Scott, Darren, 2013. "Active-transport walking behavior: destinations, durations, distances," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 101-110.
    20. McDonald, Noreen C., 2008. "Household interactions and children’s school travel: the effect of parental work patterns on walking and biking to school," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 324-331.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:5:p:162-:d:360762. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.