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Green (and blue) spaces receive attention as important components of cities that can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, support biodiversity and improve public health. Green space planning aims to transform cities towards urban sustainability and resilience. In a longitudinal study, representatives from eleven European municipalities that had previously been interviewed in 2014 were re-interviewed in 2020–2021 on changes in urban greening and related practices. The interviewees reported mainly advancements in dealing with ecological issues, such as new plans, strategies, regulations or funding programmes for climate adaptation or biodiversity support, as well as some progress in co-governance with non-governmental stakeholders. Promising developments include breaking professional silos by creating new units that can better deal with complex urban issues. In a few cases, high-level local politicians induced profound changes. These changes stimulated the development of new planning and governance cultures, resulting in more co-creation of urban green spaces. However, from a transformation studies perspective, incremental strategies dominate, and even when municipal representatives are aware that substantive changes are needed, they often lack the means to act. For more radical system change, significant extra efforts are needed.

The concept and practice of urban open space (UOS) management is becoming increasingly influenced by varying governance arrangements for participatory co-development. These varying arrangements gen...

In the past decade, an increasing number of Danish public, private and independent schools have introduced regular compulsory education outside the classroom for children aged 7–16 as a weekly or biweekly ‘outdoor school’ day – known in Danish as udeskole. An analysis of this form of outdoor education, its impacts and provision has been undertaken. Findings suggest that udeskole can add value to normal classroom teaching especially with regards to health, social and well-being perspectives. Future recommendations include collaborative strategies between researchers, local government sectors, and educational and landscape planners and managers to improve the impact and provision of udeskole in the Danish school system. Further, it is important to understand this grassroots movement of devoted teachers from both an educational and green management perspective.

Summary COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) is a framework for the co-ordination of national research, at the European level. The new Action is called ‘Urban Forests and Trees’ and has been formulated by the Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute. This Action offers researchers from all over Europe a unique opportunity to meet, exchange ideas and experience, and to co-ordinate future research efforts on urban forests and urban trees.