Search

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.

In building a sustainable society, numerous ecosystem services have shown to play important roles for the benefit of urban residents. The distinct concept of Urban Ecosystem Services (UES) to accentuate and enhance the value of urban ecosystems has been proposed, primarily in research, with implementation in practice still at an early stage. This study examined challenges to future implementation of the UES concept in municipal planning and management of urban green spaces. Based on interviews in six Swedish municipalities, we identified four overall discourses challenging implementation of UES in municipal practice. These included (i) a need to prioritize UES in municipal planning in order to address the contemporary challenges of e.g., urbanization and biodiversity loss. This in turn creates (ii) a need for increased holistic thinking within the municipal organization, based on (iii) further documentation and standards, which should help (iv) initiate organizational transition and cross-sectorial approaches. These discourses provide interrelated challenges that could also act as opportunities for scientists and practitioners collaborations to advance integration of UES into planning and management, thereby increasing the sustainability of urban environments. This work provides a starting point for introduction of the UES concept into municipal planning.

Impact assessment is a key step in mainstreaming urban nature-based solutions (NBS). Yet, it remains unclear if and how assessment frameworks influence urban planning, design and management. We contend that the potential of current NBS assessment frameworks is not fully exploited due to: (1) limited contextualisation of monitoring and assessment to place-specific contexts and (2) the depoliticisation of co-production. To address this, we present a practical five-step action framework to guide inclusive participation across different stages of monitoring and assessment of urban NBS, including indicator selection. Unlike previous approaches, applying selection criteria at the level of individual indicators, we also use criteria at the aggregate level of the indicator set. We conclude that participatory assessment contributes to mainstreaming urban NBS for sustainable and just cities, provided data is contextualised to local decision-making contexts and the process is designed to amplify marginalised voices.

Due to the increasingly devastating impact of pluvial flooding on human beings’ lives and properties in cities, the use of green infrastructure to manage stormwater onsite is becoming more popular worldwide. The maintenance of green infrastructure to ensure its function has become one of the most pressing tasks facing policy makers. However, there is limited research regarding the willingness to pay the stormwater fee as a form of maintenance funding. This study utilized contingent valuation data obtained from a survey of 1101 respondents living in six pilot sponge cities in China to estimate the willingness to pay for the green infrastructure maintenance. The findings indicated that two-thirds of all respondents were willing to pay, 17% would like to pay around 6–10 RMB/month (0.95–1.59 US dollars/month), and 17.8% would like to pay more than 20 RMB/month (3.2 US dollars/month). The educational level and age of the respondents were significant determinants of the probability of willingness to pay and the amount they would like to pay. Knowledge of the concept of sponge cities was another significant influencing factor for the willingness to pay, but it did not influence the amount of payment. The findings could help policy makers make better strategies regarding the maintenance of green infrastructure and its costs.

Urban green infrastructure has been widely used to in cities to solve stormwater problems caused by extreme weather events and urbanization around the world. However, the lack of a long-term funding mechanism for performing urban green infrastructure’s functions has limited wider implementation. Factors influencing citizen attitudes and willingness to pay for urban green infrastructure vary from city to city. This study estimated the public’s willingness to pay for urban green infrastructure, as well as compared the selected influencing factors of willingness to pay in different Chinese pilot sponge cities. The results show that 60% to 75% of all respondents in the cities were willing to support the implementation of urban green infrastructure in sponge cities, with those most willing to pay around 0–5 RMB/month (0–0.72 USD/month). The respondents’ educational level was a significant influencing factor for their willingness to pay in all six cities, but age, gender and family monthly income correlated differently with respondents’ willingness to pay in different cities. Previous knowledge of the sponge city concept and sponge city construction in the community were not significantly correlated with residents’ willingness to pay. We conclude that local governments in China need to provide more information to the general public about the multiple ecosystem services, e.g., educational and recreational benefits, that urban green infrastructure can provide. In doing so, it will help a shift to urban green infrastructure as the solution to dealing with urban stormwater problems.

This paper reports on how Nordic practise relates to, and perceives contemporary challenges to urban open space management. The study used a case study approach, via interviews. The studied Nordic cities experience the effects of densification in inner city areas. This is often resulting in higher pressure on existing urban open spaces, but also generating new spaces which tend to be small and fragmented, not meeting the many wishes and demands asked for by the diverse user groups. While budgets are sufficiently allocated in new development projects, it is a challenge to withstand the maintenance budgets, forcing managers to prioritise. Due to primary political interest in inner city areas, there is a risk of managers not prioritising the more peripheral areas, from where resources are often transferred to the newly developed areas. This creates a new type of urban nature, primarily in the urban peripheral areas, with increased amounts of biodiversity and higher amounts of multi-functionality, compared to the smaller and more intensively programmed inner-city areas. Urban open space managers are relying on the existing municipal planning tools, and to varying degrees act strategically in terms of developing own sector oriented plans and strategies.

Suites of concepts and approaches have been launched during recent years to promote urban nature and greener cities. However, it is doubtable whether tinkering within the current economic and political system can provide adequate solutions. Nature-based Solutions can be seen as a new conceptual approach to the human-ecological connection, and as an outcome of an evolutionary development of socio-ecological concepts. In this Communication, we argue for drawing upinspiration by natureas an outset for the development of more sustainable and inclusive cities, balancing anthropocentric and ecocentric values and acknowledging the importance of the social and governance dimensions in a more balanced socio-ecological perspective. We call this approach Nature-based Thinking.

This chapter focuses on maintenance as the operational part of managing urban open spaces (UOS). Maintenance differs according to the characteristics of specific UOS but is also dependent on the organisation responsible. Maintenance is organised under different governance arrangements, among which state-, market- and community-centred models are described. Maintenance is typically described using standards and monitored using a logic encompassing resources, activities, results and effects. The chapter provides arguments for holistic and inclusive approaches in the future organisation of UOS maintenance operations. This chapter focuses on maintenance as the operational part of managing urban open spaces (UOS). Maintenance differs according to the characteristics of specific UOS but is also dependent on the organisation responsible. The chapter provides arguments for holistic and inclusive approaches in the future organisation of UOS maintenance operations. Specialised departments within landowning organisations, such as local governments, housing companies or cemetery organisations, typically conduct UOS maintenance routines. The state-centred, unified organisation is characterised by hierarchical and centralised organisation of responsibilities, where managers can intervene directly in maintenance operations. A variation of the state- centred hierarchical model is an organisation in which maintenance responsibilities are divided between a ‘purchaser’ and a ‘provider’ within the same department. A variation of the market-centred organisational approach involves the engagement of users in actual maintenance routines and can thus be denoted a community-centred model. The organisation of UOS maintenance has been described as being state, market or community oriented.

This introductory chapter sets the background to urban open space (UOS) governance and management, including historical aspects, the responsibilities of local governments and the development of UOS governance and management in theory and practice, starting with emphasis on Western Europe. It also shows how the practices of UOS governance and management relate to current trends and global challenges that require action at local level, emphasising the need to deepen and implement knowledge of UOS governance and management in both practice and education.

This chapter sums up the main traits described in previous chapters and presents some reflections on the future of urban open space (UOS) governance and management. These touch upon related societal needs and challenges, as well as other starting points for the focus on UOS and its framing, relations and values. Some solutions to contemporary challenges are suggested and ways forward for the practices of UOS governance and management are sketched out.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the starting conditions of green resource branding in Hong Kong and Copenhagen. The study is based on the application of the Green Brand Hexagon (GBH) that measures multi-dimensional attributes of a green resource brand. Two surveys were conducted in Hong Kong (n = 395) and Copenhagen (n = 217), sampling inbound visitors. The results show that visitors in Hong Kong tend to believe that green brand attributes are connected to the economic benefits of a greener urban environment, while the green aspects related to international status and public policies are relatively stronger in Copenhagen. Hong Kong has a square green resource brand structure that combines interconnected green resource attributes, whereas Copenhagen keeps a hexagonal structure with more dimensions but a simpler composition in each dimension.

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...

Conventional piped drainage systems are currently being challenged by climate change and urbanization, leading to pluvial flooding, with negative consequences for people's properties and lives. Sustainable stormwater management has been suggested as an alternative, but implementation of its infrastructures is often limited to demonstration zones. Governance factors are among the main reasons for the slow pace. A literature review analyzing 44 peer-reviewed papers was conducted to examine the challenges from a governance perspective. The challenges identified were summarized based on actors, resources, rules of the game, and discourses. Challenges such as unclear leadership and responsibilities, lack of funding, lack of cost data on sustainable stormwater management solutions, lack of space and knowledge, lack of uniform guidelines, and lack of stakeholder participation were found to be the most prominent reasons. Suggested solutions to overcoming these challenges include e.g., researchers acting as knowledge brokers, the involvement of social capital among local stakeholders, re-using vacant land, establishing uniform guidelines, and increasing market incentives to engage stakeholders. The governance structures of stormwater management were categorized as hierarchical, closed and open co-governance arrangements, while open co-governance arrangement was suggested as a useful governance structure. The difference is that the latter structure engages stakeholders, which is of benefits to increased sustainable stormwater management implementation. More research on social-economical aspects is suggested. These findings can improve understanding among decision makers and other relevant actors of challenges related to implementing sustainable stormwater management as a primary solution to the current climate and urbanization challenges.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly applied to guide the design of resilient landscapes and cities to enable them to reach economic development goals with beneficial outcomes for the environment and society. The NBS concept is closely related to other concepts including sustainability, resilience, ecosystem services, coupled human and environment, and green (blue) infrastructure; however, NBS represent a more efficient and cost-effective approach to development than traditional approaches. The European Commission is actively engaged in investing in NBS as a driver in developing ecosystem services-based approaches throughout Europe and the world. The pool of knowledge and expertise presented in this Special Issue of Environmental Research highlights the applications of NBS as 'living' and adaptable tools to boost the capacity of landscapes and cities to face today's critical environmental, economic and societal challenges. Based on the literature and papers of this Special Issue, we propose five specific challenges for the future of NBS.

Urban trees are an essential component of urban ecosystems, and management of this resource constitutes an essential element of urban open space management. However, municipal tree inventories in Sweden and elsewhere have received limited attention. It is unknown how common municipal tree inventories are in Sweden, factors governing whether a municipality has an inventory and what the inventories are used for. This study therefore sought to: Create an overview of the state of Swedish municipal tree inventories and determine how municipality size, green space budget and management organisation affect the presence and scope of municipal tree inventories. The research questions examined were: What is the current state of Swedish municipal tree inventories? and what affects the status of these municipal tree inventories? A survey with questions related to strategic and operational perspectives of municipal tree inventories, e.g. how they are conducted and used, together with questions relating to budget and potential use of consultants, was sent to all 290 Swedish municipalities. The response rate was 55.5%. The main findings were that municipality size affects whether a municipality has an urban tree inventory and that the municipal organisation form affects how inventories are used. The existence of an inventory also increased the probability of the municipality having a tree management plan. Based on these results we recommend further research related to strategic management perspectives of tree inventories.

This study has initiated the first stages of assessing the current state of Swedish parks through the use of a comprehensive survey sent to all Swedish park managers during the spring of 2016. The aim was to review the state of the Swedish public parks and undertake an assessment and analysis of the key issues and challenges that public parks in Sweden are currently facing. The Park Managers Survey was carried out as an online questionnaire sent to all local community (municipal) park managers and park departments in Sweden. The survey addressed issues of finance and resourcing; the quantity and quality of parks being managed; organizational arrangements for maintenance; information on park visitors and volunteers; and, issues of strategic policy making. The Swedish municipal green space managers regard the current quality of their green spaces to be fine and budgets for upkeep sufficient, just as they look optimistically into the nearest future. Their nearest future does not seem to have focus on voluntary support and alliances with local stakeholders in relation to the actual maintenance of green spaces. Both these trends contradict their UK counterparts. Swedish managers seem to be building a strong organization internally, and do not expect to increase the current use of private contractors. In general, we conclude that Swedish green space managers look optimistically to the nearest future.

This paper argues that adopting a stakeholder approach to the study of contracting outcomes produces more rich and rounded representations of the realities of the contracting out of public services. We revisit the research on contracting outcomes, highlighting the public manager perspective as key for gaining deeper, more detailed insights. The public manager perspective is explored in an inductive analysis of answers to open-ended survey questions collected from public managers with contracting experience within the context of municipal park management in Scandinavia. The emerging managerial perspective is summarized in a best-case, worst-case and complex-case scenario highlighting the mix, complexities and trade-offs in a composite set of contracting outcomes. The nature of contracting outcomes as complex and composite rather than unidimensional and clear-cut is one key finding. Furthermore, the importance of some specific outcomes (e.g. learning) complements existing research themes. Our findings sustain the initial argument, demonstrating how the stakeholder approach can produce new insights. A key implication is that future research can benefit from assessing contracting outcomes by providing voice to multiple stakeholders.

This chapter draws on insights from four case studies on how municipalities work with marketization in combination with survey data for illustrating and discussing a number of general lessons for marketization theory and policies. The discussions highlight: a) the role of organizational learning and incremental change in the implementation of contracting; b) the challenges of balancing needs for ensuring competition for contracts with the needs for ensuring contractual collaboration and effective contract management; c) the economic difficulties of municipal owned corporations operating within competitive environments; d) the widespread use of ‘corporate-like’ features for organizing in-house service provisions; and e) the future scope and limitations for developing contracting models within local park and road services. This chapter draws on insights from four case studies on how municipalities work with marketization in combination with survey data for illustrating and discussing a number of general lessons for marketization theory and policies. The discussions highlight: (a) the role of organizational learning and incremental change in the implementation of contracting; (b) the challenges of balancing needs for ensuring competition for contracts with the needs for ensuring contractual collaboration and effective contract management; (c) the economic difficulties of municipal owned corporations operating within competitive environments; (d) the widespread use of ‘corporate-like’ features for organizing in-house service provisions; and (e) the future scope and limitations for developing contracting models within local park and road services.

In Sweden, managerial and organizational reforms of municipal park and road departments were initiated systematically in the 1980s. This chapter discloses a unique approach to contracting park and road services within a Scandinavian context in a case study in Täby municipality. The approach included a long-term public-private partnership, embedded the contract in a policy framework for park services and formed part of a larger strategy to make Täby municipality an attractive place in which to live within the overall metropolitan area in Stockholm. The Täby case reflects a strategic and collaborative approach to contracting and illuminates practical experiences with such approaches, but also represents a particular approach to collaboration focusing only on the relationship between purchaser and service provider and excluding any active involvement of users and citizens. An analysis of the process of a contract renewal contributes also to the understanding of how this unique contract develops over time. In Sweden, managerial and organisational reforms of municipal park and road departments were initiated systematically in the 1980s. This chapter discloses a unique approach to contracting park and road services within a Scandinavian context in a case study in Täby Municipality. The approach included a long-term public–private partnership, embedded the contract in a policy framework for park services and formed part of a larger strategy to make Täby Municipality an attractive place in which to live within the overall metropolitan area in Stockholm. The Täby case reflects a strategic and collaborative approach to contracting and illuminates practical experiences with such approaches, but also represents an approach to collaboration focusing only on the relationship between purchaser and service provider and excluding any active involvement of users and citizens. An analysis of the process of a contract renewal contributes also to the understanding of how this unique contract develops over time.

This chapter introduces and defines central terms needed to understand and discuss contemporary urban open space (UOS) governance and management. It discusses how governance and management already are, and can increasingly become, related to each other in practice. It describes theoretical models, including ‘strategic management’ and the ‘combined governance and management model’. It also provides examples illustrating self-governance, open co-governance and closed co-governance, which are useful to the understanding and development of UOS governance and management. Finally, it contextualises the combined approach to governance and management as a way to promote strategic and inclusive development, responding to current crisis and trends, which increase pressure on UOS.

Urban park management is key for urban green spaces to achieve their functions of ecosystem services and sustainability. While the complex management-user relationship is often a challenge for user conflicts and resource depletion in urban parks nowadays, park managers have also had changing management expectations and perceptions over the years. To understand the trend of management held by urban park managers and the changing importance and performance of different park resources and characteristics, it is essential to investigate park managers’ perceptions regarding areas of their concern. Specifically, these areas can be represented by indicators that allow park managers to consider selecting, applying, measuring and monitoring park conditions periodically.This paper presents a longitudinal study on the perceptions of urban park managers in Hong Kong through a comparison of their importance and the performance ratings of selected indicators, which captured findings from two previous studies in 2004 and 2012, respectively. With an updated list of indicators from literature review and a modified Delphi screening process by park managers, academics and park users reported in a previous study, the refined indicator items were presented to park managers with a structured questionnaire-based survey in each round of opinion collection and ratings. The results show that urban park management in Hong Kong has emphasized resource and environmental dimensions such as physical features and hardware facilities in parks. Over the years, urban park managers have possessed a clear set of management objectives to enhance the park environment, landscaping and other physical conditions, but are confined to these controllable or manageable tasks within their park’s jurisdiction. Park managers have found it increasingly difficult to handle complaints, or to engage park users and surrounding communities. It is recommended that urban park authorities should break through their administrative nature and encourage more public and community engagement with urban park settings and management. In the case of Hong Kong’s urban parks, the dominant operative management approach is largely similar to the major constraint of urban parks worldwide. It is strongly advised that more public and community engagement should be encouraged to add more elements such as art and creativity, smart recreation and innovative design to urban park settings and management. This involves a gradual administrative breakthrough especially in the apparent silo form of park management and operation in Hong Kong. Subscribe to JPRA

Relations between the public sector and the market have a long history in Sweden. The chapter’s opening section discusses relations between public and private governance at the national level across the past four decades in Sweden. Next, the discussion is narrowed to the municipal park and road sectors of the local municipalities, as the early marketization reforms were initiated there. In the closing section several lessons are discussed. First, the actual selling-off of public companies on the open market primarily relates to the national level, while corporatization and market imitation have been increasingly common features of the local administrative level. Second, in local government discussions of management form characterized the early period, while outcome and quality control dominated in later years. Third, contracting-out has taken place due to procurement regulations. For the local road sector, the level of external contracting has been roughly the same throughout the period, while for the park sector we found an increase from 3% in 1987 to 28% in 2015. This can be interpreted as the park sector imitating the road sector, which had been practicing external contracting for decades.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the extent of, rationales for and outcomes of contracting out in the local road and park sectors in Norway. For understanding the use of contracting out in local governments, it highlights the relevance of the capability perspective in organisational literature as an alternative to the standard efficiency perspective.Design/methodology/approach– The paper draws on four expert interviews and survey data gathered from park and road managers in Norwegian municipalities in 2015.Findings– The study suggests that Norwegian municipalities primarily contract out park and road maintenance services when they do not have the capability to perform these services themselves. Cost concerns are also highlighted but of less importance. Moreover, lack of competition renders the use of contracting out as a potentially costly and less satisfying arrangement for organising service delivery.Research limitations/implications– While the scope is limited to one country, Norway, future research may benefit from the theoretical perspectives, which have been used.Practical implications– Policy guidelines should support a flexible use of various arrangements for service provision.Originality/value– The dominating view among proponents of marketisation in the public sector suggests that contracting out to private contractors is undertaken to enhance economic efficiency compared to keeping service production in-house. This study suggests that this is not always the case – even in “most likely” sectors such as park and road maintenance.

Cities worldwide are increasingly using green infrastructure to mitigate challenges related to stormwater, in an approach regarded as sustainable stormwater management (SSM). Various governance factors have been identified as one of the major barriers to SSM implementation. In this study, we examined specific governance factors influencing local SSM implementation in four case cities in Sweden and China. Based on systems thinking, we first developed a general causal loop diagram (SSM-CLD) illustrating the interrelations between previously identified influencing governance factors in SSM. We then used this general SSM-CLD as a framework to conduct and analyze 23 semi-structured interviews with local government officers in the four case cities. Based on the analysis, we summarized the most frequently mentioned governance factors and created one SSM-CLD for each case city. We then examined the main differences between the local SSM-CLDs and the general SSM-CLD, and the differences between the Chinese and Swedish case cities. The results revealed that, in the two Chinese case cities, the role of national policy in setting local leaders' priorities, the strong organizational set-up, and planning instruments are significant for SSM implementation. In the two Swedish case cities, public awareness, local government politicians’ priorities, and trust in SSM performance are important for SSM implementation. Acquiring funding for long-term maintenance of SSM was identified as a common challenge in all four cities studied. These results provide a better understanding and potential lessons for other cities on how governance factors influence SSM.

The Sponge Cities initiative in China is frequently described as a shift from using conventional grey infrastructure to a sustainable stormwater management (SSM) approach. However, it has been noted that Sponge City implementation includes conventional grey infrastructure too. Using the Sponge Cities initiative in China as a case, we examined how a prominent national policy is interpreted and implemented locally. We analysed national policy documents and conducted interviews with local government officials within three case cities. We found that in national policy documents, the Sponge City concept is related to the concept of low impact development, but that in implementation locally, conventional grey infrastructure still plays a significant role. Lack of space and lack of documented efficiency of green infrastructure were the most frequently mentioned reasons for this. Other challenges hindering its implementation were prioritization of quantifiable objectives within a short time-frame and lack of knowledge on SSM. Without sufficient resources (primarily space, knowledge and time), full implementation of the national Sponge City policy would be limited. In future efforts, finding the optimal combination of conventional and SSM solutions, viewing SSM and its management from a long-term perspective and promoting the understanding of SSM could help increase its implementation.

This study establishes a baseline for green space management in Norwegian municipalities. The aim of a comprehensive survey sent to all Norwegian municipalities in 2017, was to describe green space management and compare municipal differences in terms of place-keeping. Place-keeping, the responsive long-term management of public spaces, is used as an analytical framework to characterise the factors that influence Norwegian municipal green space management. The survey assessed place-keeping in terms of policies and strategies, funding, evaluations, management and maintenance as well as partnerships. Although Norwegian green space managers expect budgets to remain stable, they foresee an increase in tasks, more green spaces to manage and more visitors. To maintain the quality of green spaces, managers face difficulties such as incalculable financial challenges and a lack of techniques for evaluating and measuring the quality of green space. Norwegian green space management seems to be largely operational in nature, with limited focus on a tactical level. This is reinforced by a lack of municipal strategies for managing green spaces, potentially based on tactical and operational expertise. Only one in three managers reported having a strategy to maintain green spaces, despite the fact that in the survey, the quality of green spaces was rated more highly when a strategy was in place. Strategic management is suggested as a possible way to ensure quality green space. Individual managers appear to play a key role in the initiation of green space strategies, in reaching out to the political–administrative interface for acquiring sufficient funding, and to facilitate long-term place-keeping partnerships.

Individual perceptions of green space quality are essential when a user considers engaging in activities. This national-scale study provides insights into Norwegians&rsquo, quality perceptions of municipal green space, visit frequency and motivations for engaging in different activities. We applied regression analysis to investigate how various factors affect the outcome variables, quality perceptions and visit frequency from a sample of the Norwegian adult population. Results reveal that Norwegians perceive their green spaces as having good quality, and higher quality perceptions have a positive influence on green space visits. Half of the respondents visited green spaces out of intrinsic motives in high-quality environments providing fresh air, experiences of nature and quietness. It is essential, however, to take into account that less reported activity mirrors groups of respondents who least often visit green spaces.

‘Nature-based ‑solutions’ (NbS) aim to use nature in tackling challenges such as climate change, food security, water resources, or disaster risk management. The concept has been adopted by the European Commission in its research programme Horizon 2020 to promote its uptake in urban areas and establish Europe as a world leader of NbS. However, the concept has been defined vaguely. Moreover, its relationships with already existing concepts and approaches to enhance nature and its benefits in urban areas require clarification.

Udgivelsesdato: 2010-Jun AIMS: To investigate the associations between green space and health, health-related quality of life and stress, respectively. METHODS: Data were derived from the 2005 Danish Health Interview Survey and are based on a region-stratified random sample of 21,832 adults. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews followed by a self-administered questionnaire, including the SF-36, which measures eight dimensions of health and the Perceived Stress Scale, which measures self-reported stress. A total of 11,238 respondents completed the interview and returned the questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the association between distance to green space and self-perceived stress. RESULTS: Danes living more than 1 km away from the nearest green space report poorer health and health-related quality of life, i.e. lower mean scores on all eight SF-36 dimensions of health than respondents living closer. Respondents living more than 1 km away from a green space have 1.42 higher odds of experiencing stress than do respondents living less than 300 m from a green space. Respondents not reporting stress are more likely to visit a green space than are respondents reporting stress. Reasons for visiting green spaces differ significantly depending on whether or not respondents experience stress. Respondents reporting stress are likely to use green spaces to reduce stress. CONCLUSIONS: An association between distance to a green space and health and health-related quality of life was found. Further, the results indicate awareness among Danes that green spaces may be of importance in managing stress and that green spaces may play an important role as health-promoting environments.

Increasing the use of urban green space has appeared on the political agenda, primarily because increased use is expected to improve the health and well-being of the urban population. Green space is contributing to restoring mental fatigue, serving as a resource for physical activity, reducing mortality and reducing the level of stress. However, knowledge and experience on how to implement this agenda are scarce. In this paper, we use a socio-ecological model as framework when studying influences on the use of respondents’ nearest urban green space in the Danish city of Odense. Data were obtained from a survey sent to 2500 randomly selected adult residents within the central part of the city. We tested the relative importance of different factors on the frequency of use of the nearest urban green space by using a multivariate logistic regression model. The results show that almost half of the respondents did not use their nearest green space the most. Whether or not respondent used their nearest green space most depends primarily on area size, distance to the area and factors that are likely to express a reduced mobility; old age, young children and poor health. If the nearest urban green space also is the most used green space, having a dog is the only factor that significantly increases the frequency of use. Further research is needed to determine what it is that makes people use an area more, if the basic conditions of a reasonable size (>5 ha) within a reasonable distance (

Studies have shown that outdoor environments lend themselves to particular types of learning at the same time promoting physical activity and well-being of children. In the past decade, Danish public and private schools have introduced curriculum-based outdoor learning as a weekly or bi-weekly ‘outdoor school’ day for children aged 7–16 – called udeskole in Danish. Based on a national population survey of Danish schools (N=2082), information on the extent of udeskole activities, dissemination of udeskole, and barriers to teaching out-of-doors are presented. Findings show that 28% of the responding schools practice udeskole across the country. Furthermore, another 15% are planning to start udeskole within the next three years. It is argued that udeskole plays an increasing and important role in the Danish school system and constitutes a potential for green space management. As potentially key actors, we suggest that green space planners and managers regard udeskole as an important concept in the future development of public green space, and consider school teachers and pupils as an important contemporary and future user group.

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.

Park authorities in the Nordic countries were studied for the first time in a combined survey. Major similarities were found between countries, but also interesting differences. These differences are believed to be essential in understanding how to share experiences between the countries. The results indicate the need for strategic green space management (SGSM), which operates on three levels within the organisation; operations, tactics, and policies. A theoretical description of SGSM is presented for future consideration and inspiration in practice as well as in research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent contracting out practices has led to perceived resource cuts in the Swedish park and road sectors. Design/methodology/approach – E-survey sent to managers in park and technical departments in the municipalities. Response rate: 39.7 percent. Findings – Decreased costs were found in 25 percent of the responding road departments, in 20 percent of park departments. 49 percent of the road departments responded “no change” or “increase” (48 percent parks). Findings indicate that tendering practices tend to be most commonly centered in Swedish municipalities situated in the three metropolitan regions (Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö with suburbs), while such practices are not as common in mid-sized and rural municipalities. In addition, contracting out practices correspond with higher per capita budgets, not with smaller. Research limitations/implications – The research implications are that contracting out tend to occur “where the resources are,” while poorer municipalities either have to contract even if it is more expensive, or, contracting out is combined with other provision models. The limitation of the data are that it based on managers’ perceptions, while hard data have been impossible to map. Practical implications – The uniform assumption that contracting out saves public resources need to be conditioned with context, and initial resources at hand. Contracting out is one option among several possible strategies, especially for mid-sized and smaller municipalities with small budgets. Social implications – The rationalities of local government procurements are bounded by the local market situations and local the budget capacities. Originality/value – This is the first study of manager’s perceptions in the Swedish park and road contexts.

Summary In order to meet the demands of modern, information-based society, higher education in natural resource management needs to be transformed. Enhanced mobility of students and staff, multi- and transdisciplinary approaches, as well as innovative educational approaches are called for. Moreover, the urban component needs to be better incorporated, as exemplified by the emerging field of urban forestry. This paper relates to the developments in higher education within the context of education on urban forests and urban trees in Europe. Presented here are the main findings of a comparative European study led by the Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute within the framework of the EU-funded COST Action E12 ‘Urban Forests and Trees’. In order to obtain an overview of the status of higher education on urban forestry in Europe, 180 educational institutions in 28 countries were sent a questionnaire. Results show that urban forestry is an expanding element of European education, as urban elements are becoming incorporated in higher education on natural resources. Urban forestry is primarily taught as a part of educational programmes in related disciplines rather than at a more integrative level, dealing with all elements of urban green structures. Student numbers in urban forestry programmes and courses are still relatively small. High staff-to-student ratios seem to facilitate the use of a wide range of educational approaches and methods. Higher education in urban forestry involves a broad range of disciplines and tries to find ways of incorporating natural and social science approaches. Together with the general trend towards internationalization in education, this calls for better co-operation between educational institutions, nationally and internationally.

A working group within the European Union funded COST Action E12, “Urban Forests and Trees”, carried out a survey between 1999 and 2001 to study current tree establishment practice in European towns and cities. An extensive questionnaire requesting information on the urban area, selection of tree species, establishment and aftercare practices and the main damaging factors was sent to tree professionals in urban areas in each of 17 countries. Indicators such as the relationship between the urban population and the number of street trees were used to compare urban areas. While most central European cities have a ratio of 50–80 street trees per 1000 inhabitants, the tree density was as low as 20 street trees per 1000 inhabitants for Nice. Often only a few species are planted and this may give cause for concern, since species diversity is considered an important factor in increasing the resilience of the urban tree population to abiotic and biotic stresses. The planting of larger street trees of 20–30 cm circumference, usually with hessian-wrapped rootballs, is becoming increasingly common practice. However, some countries report the use of mostly bare-rooted stock of much smaller trees (less than 12 cm circumference). Establishment costs for street trees range from less than 200 Euro to over 1500 Euro each. Poor site conditions, and impacts such as utility trenching are considered to be major restrictions to healthy tree life. Vandalism affects up to 30% of newly planted street trees in some towns and cities. Overall, the survey reveals large differences in tree establishment and management practices among European cities. There is a need to provide urban tree managers with guidance on good practice for tree selection and establishment based on empirical information. The survey was a first step towards collecting the necessary urban forest information from across Europe.

Interference between trees and sewer systems is likely to occur in old systems and in cracked pipes. Factors that contribute to damage include old pipes with joints, shallow pipes, small-dimension pipes, and fast-growing tree species. Because roots are reported to cause >50% of all sewer blockages, costs associated with root removal from sewers is substantial. In smaller-dimension pipes, root removal every year or every other year is common. Major resources are put into replacement and renewal of existing pipes, which is sometimes accelerated because of root intrusion. Collapse repair costs are the most expensive and repair costs are greater than new construction. Major breaks and stoppages seem to occur more frequently in older sewer systems, and cost associated with root removal may be one-sixth the cost of pipe replacement/renewal due to roots. Therefore, it seems worthwhile to carry out preventative maintenance of the older parts of the sewer system.

Literature relevant to tree root and urban infrastructure conflicts is reviewed. Although tree roots can conflict with many infrastructure elements, sidewalk and curb conflicts are the focus of this review. Construction protocols, urban soils, root growth, and causal factors (soil conditions, limited planting space, tree size, variation in root architecture, management practices, and construction materials) are discussed. Because costs related to sidewalk and curb damage are substantial, a review of research addressing repair, mitigation, prevention, and litigation costs is included. Finally, future research needs are discussed. Potential for conflicts between trees and sidewalks/curbs is high when one or more of these factors are present: tree species that are large at maturity, fast growing trees, trees planted in restricted soil volumes, shallow top soil (hard-pan underneath top-soil), shallow foundations underneath the sidewalk (limited or no base materials), shallow irrigation, distances between the tree and sidewalk of less than 2.0–3.0 m., trees greater than 15 to 20 years old. The results of this survey indicate that cities are spending substantial sums of money to address conflicts between street tree roots and infrastructure. It can be inferred that most of these expenditures are spent dealing with problems that already exist. However, this raises the question: How much is being spent now to ensure that conflicts are minimized in the future? Future research should concentrate on plant factors, site design, and construction of sidewalks and curbs. Also, more knowledge is needed about interactions between root growth and management techniques, such as pruning and irrigation. Finally, there is need for studies that will assist policy-makers to efficiently allocate funds among repair, mitigation, prevention, and legal remedies.