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A social–ecological assessment of vacant lots in New York City
... To accurately capture the actual conditions of vacant parcels, field observation is typically required when assessing site characteristics. Researchers' analysis of the results also enables them to determine how land characteristics, neighbourhood characteristics, and land cover relate to one another [33]. Additionally, it is advantageous to involve communities in this process because they may have useful local knowledge that the researchers are unaware of. ...
... In this regard, several studies have highlighted the use of GIS applications in mapping and assessing vacant land. Kremer et al. [33] used this approach in a land cover classification study to identify vacant parcels' social and ecological characteristics in New York City. Similarly, McPhearson et al. [2] developed an assessment tool to capture vacant parcel heterogeneity. ...
... To accurately capture the actual conditions of vacant parcels, field observation is typically required when assessing site characteristics. Researchers' analysis of the results also enables them to determine how land characteristics, neighbourhood characteristics, and land cover relate to one another [33]. Additionally, it is advantageous to involve communities in this process because they may have A typology of vacant land can depict patterns and ecological characteristics that help identify potential issues and select the best kind of greening strategy. ...
Urban vacant land availability offers revitalisation opportunities in the form of improving ecological functions. However, less is known about the available planning tools with which to mobilise this effort. Hence, this systematic review adopts ecological perspectives to explore planning tools to revitalise urban vacant land. The search strategy employs Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to track original research on vacant urban land from selected electronic databases. The search revealed thirty-six studies focusing on substance-oriented planning tools (indicator systems, Geographic Information System (GIS), models/simulations, field surveys, and experiments) and process-oriented tools (questionnaire surveys, the Delphi method, focus groups, and interviews). This review suggests that future studies adopt hybrid planning tools that combine the essence of substance- and process-oriented tools. Furthermore, as a framework, it recommends taking a stepwise approach at various planning stages to revive vacant land. Additional studies from the perspective of growing cities are necessary to provide insights into urban vacant land revitalisation planning, considering the competing objectives of economic prosperity and green space preservation.
... Vacant lots in cities include unused land that has remained free of structures, land with abandoned or partially destroyed structures (Bowman and Pagano, 2000), or unused land covered with spontaneous vegetation (Newman et al., 2018). They are usually concentrated in low-income neighborhoods (Anderson and Minor, 2017;Kremer et al., 2013), however, they may also be present in shrinking city centers (Bontje, 2004;Rink and Siemund, 2016). Their perception, defined as an opinion, attitude, or impression (Botzat et al., 2016;Mathey et al., 2018) is usually negative (Hollander et al., 2009;Kim, 2016), being associated with issues of health, increased fire hazards risks, and higher incidences of crime and illegal activities (e.g., drug use), lowering community well-being, and resulting in real estate price decreases (Garvin et al., properly managed vacant lots that support recreation, and whose aesthetic value and biological diversity prove valuable for local communities' health and well-being (Anderson and Minor, 2017;Fuller et al., 2007), which may reduce local crime incidence (Branas et al., 2011;Hadavi et al., 2021), or that become a catalyst for community involvement and personal attachment (Németh and Langhorst, 2014). ...
... Their perception, defined as an opinion, attitude, or impression (Botzat et al., 2016;Mathey et al., 2018) is usually negative (Hollander et al., 2009;Kim, 2016), being associated with issues of health, increased fire hazards risks, and higher incidences of crime and illegal activities (e.g., drug use), lowering community well-being, and resulting in real estate price decreases (Garvin et al., properly managed vacant lots that support recreation, and whose aesthetic value and biological diversity prove valuable for local communities' health and well-being (Anderson and Minor, 2017;Fuller et al., 2007), which may reduce local crime incidence (Branas et al., 2011;Hadavi et al., 2021), or that become a catalyst for community involvement and personal attachment (Németh and Langhorst, 2014). Concerning 'unattended sites with vegetation' (Kim et al., 2018), potential reuse solutions revolve around better-maintained green spaces, community gardens (Kremer et al., 2013;Németh and Langhorst, 2014), or infill developments (Eichhorn et al., 2021). However, limiting factors in reuse projects include insufficient time and money allocated for participatory planning or the residents' negative perceptions of vacant lots (Németh and Langhorst, 2014;Pediaditi et al., 2010). ...
... the lots primarily as a shortcut or for walking dogs. The available literature shows that vacant lots are used by those living in the area, indicating an everyday use of informal greenery (Rupprecht, 2017;Sikorska et al., 2020) and that the less educated and lower-income residents are more likely to live in the vicinity of vacant lots (e.g., Kremer et al., 2013). Moreover, due to the informal nature of vegetated vacant lots and fewer use restrictions (compared to formal parks), vacant lots are benefitting especially the socially weak and marginalized population (Rall and Haase, 2011;Rupprecht, 2017). ...
... Reinvented public space will be shared as a threshold space (Mariani and Barron 2014). Increasing urban green and open spaces indicated the potential for social and ecological types of transformation (Kremer et al. 2013). Defining the ecological and social aspects of undefined lands in the urban landscape environment was determined by Jacobs (1961), Holling (2001, Walker et al. (2006), Folke (2006), Cadenasso et al. (2007), Pickett et al. (2007), considering heterogeneous patches that have different combinations in the landscape. ...
... According to (Naghibi et al. 2020a), a large body of literature recognizes that these spaces can have negative connotations in addition to positive aspects (Franck and Stevens 2007;Gandy 2016;Kim et al. 2015;Li et al. 2018;Mahmoudi Farahani and Maller 2019;Newman et al. 2016;Zhang et al. 2019). Vacancies can be as a useful resource for local communities, economies, and the environment (Bowman and Pagano 2004;Kremer et al. 2013). As a result, there has been an increase in the transformation of informal spaces into formal ones in the landscape (Burkholder 2012;Rupprecht and Byrne 2014). ...
... Therefore, cities have created their definitions of vacant land, which differ among jurisdictions (Kremer et al. 2013). ...
Vacant spaces present affluent areas for the urban landscape. Considering these spaces from a resilience perspective is an effective strategy. This research seeks to assist decision-makers in assessing landscape resilience and drawing on landscape selection process requirements for changes. The current research investigates the review of previous studies and develops a contextual relationship-based model to analyze critical aspects through experts' opinions. The investigation approach was inspired by interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and MICMAC software. MICMAC analysis considered the direct and possible relationships of variables in the future, while the ISM technique discovered the hierarchy of these variables and their relationship with the main areas. Flexibility has the most effectiveness, while Activity has been affected by the most properties. Furthermore, even though it is significant, urban systems lose their flexibility and adaptability in the long run by focusing entirely on engineering measures.
... Concerning resilient urban landscapes, current research emphasizes that neither ecological systems nor social factors can be ignored (Crowe & Foley, 2017). Social and ecological values can be intertwined; transforming unpleasing landscape spaces into community engagement, and opportunities for increasing the resilience of social-ecological systems may emerge Kremer et al., 2013). In this regard, resilience theory presents insights into socio-ecological systems and their sustainable management . ...
... Considering vacancy as a potential socio-ecological resource (Kremer et al., 2013;Anderson & Minor, 2017), this study intends to demonstrate how intervention in urban leftover spaces could transform into socio-ecological landscapes contributing to urban resilience. Moreover, choosing the design intervention will directly affect limiting the unoccupied spaces; hence, public needs and priorities should be assessed (Palamar, 2010). ...
... The current study addressed a socio-ecological framework through the mixed methodology recognising cities as human-centered environments developed and maintained for citizens. It is suggested that by assessing vacancy, socio-ecological characteristics of neighborhoods that contain leftover spaces, landscape architects and urban planners may support resilient landscapes more effectively (Kremer et al., 2013). ...
... A principal obstacle to release the infill potential is a lack of information on amount, spatial distribution, market availability and mobilisation processes of IDPs. While some studies from the US can draw on existing inventories of tax assessor records linked to cadastral data (Kremer et al. 2013;Landis et al. 2006;Smith et al. 2017), in European countries such a database is often unavailable. In 2014, only nine European countries had comparable data on IDPs at the national level (Van Long et al. 2014). ...
... Although the aim of this study was to identify and analyse vacant lots with potential for residential infill, it must be emphasised that they are also of interest for ecological, biodiversity and climatic reasons, as well as for community benefit (Kim et al. 2018;Kremer et al. 2013;Smith et al. 2017;Bibby et al. 2020). Thus, undeveloped plots may be in some cases the better decision. ...
Infill development policies have been widely adopted as strategies to reduce urban sprawl and to promote sustainable urban transformation. However, little empirical data are available to analyse infill processes and to facilitate building activity on infill potentials. This is especially true for small-scale residential infill, which often takes place on vacant or underused lots as soft densification. To address this issue, a geospatial method is presented that enables automatic detection of vacant lots for large areas. Cadastral data are used to analyse spatio-temporal development for the period 2011–21 in a German study area, containing large cites as well as rural municipalities. The results show that every fourth vacant lot was mobilised since 2011. However, additional vacant lots emerged in rural areas as new residential development areas are not fully built-up, resulting in a net increase of vacant lots. Although the quantity of vacant lot areas in 2021 suggests a high potential for residential infill, the main development on these infill sites is expected to promote additional single-family housing rather than more dense structures. Practice relevance Automatic identification and monitoring of infill potentials and development are important both for policymaking and for local planning practitioners. For small municipalities with little financial capacities, the approach can provide an overview of their vacant lots and can serve as a basis for strategic planning decisions. For the regional or national level, a yearly monitoring schedule can be established at little cost. Although the approach proves to be robust regarding its precision and is promising for a nationwide application, the data availability for the whole of Germany is awaited and the method needs to be optimised to implement the workflow in practice.
... Barriers regarding UCGs are related to finances, external damage, space, water, soil, organizational structure, communication, interpersonal relationships, and participation [70][71][72]. In many articles, ecosystem disservices have been described as harmful consequences of ecological change or as deficient ecosystem services [73,74]. Ecosystem disservices belong mainly to four fields [73]. ...
... Finally, people's quality of life is reduced by ecosystem disservices, which in turn leads to negative emotions such as anxiety and depression [52]. Studies have pointed out that many of the barriers to the occurrence and sustainability of behavior are due to ecosystem disservices [74]. Recent studies have reported that UCGs' ecosystem disservices obstruct the development of UCGs and negatively impact gardening behavior. ...
Abstract: Urban community gardens (UCGs), greenspace cultivated and managed for vegetables by local communities, provide substantial ecosystem services (ES) and are warmly welcomed by residents. However, they also have many ecosystem disservices (EDS) and are almost always refused by the decision-makers of the government, especially in China. Better understanding the residents’ perceived ES and EDS and the impact on the behavioral intention (BI) toward UCGs is of great value to solve the conflicts between residents and the government concerning UCGs and to develop sustainable UCGs. Following the theory of planned behavior (TPB), we measured perceived ES/EDS, attitudes (ATT), perceived behavioral control (PBC), subjective norm (SN), and BI of 1142 residents in Changsha, China, and investigated their direct and indirect causal relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that: (1) ATT, PBC, and SN significantly and positively impact the BI of UCGs and together explained 54% of the variation of BI. (2) The extended TPB model with additional components of perceived ED/EDS improved the explanatory ability of the model, explaining 65% of the variance of BI. Perceived ES and perceived EDS showed significant direct positive and negative impacts on UCGs, respectively. They also indirectly impacted BI by influencing ATT, PBC, and SN. The findings of this study can extend our understanding of residents’ attitudes, behavior, and driving mechanism toward UCGs, and can help decision makers to design better policies for UCG planning and management.
... Despite that, the occurrence of urban voids is commonplace nowadays and has become an integral part of the contemporary city (Kim 2018). To inform planning and decision-making processes referring to urban land vacancy, it is crucial to construct a knowledge base about the characteristics of vacant lots, different uses they could perform and their social-ecological transformation prospectives as a result of strategic urban planning and development (Kremer et al. 2013). Pearsall et al. (2014) draw attention to three competing objectives when it comes to vacant land redevelopment alternatives -green space, commercial and residential. ...
... As assessing vacant lots in New York City, Kremer et al. (2013) have noted that by combining an assessment of actual uses, ecological characteristics and physical attributes of vacant lots, urban land vacancy issue can be addressed beneficently. They also asserted that targeting vacant lots for redevelopment into enhanced public amenities can improve neighborhood vitality and provide benefits for local residents. ...
Urban pockets, although an integral part of the urban environment, often fall into the urban vacant land category. This paper aims to point out the diversity of urban pockets through their categorization, explore the ways of urban pockets’ integration into urban green infrastructure planning, and indicate the potential achievable uses of urban pockets. Six types of urban pockets in Novi Sad (Serbia) were noted and three different yet not mutually exclusive perspectives on urban pockets’ revitalization – productive, cultural and social – were proposed. This study could serve as a basis for the integration of urban pockets into urban planning theory and planning practices and as an inspiration for urban planners, landscape architects and policy-makers to create strategies for urban pockets’ utilization.
... The existing literature provides several useful definitions and typologies of IGS that reflect their diversity and complexity (Kim, Rupprecht, & Furuya, 2018;Kremer, Hamstead, & McPhearson, 2013;Rupprecht andByrne, 2014a, 2014b). Yet, given the emerging nature of the concept, there are inconsistences in definitions, arising from different context specific assumptions of informality. ...
... As discussed in Characteristic 3, IGS fall into disrepair and abandonment due to the cessation of past landuses, no longer contributing to economic production and prosperity (de Solà-Morales, 2013;Foster, 2014). These factors tend to concentrate in lower socio-economic areas, a result of less economic pressure for redeveloping such spaces (Kremer et al., 2013;Riley, Perry et al., 2018). As with Characteristic 1, this also occurs in economically prosperous cities due to normal shifts in urban land-uses over time (Grimski & Ferber, 2001). ...
... Overall, vacant lots result in a poorer standard of living for urban communities. Thus, reclaiming vacant lots and putting them into productive is a primary concern for many communities [13]. ...
... Once greened, vacant lots may reduce certain crimes and promote some aspects of health. Furthermore Kremer [13] suggests that by assessing vacant lot uses, ecological characteristics and the social characteristics of neighborhoods in which vacant lots are located, planners may be able to more effectively address urban land vacancy while supporting urban sustainability and resilience. Automating such analysis to reduce the burden on urban planners is one of the primary motivation for the development of LotRec. ...
Vacant lots are neglected properties in a city that lead to environmental hazards and poor standard of living for the community. Thus, reclaiming vacant lots and putting them to productive use is an important consideration for many cities. Given a large number of vacant lots and resource constraints for conversion, two key questions for a city are (1) whether to convert a vacant lot or not; and (2) what to convert a vacant lot as. We seek to provide computational support to answer these questions. To this end, we identify the determinants of a vacant lot conversion and build a recommender based on those determinants. We evaluate our models on real-world vacant lot datasets from the US cities of Philadelphia,PA and Baltimore, MD. Our results indicate that our recommender yields mean F-measures of (1) 90% in predicting whether a vacant lot should be converted or not within a single city, (2) 91% in predicting what a vacant lot should be converted to, within a single city and, (3) 85% in predicting whether a vacant lot should be converted or not across two cities.
... Barriers regarding UCGs are related to finances, external damage, space, water, soil, organizational structure, communication, interpersonal relationships, and participation [70][71][72]. In many articles, ecosystem disservices have been described as harmful consequences of ecological change or as deficient ecosystem services [73,74]. Ecosystem disservices belong mainly to four fields [73]. ...
... Finally, people's quality of life is reduced by ecosystem disservices, which in turn leads to negative emotions such as anxiety and depression [52]. Studies have pointed out that many of the barriers to the occurrence and sustainability of behavior are due to ecosystem disservices [74]. Recent studies have reported that UCGs' ecosystem disservices obstruct the development of UCGs and negatively impact gardening behavior. ...
Urban community gardens (UCGs), greenspace cultivated and managed for vegetables by local communities, provide substantial ecosystem services (ES) and are warmly welcomed by residents. However, they also have many ecosystem disservices (EDS) and are almost always refused by the decision-makers of the government, especially in China. Better understanding the residents’ perceived ES and EDS and the impact on the behavioral intention (BI) toward UCGs is of great value to solve the conflicts between residents and the government concerning UCGs and to develop sustainable UCGs. Following the theory of planned behavior (TPB), we measured perceived ES/EDS, attitudes (ATT), perceived behavioral control (PBC), subjective norm (SN), and BI of 1142 residents in Changsha, China, and investigated their direct and indirect causal relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that: (1) ATT, PBC, and SN significantly and positively impact the BI of UCGs and together explained 54% of the variation of BI. (2) The extended TPB model with additional components of perceived ED/EDS improved the explanatory ability of the model, explaining 65% of the variance of BI. Perceived ES and perceived EDS showed significant direct positive and negative impacts on UCGs, respectively. They also indirectly impacted BI by influencing ATT, PBC, and SN. The findings of this study can extend our understanding of residents’ attitudes, behavior, and driving mechanism toward UCGs, and can help decision makers to design better policies for UCG planning and management.
... Haase et al. (2014) and Dubeaux and Sabot (2018), on the other hand, argued that the occurrence of underutilization was one of the most visible outcomes of depopulation. In a nutshell, housing land underutilization can be attributed to the market-driven mismatch between supply and demand both spatially and temporally (Kremer et al., 2013). To be sure, physical and institutional factors also affect underutilization of rural residential lands. ...
... We introduced seven indicators to describe parcel characters and associated family and housing features at the household level: area of parcel (AREA), shape of parcel (SHP), type of household (ToH), household population (HPOP), housing age (HA), housing structure (HS), floor area ratio (FAR) as reported in Table 1. Scholars have demonstrated that both housing area and structures of buildings matter for the welfare of dwellers (Wu et al., 2012;Kremer et al., 2013), which can thus influence the utility of housing. The household type and population also affects use of housing land in rural China through the downsizing and out-migration of family members (Zhu, 2017;Lu, 2020). ...
A rich body of literature is stressing the crucial importance of migration and market evolution on the underutilization of housing in cities. Rural housing is unique given its less mature market structure. Drawing on an empirical case of Sunan, the work reported in this paper addresses underlying mechanisms of housing land underutilization in rural China. Employing a multi-level modeling approach, results suggest that the likelihood of underutilization relates to household and village features, such as family attributes, housing/parcel characteristics, type of villages, and geographical locations. Additionally, underutilization was also closely associated with regional contexts including local economic development levels and migration patterns. Theoretically, we conceptualized rural housing land underutilization as a land use transition with villagers' awareness of policy change possibilities in the context of both rapid urbanization and rural transformation with nested hybrid results. We argue that urban-rural differences do not induce underutilization. Rather, policy-induced overbuilding of new houses and insistence on retaining uninhabited older houses combined with the tendency for villagers’ to view investments as a mechanism to retain ties to their rural hometowns drove underutilizaiton.
... Although parks are well recognized for delivering multiple ES (e.g., Zhang et al., 2018;Kim and Coseo, 2018;Toparlar et al., 2018) or preserving local biodiversity (Sarah and Zhevelev, 2007), much less is known about IGS. Emerging studies indicate that in terms of meeting residents' recreational needs, IGS can perform comparably to urban parks (Kremer et al., 2013;Rupprecht et al., 2015;Brun et al., 2018;Gawryszewska et al., 2019). Advances have been made in estimating the beneficial effects of IGS on cooling (Kim et al., 2015;Doomi et al., 2016;Herrmann et al., 2017), air purification (Kim et al., 2015), or water retention (Kim et al., 2015), as well as their role in preserving biodiversity (Lososová et al., 2011;Gardiner et al., 2013;Bonthoux et al., 2014;Anderson and Minor, 2019). ...
... While common activities, such as walking, cycling, jogging, walking the dog, or just being "in nature" can take place in any UGS (Rupprecht et al., 2015;Zwierzchowska et al., 2018), more specialized activities, such as roller-skating, playing team games, or playing with children, are constrained by the presence of proper infrastructure, and are thus limited to parks (Zwierzchowska et al., 2018). Nevertheless, in surveys of UGS, when asked about general preferences for UGS types, the participants do not show a preference for any particular UGS types (Kremer et al., 2013;Rupprecht et al., 2015;Shanahan et al., 2015;Brun et al., 2018;Gawryszewska et al., 2019) and most are satisfied with the possibility of basic activities (Zwierzchowska et al., 2018). Accessibility and diversity of structure and species become increasingly important, along with the possibility to experience nature more directly (Rupprecht et al., 2015;Zwierzchowska et al., 2018;Sikorska et al., 2019). ...
Urban green spaces have been widely recognized for their ecosystem services (ES) provisioning, but their resources are insufficient. Informal green spaces (IGS), the neglected areas whose maintenance was abandoned, can complement existing greenery, generating minimal costs for the managers. In this transdisciplinary study, we investigate the role of IGS in the ES provisioning and preserving biodiversity compared to urban parks. We conducted measurements in locations that represent IGS in two varying habitat types (upland and riparian) compared to recently established parks on the upland. We measured biophysical indicators related to ES and performed a social study to assess cultural ES. We used multivariate analysis to find the significant indicators related to ES and biodiversity and analyzed interrelations among them. We found comparable ES provisioning for dust removal, cooling benefits, water storage and biodiversity preservation in IGS and urban parks. The differences were mainly due to the canopy development stage rather than cultivation. Despite the lack of infrastructure, IGS with dense vegetation were perceived more positively than traditionally cultivated parks. We found differences in how the ES and biodiversity were interrelated, in IGS, the most important links were between regulating and supporting services, while in parks, cultural services prevailed.
... Vacant lots offer multiple refuges and feeding resources for a large variety of taxa according to the diversity of their environmental characteristics and urban surroundings and arouse growing interest in biodiversity conservation in cities (Bonthoux et al. 2014). Vacant lots represent significant areas (up to 20% of urban areas according to Kremer et al. 2013) in multiple locations in the city, downtown as well as in periurban areas, based on the particular historical and social conditions of a given city. ...
Introduction
Vacant lots are urban refuges for a large variety of taxa. These habitats present miscellaneous trajectories with diversified previous land covers. Our study aimed to characterize the urban contexts of vacant lot appearance and to assess the influences of land use legacies and current landscape contexts on vacant lot plant communities.
Material and methods
We characterized the plant communities of 179 vacant lots within two French cities. We described their urban environment through temporal and spatial urban descriptors to identify the factors of taxonomic diversity and community functional features.
Results
Urban vacant lots have a variety of prior land covers, and their plant communities are highly diverse. The relative contribution of the studied spatiotemporal scale indicates that both past and current urban descriptors influence this diversity. Plant community taxonomic diversity results from diverse land use legacies: it is lower in formerly agricultural spaces and in vacant lots that appeared in neighborhoods transformed over time for the creation of housing, suggesting the influence of land cover heterogeneity. Urban descriptors, especially the vacant lots’ age, urban context and trajectories, also influence plant communities’ functional diversity in various ways.
Conclusion
This study highlights the need to consider both spatial and temporal scales to understand urban determinants of plant communities and to provide recommendations for the integration of vacant lot dynamics into urban planning.
... Besides formally planned and designed green spaces, there is also plenty of green spaces, mostly from vacant lands or abandoned locations, that are less managed and are not registered in the urban planning system. Recent studies approached these alternative green spaces using the term informal green spaces (IGS) and showed that IGS can provide equal or even higher ES as formal urban green spaces (Robinson and Lundholm, 2012;Threlfall and Kendal, 2018;Vereecken et al., 2021); Scholars further asserted to consider IGS as the complementary green spaces that help to improve the general connectivity and accessibility of urban green spaces (Kremer et al., 2013;Kim et al., 2018), and in this way, enhancing the flexibility and resilience of urban green infrastructure. ...
Informal green spaces (IGS) such as overgrown vacant lots and urban brownfields constitute a considerable amount of green resources in the city. Given that the increasingly competitive land use of the urban area, enhancing the potential ecosystem services (ES) of IGS through design and management practices is of critical importance. This literature review paper provides an overview of ES delivered by urban IGS: What types of IGS have been discussed? Which ES have been identified in IGS, what interrelationships among different types of ES have been identified, and how can the potential of IGS be enhanced by urban design practices? 112 scientific papers were analyzed for their 1) IGS terms applied, 2) ES studied, 3) current or potential ES discussed, 4) ES trade-offs, and 5) ES assessment methods. Through the review, we found that although different types of ES have been identified in IGS, most studies did not consider ES synergies and trade-offs. The few studies assessing trade-offs of ES in IGS mostly focused on large-scale IGS such as urban brownfields rather than on small-scale IGS such as vacant lands/lots. The literature review highlights two knowledge gaps for future research: the first one is to explore the design and management knowledge that integrate multiple ES in small-scale IGS based on the assessment of potential ES trade-offs and synergies; the second one is to develop the spatial assessment of ES trade-offs and synergies, which is the key to envision design and management interventions that optimize the benefits of IGS. The literature review promotes the acknowledgement of the term IGS through highlighting their value in ES provisioning and further outlines future research directions on small-scale IGS such as vacant lands/lots and patches of spontaneous vegetation.
... Community gardens have also contributed to residents' food safety and health (Bijkerk et al., 2018). Most importantly, the participatory nature of community gardens provides opportunities for the local residents to communicate and build gardens together, which is conducive for improving neighborhood relations and en-hancing cohesion among the residents (Kremer et al., 2013;Filkobski et al., 2016). ...
In many highly dense urban environments, the urgent needs of residents for increasing green space, improving the quality of the community environment and reconstructing the relationships among residents have given birth to the new space type of community gardens. However, China still lacks this relevant experience. In contrast, New York City's community gardens had a relatively early start, and they now have rich experience in space construction, operation and maintenance. Given their level of experience, they can be used as references for the development of community gardens in China. This paper adopts a bibliometric research method, identifies 201 periodical literature sources published between 2000 and 2020 from the core library of the Web of Science as the object of study, and finally assesses the research hotspot for transferring from macro-research to space-type construction method, social impact, and so on, through CiteSpace software analysis. By virtue of the research process analysis and the results of field surveys and interviews, this paper probes the development status of space construction and social organization construction of the community gardens in New York City, and summarizes that area's effective experience of development. Based on the current development situation of China's community gardens, it is proposed that the development of community gardens should be directed by ensuring the land for development, giving full play to social benefits, and mobilizing social organizations, so as to effectively realize urban space construction and social governance.
... For example, Detroit, MI as one of the post-industrial cities experienced high urban vacancy with more than half of city parcels becoming vacant land (Foster & Newell, 2019). However, even though less considered, a large amount of vacant land in the urban landscape also has considerable ecological resources such as mature tree canopy cover and wildlife species, which in turn provides numerous ecosystem services such as runoff mitigation, carbon storage, provision of habitat and air pollution removal (Kremer, Hamstead, & McPhearson, 2013;McPhearson et al., 2013). For example, Burkholder (2012) summarized that vacant land in urban areas can provide ecosystem services through its contribution to urban atmosphere, urban pedosphere, urban hydrosphere, urban biosphere and biodiversity respectively. ...
Design and planning are integral for sustainable development goals, including but not limited to: environmental protection, economic opportunities, and social justice (Khan et al., 2013; Wheeler, 2004). The application of key educational tools for achieving sustainable development and integrating theory with practices has produced a new paradigm in education called Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This study focuses on the undergraduate course Foundations of Sustainable Systems, where students created postcards with images and text expressing their understanding and position on sustainability in a distilled and compact format. This study identifies what themes of sustainability students believe are essential and considers how the results have changed in different years.
The analysis uses a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach to identify themes and changes in student views. The research findings show that this open-ended teaching strategy can instill motivation and a positive attitude towards understanding sustainability in students. Understanding and identifying students’ thinking is critical in moving forward with a comprehensive vision to achieve a successful sustainability focus. In addition, identifying students’ learning will
allow design and planning programs to improve their curricula and help educators advance the awareness to fully and explicitly integrate sustainability into their education offerings.
... It is expected that SLR will increase coastal erosion (Leatherman et al., 2000) and when combined with changing temperature and precipitation, alter the composition and structure of coastal habitat and biota (Meixler et al., 2020). The resulting loss of species and habitat will generate a net loss of associated ecosystem services and an uneven distribution across space and demographics causing gaps in environmental justice (Kremer et al., 2013). ...
Globally, urban-coastal areas are expected to experience substantial landscape shifts as a result of climate change induced sea level rise. Such changes will impact valuable ecosystem services. We employed sea level rise projections and land cover change mapping to develop a model which quantified present-day carbon sequestration, aboveground carbon storage, and belowground carbon storage ecosystem services and predicted the impact of sea level rise and accretion through 2100 on future ecosystem services in the urban-coastal Jamaica Bay, New York (USA) watershed. Our model predicted that future carbon sequestration, aboveground carbon storage, and belowground carbon storage potential in our watershed will be significantly impacted in wetlands and natural coastal-fringe habitat and have losses up to 0.16%, 15%, and 51%, respectively. We paired our present-day ecosystem services model results with data on socio-economic need (access to open space and poverty level of each census tract in the watershed) and used multivariate clustering analysis to identify clusters in which planning and restoration may help to address issues of ecological conservation and environmental justice. Our work addresses the need for better understanding of urban-coastal ecosystem service flows and the potential impact of future landscape change on these services. Our results provide support to increase coastal resilience through informed design, planning, and management of these ecologically and socially significant landscapes.
... Together these forces resulted in a complex mosaic of social-ecological relations manifested in different uses of private green space, public parks, and access to green infrastructure, continuing to shape the perceived value and necessity of NbS today. Numerous 'vacant' lots throughout the city, stemming from cycles of disinvestment, have also contributed to the persistence and health of urban ecosystems (Kremer et al., 2013). It is no wonder then that even though NYC is now arguably one of the most culturally and racially diverse cities in the world, enormous inequalities and issues of environmental justice persist, including disparities based on race and ethnicity in life expectancy, occupational hazards, exposure to ambient pollution (Sze, 2006). ...
Scholarship on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) primarily focuses on the potential for NbS to deliver multiple benefits to humans and biodiversity from networked natural systems. These approaches, if enacted without sensitivity to local contexts and histories, can deepen long standing injustices resulting from the destruction of complex self-organizing ecological systems, the usurpation of Indigenous governance and knowledge, and the prioritization of technical managerial approaches transforming nature into infrastructure. Here we review, synthesize, and critically reflect on existing scholarship on the rise of NbS in New York City, USA, to inform environmental policy in support of just transformations of complex urban systems. To do so, we examine NbS within the context of the social-ecological-technological system (SETS) of NYC. We organize our review and synthesis around three interrelated concepts of justice: Ecological, Indigenous Environmental, and Infrastructural Justice. Ecological Justice entails addressing the harms, needs, and desired futures of ecological actors while identifying synergies with human focused environmental justice concerns and movements. Indigenous Environmental Justice requires restoring Indigenous systems of governance and knowledge while making space for a diversity of social-ecological practices of marginalized communities. Infrastructural Justice addresses the historical and ongoing injustices perpetuated through mainstream infrastructure policy and design practice – including Environmental Justice concerns – which have increasingly turned towards NbS. Without embedding these principles within emergent NbS focused environmental policy agendas seeking just transformations, they will likely recreate utilitarian, anthropocentric, and colonial modes of managing nature as infrastructure. We conclude with a research-to-action agenda for meeting the interdependent needs of urban ecosystems and humans.
... In this regard, being aware of the community perceptions to inform landscape regeneration projects and to consider the social, economic, environmental, and cultural functions are essential. However, through assessing the vacant lot uses, the physical indicators (size, shape, location) and socio-ecological characteristics, planners may be able to underpin the resilience approach and sustainable concepts in undefined landscapes [38]. While the discovery of ways became necessary to develop the urban environment in a more sustainable way, our view of intervention is near-sighted [8]. ...
Landscape areas have spatial discontinuities, such as vacant land and leftover spaces. Undefined lands present a compelling area for landscape research, aesthetical experience, and development of cities which discuss irregular and unexpected aspects in landscape settings. Having lacked a formal definition of undefined land, this study aims at proposing keywords of undefined lands, a comprehensive review of knowledge, and definition. In order to promote new aspects of such spaces in the future research, the study conducts a systematic analysis of 65 peer-reviewed papers for their temporal trends, locations, methods, key authors, and commonly studied aspects. Results show the production of vacancy and the temporary use of undefined lands as an opportunity, and a flexible method of regeneration. An increase in publications over the past 30 years demonstrates that leftover space is an evolving subject. Although socio-ecological aspects are the most effective, serious gaps are mentioned in the literature considering aesthetical and ecological qualities in leftover spaces formed by visual, sensorial (hearing, touch, smell, taste), and cognitive perception. These gaps in the literature suggest that it is important to understand the potential effects of repurposing citizen's ideas about interventions in which to use leftover spaces. Having identified the knowledge gaps, undefined lands are suggested as a significant sub-discipline in landscape research.
... The concept was first developed in European cities after World War II to overcome the serious shortage of capital, labour, and materials for post-war reconstruction (Faraci, 1967;TTPL, 2020). In recent decades, due to the densification caused by development and continuous urban migration, mini-parks have become a flexible and adaptable tool for bridging the gap between supply and demand for recreational sites in densely populated areas (Kremer et al., 2013;Nordh et al., 2009;Rupprecht & Byrne, 2014). ...
The smaller size of mini-parks in relation to conventional parks makes them a flexible and adaptable greening option for high-density neighbourhoods, despite limiting their individual service capacity. Consequently, some densely populated cities have developed clusters of mini-parks to meet intense recreational demands. We endeavoured to study the factors that support visits to mini-park groups, rather than to individual parks, taking 106 mini-park groups within Nanjing as samples. We utilised Tencent user density (TUD) data to trace the visit intensity of these groups and integrated multi-source data to measure their internal and external features. By establishing a regression model series, we investigated how the mini-park groups' internal amenities, proximity to surrounding recreation-related facilities, neighbourhood features, and layout affected their visit intensity over time (day/night, week/weekend). The results showed that larger open sites, proximate restaurants, higher density of commerce, offices and residents, and higher housing prices promoted visits, whereas greater neighbourhood green coverage discouraged visits. We also found that the service provision of most mini-park groups in Nanjing was inefficient or unbalanced, and that most mini-parks within a group worked competitively rather than complementarily. These findings can inform future decision making and mini-park planning in Nanjing and similar cities.
... (21) Vacant areas that are not developed or await development can serve small, or long-term or temporary uses such as community parks, wildlife parks, communal farms, and recreational areas (Kremer, Hamstead, McPhearson (2013). p,2.) (33). ...
Vacant areas are a vital resource for the provision of housing projects, services, and infrastructure in Egyptian cities, and can be used, according to their sizes, ownership, and shapes, to support sustainable development processes, and according to the databases of the cities under study from researchers, which represent 20 Egyptian cities, vacant areas represent a proportion ranging between 9-35% of the land use budget. In addition, during the period (2015-2020), the state allowed citizens to return the occupied lands, which contributed to the existence of large areas, but there are many challenges facing the vacant areas management system in terms of the lack of an integrated information system in terms of registration, updating maps, information available to investors and inventory of vacant areas in the state. Also, the institutional framework of vacant areas suffers from fragmentation and is a complex framework. The legislative framework also suffers from the conflict of legislation, so there is a need to review and evaluate the situation currently, and what are the successfully integrated management ideas in reforming the vacant areas system to maximize its role in sustainable development in Egyptian cities.
... (21) Vacant areas that are not developed or await development can serve small, or long-term or temporary uses such as community parks, wildlife parks, communal farms, and recreational areas (Kremer, Hamstead, McPhearson (2013). p,2.) (33). ...
Vacant areas are a vital resource for the provision of housing projects, services, and infrastructure in Egyptian cities, and can be used, according to their sizes, ownership, and shapes, to support sustainable development processes, and according to the databases of the cities under study from researchers, which represent 20 Egyptian cities, vacant areas represent a proportion ranging between 9-35% of the land use budget. In addition, during the period (2015-2020), the state allowed citizens to return the occupied lands, which contributed to the existence of large areas, but there are many challenges facing the vacant areas management system in terms of the lack of an integrated information system in terms of registration, updating maps, information available to investors and inventory of vacant areas in the state. Also, the institutional framework of vacant areas suffers from fragmentation and is a complex framework. The legislative framework also suffers from the conflict of legislation, so there is a need to review and evaluate the situation currently, and what are the successfully integrated management ideas in reforming the vacant areas system to maximize its role in sustainable development in Egyptian cities.
... Detroit. There are many reasons that such vacancies occur, including a decrease in available jobs, deindustrialization, and suburban sprawl (Kremer et al., 2013 Michigan. Expense support that could not be obtained for this research may be another limitation. ...
Background and objective: The industrial crisis in Michigan, USA calls for the redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites into functioning public spaces. Neglected spaces have negative impacts on the surrounding communities, promoting aesthetic, safety, economic, and environmental issues. The purpose of this study was to explore and discuss the possible redevelopment of an underused site, with particular focus on its industrial site elements; quantitative measures were then applied to determine redevelopment's effects on the nearby community.Methods: The Michigan Central Station in Detroit, Michigan, USA was selected as a case study. Landscape performance research methods were applied to quantitatively analyze the environmental, social, and economic benefits of reclaiming this abandoned industrial site and its various elements.Results: The findings show that implementing the case study redesign would result in positive environmental impacts. These impacts include expanded areas of ecologically valuable land, a reduction in sulfur dioxide, and increases in carbon sequestration, retained stormwater, and the use of recycled contents. The case study redevelopment project would impact the surrounding economic context through savings on water treatment costs obtained from the use of retained stormwater, increased property values, and job creation. Furthermore, the redesign would also impact social aspects by increasing the available gathering spaces and public open areas and enhancing safety by adding sidewalks and bike lanes.Conclusion: The findings of this study will help designers and planners recognize the value of reusing existing industrial sites instead of undertaking harmful demolition processes, eventually leading to more sustainable community designs.
... In this regard, being aware of the community perceptions to inform landscape regeneration projects and to consider the social, economic, environmental, and cultural functions are essential. However, through assessing the vacant lot uses, the physical indicators (size, shape, location) and socio-ecological characteristics, planners may be able to underpin the resilience approach and sustainable concepts in undefined landscapes [38]. While the discovery of ways became necessary to develop the urban environment in a more sustainable way, our view of intervention is near-sighted [8]. ...
Landscape areas have spatial discontinuities, such as vacant land and leftover spaces. Undefined lands present a compelling area for landscape research, aesthetical experience, and development of cities which discuss irregular and unexpected aspects in landscape settings. Having lacked a formal definition of undefined land, this study aims at proposing keywords of undefined lands, a comprehensive review of knowledge, and definition. In order to promote new aspects of such spaces in the future research, the study conducts a systematic analysis of 65 peer-reviewed papers for their temporal trends, locations, methods, key authors, and commonly studied aspects. Results show the production of vacancy and the temporary use of undefined lands as an opportunity, and a flexible method of regeneration. An increase in publications over the past 30 years demonstrates that leftover space is an evolving subject. Although socio-ecological aspects are the most effective, serious gaps are mentioned in the literature considering aesthetical and ecological qualities in leftover spaces formed by visual, sensorial (hearing, touch, smell, taste), and cognitive perception. These gaps in the literature suggest that it is important to understand the potential effects of repurposing citizens' ideas about interventions in which to use leftover spaces. Having identified the knowledge gaps, undefined lands are suggested as a significant sub-discipline in landscape research.
... As a matter of improving community sustainability and resilience, the city and other stakeholders can encourage the conversion of vacant lots in communities into gardens, residential yards, or sports fields. Kremer et al (2013) contend that by assessing the ecological features of vacant lots, ...
Located on a flood-prone delta, the city of New Orleans is faced with several challenges and hazards caused by stormwater runoff that affects the built environment. The inundation of stormwater impacts the normal use of facilities, floods the environment, carries unwanted pollutants to nearby watersheds, and affects the purity of its water system. In New Orleans, stormwater runoff impacts are felt every time there is heavy rain. There is a vital need to implement a more sustainable drainage system for effective stormwater management. Green infrastructure (GI) mimics the dynamics of the natural ecosystem by managing stormwater runoff through a regenerative process. This article assesses the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the implementation of green infrastructure in New Orleans, looking at the strategies employed, and challenges faced by the city government, non-governmental organizations, and neighbourhoods. The paper engages local stakeholders on the implementation of GI. Local practitioners' points of view are then juxtaposed with the scientific literature on stormwater management to provide a nuanced understanding between practice and literature, and suggest how to improve the implementation of GI in the city.
... Land use and land cover change have long been studied by scientists from multiple different perspectives. Environmental scientists looked at how such changes can impact ecosystem services [38], storm run-off [7], climate change [35], among others [37,9]. In urban planning, land use change can signal gentrification [39,30], or threaten the urban fabric of a neighborhood and its historic landmarks [26]. ...
The growth of cities calls for regulations on how urban space is used and zoning resolutions define how and for what purpose each piece of land is going to be used. Tracking land use and zoning evolution can reveal a wealth of information about urban development. For that matter, cities have been releasing data sets describing the historical evolution of both the shape and the attributes of land units. The complex nature of zoning code and land-use data, however, makes the analysis of such data quite challenging and often time-consuming. We address these challenges by introducing Urban Chronicles, an open-source web-based visual analytics system that enables interactive exploration of changes in land use patterns. Using New York City's Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output (PLUTO) as an example, we show the capabilities of the system by exploring the data over several years at different scales. Urban Chronicles supports on-the-fly aggregation and filtering operations by using a tree-based data structure that leverages the hierarchical nature of the data set to index the shape and attributes of geographical regions that change over time. We demonstrate the utility of our system through a set of case studies that analyze the impact of Hurricane Sandy on land use attributes, as well as the effects of proposed rezoning plans in Downtown Brooklyn.
... However, as abandoned areas with little or no landscape management, wastelands often become highly vegetated. For example, 62% of vacant lots in New York City have either shrubs or trees (Kremer et al. 2013) and vacant lots in Roanoke, Virginia average 30.6% tree cover . ...
Urban wastelands have great potential for promoting biodiversity. As many cities shrink in size, these unused areas will continue to increase while available revenues for land maintenance will decrease. Managing such wastelands in ways that promote biodiversity, such as encouraging spontaneous vegetation and ecological succession, reduces maintenance costs while also providing many environmental and social benefits to the urban population. I reviewed the literature since March 2014 and found 31 studies of factors that influence biodiversity in urban wastelands. There is a strong geographic bias toward studies in North America (15) and Europe (10), and a taxonomic bias toward arthropods (16), plants (11), and birds (6). These studies often show that wastelands contain as much, and often more, biodiversity than other urban green spaces. Consistent with a previous review, local factors (area, age, soil, microclimate, and previous and current land use) are dominant influences on biodiversity in wastelands, with landscape factors often playing a secondary role. Next, I discuss how these factors have played a role in the Knoxville Urban Wilderness (KUW) project which has been very successful in acquiring and managing a variety of wasteland parcels to achieve economic and ecological goals. Examples of their application include increasing land acquisition (more area and spatial habitat diversity including soils and microclimates), increasing connectivity (greenways and trails), and maintaining the parcels in different stages of ecological succession. These efforts have undoubtedly contributed significantly to the biodiversity of this urban region. For example, although the KUW occupies a tiny fraction (688 ha) of Knox County, roughly two-thirds of Knox County bird species utilize the KUW, and about 13% of known threatened species in Knox County have been recorded in the KUW. I also briefly discuss how the KUW has successfully coordinated the acquisition and management of many parcels of vacant land, worked with many stakeholder groups, greatly increased public exposure to biodiversity, and contributed over $8 million to the local economy each year.
... In addition, GBI also allows experts from various sectors to account for trade-offs and synergies between the services for which each sector is responsible. For instance, vacant land might be managed as a useful food landscape, as a wildlife habitat, or for heavy rainwater management [177,178], which depends on who takes headship in management. On the other hand, from brown to green GBI, not all transformations result in the same ES. ...
Small scale urban green-blue infrastructure (indicated as GBI hereafter) comprises huge
underexploited areas for urban development and planning. This review article aims to highlight the relevance and knowledge gaps regarding GBI from the perspective of the food–energy–water (FEW) nexus, these being key resources for the survival of human communities. In particular, this review was focused on publications on urban ecosystem services (positive effects) and dis-services (negative effects) associated with different GBI typologies. The review proved that GBI can contribute environmentally, socially, and economically to FEW security and urban sustainability. Yet, such positive effects must be considered against ecosystem dis-services tradeoffs, including urban food production, commonly connected with heavy water and energy consumption, specifically under dry
climate conditions, and sometimes related to an excessive use of manure, pesticides, or fertilizers. These conditions could pose either a risk to water quality and local insect survival or serve enhanced mosquito breeding because of irrigation. Up to now, the review evidenced that few nexus modeling techniques have been discussed in terms of their benefits, drawbacks, and applications. Guidance is provided on the choice of an adequate modeling approach. Water, energy, and food are intrinsically associated physically. However, depending on their management, their tradeoffs are often increased. There is a need to minimize these tradeoffs and to build up synergies between food, energy, and water using a holistic approach. This is why the FEW nexus approach offers good insights to address the relation between three important individual resource components of sustainability.
Rust belt cities are largely threatened by a waste of urban space at their core; however, in developing countries where land resources are widely used as instruments for macroeconomic stabilization, urban periphery is also at risk of being underutilized due to land hoarding. Such geographic differences entail new knowledge about how, where, and why underutilized lands are regenerated in the city. Furthermore, rapid urban growth imposes development disparity and mixed underutilization issues on cities in developing countries; therefore, how the geo-information obtained by the regeneration of different underutilized lands differs will be valuable for urban planners and policymakers to make prudent trade-offs. To fill these gaps, we conducted a sequential investigation into the regeneration of underutilized lands in a representative rust belt city–Changchun City in Northeast China, in an attempt to measure the regeneration pattern and analyze the underlying determinants using the Classification and Regression Trees analysis. The results indicated that, of all underutilized lands, increments of vacant lot and remnant cultivated land continued to plague the expanding urban periphery during 2016–2019. In a way, reduced underutilized lands alleviated land use conflicts at the city core. Nearly 23% of the underutilized areas had been regenerated, dominated by realty development, with most converted to residential lands, ecological lands and industrial lands. On the contrary, conversion to transportation lands and parking lots seemed to avoid the rapidly expanding sites. The regeneration rates in a certain area can be increased by a multitude of factors, including denser, simply structured land underutilization, abundant ecosystem services nearby and accessibility to public infrastructures. Site conditions such as residential density and accessibility may have fueled the regeneration associated with residential purposes, while regeneration of industrial development was closely associated with the underutilization density and parcel regularity. This research provides an empirical paradigm for delivering regeneration geo-information across different underutilized lands, particularly for rust belt cities that are caught between a shrinking core and speculative periphery.
This chapter aims to analyze the implications between the declining and shrinking cities, urban vacant lands, urban land uses, green infrastructures, and urban green areas, and their impact on climate hazards change. The analysis departs from the basic assumption that urban vacant land sites and spaces have a negative connotation but if supported by the appropriate policies and programs of incentives, they can turn around and develop the essential green infrastructure to enable the mitigation of climate change hazards and bring about economic growth and socio-ecological development. The method used is analytical-descriptive based on the theoretical and empirical literature review. It is concluded that the land uses of vacant land sites more oriented toward urban green innovation infrastructure and forest areas contribute to mitigate the climate change hazards.KeywordsClimate changeHazardsDeclining citiesForest areasGreen infrastructureLand useShrinking citiesUrban vacant land
Vacant and abandoned land can be public eyesores that can potentially result in neighborhood distress in the long term. In some cases, the contextual conditions of a neighborhood have been shown to have more of a negative effect on communities than the vacant property itself. Maximum opportunities to actually reuse vacant and abandoned land is known to primarily exist in cases where the surrounding area has locational benefits or when local economic conditions are hopeful. This study examines and compares neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics around vacant lots in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, to identify spatial heterogeneity within vacancy types and neighborhood characteristics. Specifically, we examine 1) if the socioeconomic characteristics of a neighborhood can predict existing vacant lots and 2) what neighborhood characteristics are associated with certain vacant lot types. Three logistic regressions were tested with different buffers around each vacant lot, and a total of eighteen regressions were performed to capture the effects on six vacancy types. Results suggest that there are various types of vacancies interacting differently at the neighborhood scale, and that a large-scale neighborhood context matters when predicting vacancy types. The results also indicate three salient points. First, minority populations are a strong predictor of residential and commercial vacancies. Second, high-income areas tend to predict vacancies with potential investment opportunities or vacancies as a part of an existing park or recreational system. Third, vacant properties designated for institutional land uses tend to be found in lower-income areas, yet, not necessarily in areas with high minority populations. Managing and repurposing vacant and abandoned land should be handled more progressively with a better understanding of the socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods. Further, examining vacancy types by community can be a way to diagnose potential neighborhood risks associated with vacant and abandoned land.
Funding and financing challenges remain a persistent barrier to implementing nature‐based solutions that enhance ecosystem services, facilitate adaptation to climate change, and combat environmental stressors in cities. In the absence of adequate public financial resources, private funds are often expected to fill the gap. But market‐driven, nature‐based solutions can contribute to an inequitable distribution of urban ecosystem services by focusing on net benefits provided by nature. To help foster sustainable development and ensure that nature‐based solutions reach diverse and historically marginalized populations and communities, this scoping review explores the ecosystem services provided by nature‐based solutions and the payment mechanisms that produce and maintain them, focusing on literature on the United States. Findings suggest that the net benefits provided by nature‐based solutions and the available payment mechanisms vary based on the solution utilized (e.g., urban trees, parks, community gardens). Further, the distribution of benefits from nature‐based solutions is influenced by local historical, cultural, political, economic, and environmental contexts, the voices included in decision‐making, and the payment mechanisms used. Inspired by social equity principles, we present a framework for ecosystem service provision that is sensitive to market‐driven funding, financing, and partnerships. Practitioners can use this framework to assess whether payment schemes work in tandem with place (the local context) and process (governance and planning approaches) to ameliorate or exacerbate disparities in nature‐based solutions and the benefits they provide to people.
Vacant urban land is a significant barrier to sustainable neighborhood development, especially in Midwestern U.S. cities. Many scholars have noted that temporary use can alleviate vacant land’s negative impact, thus enhancing local neighborhood sustainability. However, knowledge about the effectiveness of temporary use is scarce, with few studies having empirically compared the outcomes of temporary use versus a reduction in the vacant land ratio. This study employs a statistical approach to explore how vacant land and its temporary use are associated with critical neighborhood sustainability measures across environmental, social, and economic dimensions in two large Midwestern cities: Chicago, Illinois, and Columbus, Ohio. The two primary findings are: First, vacant land ratio reduction and temporary use, while associated with improvement of some neighborhood sustainability measures, may raise concerns with others. This suggests a comprehensive consideration balancing the effects across all three dimensions of neighborhood sustainability in vacant land repurposing practice and further studies. Moreover, this study highlights that high-quality temporary use, especially related to greening activities, if managed appropriately, could significantly contribute to sustainable neighborhood development. The findings expand the understanding of vacant land and temporary use, encouraging further studies and helping build more robust theories guiding vacant land repurposing practice.
While the role of urban green space in mitigating environmental hazards and enhancing urban resilience is widely recognised, the current or potential contribution of brownfield land to urban green infrastructure and ecosystem services has been largely overlooked by planning legislation. The perception of brownfield as low value spaces has instead driven a focus on brownfield-first redevelopment, and thus, this dynamic resource is quickly being lost. This research, based on GIS and remote sensing data, develops a novel hierarchical brownfield classification methodology to understand the nature and distribution of brownfield, using k-means clustering of several physical attributes, which can be used for a range of objectives and is widely applicable to post-industrial cities. Application of the methodology to the case study, Greater Manchester, UK, produced a typology of twenty-six brownfield types with distinct characteristics and differing spatial patterns across the city. Land cover analysis reveals that over half (51%) of brownfield land is vegetated (comprising 27% trees and shrubs, 24% grass and herbaceous vegetation), highlighting the significant ‘hidden’ green space present on brownfield. Brownfield sites traditionally perceived as difficult to develop (e.g. those with uneven topography, irregular shapes, or a water body), are particularly highly vegetated. Predominantly pervious types are widely distributed across the conurbation, including in built-up areas, which are a principal target for redevelopment, and thus highly vegetated brownfields are likely being lost undetected. Brownfield land is evidently a valuable dynamic resource in post-industrial cities and redevelopment should be planned at the city-scale to ensure careful strategic selection of sites for redevelopment, greening, or interim use based upon their characteristics and location.
This chapter aims to analyze the implications that urban sustainability, socio-ecosystems, and ecosystem services have as the bases to design the urban green growth strategies. The method used is the analytic based on the theoretical and conceptual literature reviews on the topics described. Urban sustainability and environmental performance integrates biodiversity and socio-ecosystems for the provision of better quality ecosystem services supported by green infrastructure design into the green projects aimed to achieve economic and environmental benefits. It is concluded that the ecosystem services and human well-being may suffer irreversible severe declines if sustainability is not built based on biodiversity of socio ecosystems, green infrastructure, and natural capital.
Leftover spaces are constitutive elements of the city structure. The accurate selection of and intervention in certain hotspots can lead to an urban development that slowly takes over. The design intervention has a special effect on preventing the transition into vacancy; hence, user preferences should be properly considered. In 2017, the global population of adults aged 60 and upper reached 962 million. To address the needs of the elderly, we need to define local relevant design approaches. This research seeks to identify the elderly's preferences, particularly their use of open spaces. Application of the mixed-methodology with the BWM-questionnaire to vacant lands resulted in: a natural landscape with diverse vegetation and other facilities, gentle leisure activities, and community gardening as essential intervention attributes, leading to an ideal environment for the elderly. The innovation is implementing a mixed approach, BWM questionnaire, and considering both experts and public preferences to represent the demands of the elderly in cities. The kind of intervention and the needs of the elderly, particularly in restricted outdoor spaces, have still not been intensively reported. As these areas are too restricted, design components will play a greater role. Consequently, temporary, flexible, and experimental responses to leftover spaces are provided.
This chapter analyzes the implications of urban sustainable growth, development, and governance structures for the revitalization of open vacant spaces in agriculture and farming. After reviewing the extensive corpus of literature on the subject, the authors used the critical socio-ecological analysis methodology to determine the main issues, trends, practices, and implications of the urban vacant spaces in relation to the urban sustainable growth and development, the use of urban vacant land in urban agriculture, farming, and gardening, and the collaborative urban governance structures and revitalization of open vacant spaces. It is concluded that transitional use of vacant land and parcels are to be used and utilized for developing a sustainable green city. However, urban vacant land and parcel spaces are required to be utilized for revitalization purposes to be stimulated. Social-ecological analysis focusing on vacant lots in underdeveloped urban spaces hold potential for urban transformation to meet the social needs and improve the ecological services.
Prázdné prostory představují problém pro udržitelný rozvoj jak upadajících, tak rostoucích měst. Prvním cílem kapitoly je představit politiky zaměřené na opětovné využití prázdných prostor využívané v anglosaských zemí, které mají s problematikou dlouholeté zkušenosti. V konkrétní rovině jsou diskutovány daňové nástroje, demolice, pozemkové banky a dočasné využití. Druhým cílem je na základě případové studie z Ostravy diskutovat možnosti a bariéry zavedení dočasného využití v Česku. Výsledky poukazují zejména na strukturální bariéry na úrovni státní správy, které znesnadňují efektivní zavedení dočasného využití na lokální úrovni. V závěru jsou na základě případové studie a zkušeností anglosaských měst diskutovány možnosti a limity dočasného využití a daňových nástrojů pro návrat prázdných prostor do života města.
STRESZCZENIE Artykuł dotyczy problematyki planowania terenów rekreacyjno-wypoczynkowych w kontekście terenów zie-leni. W pracy przeanalizowano wskaźniki urbanistyczne dotyczące terenów sportowo-rekreacyjnych i zieleni, a także aktualny potencjał rekreacyjny terenów zieleni Krakowa. Zakres czasowy pracy obejmuje okres od 1945 do 2021 roku. Wskazano zagrożenia, jakie mogą nieść za sobą interpretacje rankingów dotyczących stopnia zazielenienia miast oraz przedstawiono wnioski. Najistotniejszym z nich jest konkluzja, że Kraków dysponuje ogromnym, choć nierównomiernie rozłożonym potencjałem rekreacyjno-wypoczynkowym, który można wykorzystać w planowaniu terenów rekreacyjnych. Mimo tego, ciągle zauważalne są asymetrie w do-stępie do takich terenów. Praca zwraca również uwagę na rewizję pojęcia "zieleni dostępnej" i podejmuje próbę jej redefinicji. Słowa kluczowe: dostępność, tereny rekreacji i wypoczynku, tereny zieleni, zieleń dostępna
ABSTRACT The paper focuses on the issue of the planning of recreational and leisure areas in the context of green spaces in the city. The study examines urban indicators created for sporting and recreational spaces as well as urban green areas. In addition, the current recreational potential of green areas in the city of Krakow is also assessed. The study period includes the years 1945-2021. The paper considers risks associated with the interpretation of rankings of the degree to which green areas are available in the city and subsequently provides a number of conclusions. The key conclusion in the paper is that Kraków possesses an immense recreational and leisure potential that is not evenly distributed in the city. This potential can be used in the design of urban recreational areas. One problem examined here is the issue of asymmetric access to such areas. Finally, the paper looks at the concept of 'available green space' and attempts to redefine it.
There is wide recognition that urban green space provides city residents with considerable benefits, inter alia of an environmental, economic and health-related profile. However, the different types of urban greenery include a rather large proportion taking the form of vegetation on abandoned sites that remain uncultivated, to the extent that a plant cover develops without much active human involvement. Almost by definition, there is only a poor level of recognition of the ecological potential such sites (here referred to as “informal green spaces” – IGS) enjoy, or of their capacity to render a variety of different ecosystem services. Against that background, the work presented here entailed in-depth study of the flora and plant communities present in Warsaw’s informal green spaces, the aim being to better ascertain their role in preserving biodiversity and delivering ecosystem services. Specifically, we identified the plant species composition present at 75 different locations within the urban green space of Poland’s capital city. To qualify for consideration, these sites had to be identified as entirely bereft of vegetation maintenance, or else only minimally subject to it, to the extent that it is largely processes of natural succession that are ongoing. The sites in fact range from wastelands with stabilised vegetation, via urban scrub and forest, through to non-forest habitats, sporadically cultivated and established over 20 years. We determined the density of vegetation present, and examined its structure in relation to various known classes of green space. We further determined the role of various vegetation types in rendering ecosystem services, be that surface cooling, substrate moisture maintenance or a capacity to remove particulate matter from the air. The informal green spaces we investigated are in fact found to comprise mainly-stable forest communities dominated by invasive species of tree (phytosociological Classes Robinietea and Salicetea purpureae), as well as non-forest communities (of Classes Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, Epilobietea and Artemisietea) again largely dominated by invasive plant species. The level of biodiversity here is average, it mostly being common forest and non-forest species that are preserved. However, in exceptional cases, the habitats constituted here do support species rare on a regional scale. It emerges that the forest vegetation is of weakly-diversified structure, as a reflection of the specific strategy invasive species pursue as they form monospecific communities. As noted already, the vegetation of the informal green spaces is seen to be largely dominated by such invasive species. Nevertheless, despite their evidently limited role in preserving biodiversity, these sites represent such a high density and volume of vegetation that their provisioning of ecosystem services is on a high level, especially where forest plant communities are involved. Sites that have come to be dominated by invasive plant species are shown to render ecosystem services comparable with (or sometimes even surpassing) those provided by native species, and this is especially the case when it comes to the removal of particulate matter from air and the exerting of a cooling effect.
Faced with the growing demand for nature in cities, informal greenspaces are gaining the interest of various stakeholders - residents, associations, public authorities - as well as scientists. This book provides a cross-sectorial overview of the advantages and disadvantages of urban wastelands in meeting this social demand of urban nature, spanning from the social sciences and urban planning to ecology and soil sciences. It shows the potential of urban wastelands with respect to city dwellers’ well-being, environmental education, urban biodiversity and urban green networks as well as concerns regarding urban wastelands’ in relation to conflicts, and urban marketing. The authors provide a global insight through case studies in nine countries, mainly located in Europe, Asia and America, thus offering a broad perspective. -------- https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-74882-1
This chapter presents the results of our transdisciplinary work since 2001 on 100 wastelands in the greater Paris area, using ecological, geographical, and artistic approaches. This research subject, which we addressed with a diversity of methodologies and sensibilities, had hitherto been little studied: wastelands were unmapped and often disregarded. Our aim has been to understand the ecological, artistic, and political interrelationships of these spaces and their role as refuges for human and non-human beings.
For cities, it is essential to have richly structured and multifunctional green systems which satisfy ecological needs and at the same time are attractive, usable, low cost or even profitable. Indeed, it is doubtful that sufficient green infrastructure can be realized solely by pursuing traditional models of green space development. At a time of changing demands, constrained public finances and limited urban space, new and unusual types of green spaces can supplement traditional elements of urban green infrastructure. Urban wastelands with their various stages of vegetation can provide a number of ecosystem services to tackle challenges such as stopping the loss of biodiversity, adapting to climate change and creating recreational and healthy urban environments. The conservation of spontaneous biotopes, on the one hand, and the active greening of urban wastelands, on the other, offer the potential to develop urban green systems that provide a range of essential ecological, social and aesthetic services. This chapter outlines the potential of urban wastelands to supplement urban green infrastructure. We consider how different “designs” of urban wastelands are perceived and used by residents. Based on findings regarding biodiversity, ecosystem services and the perception/acceptance of vegetation-covered wastelands, various planning and development approaches are presented.
In urban areas, many wastelands deriving from former industrial activities may contain degraded and polluted soils. When reconversion of these wastelands is included in a renaturation project, it opens the way to more extensive approaches in favor of biodiversity and ecosystems. The designers of a future brownfield redevelopment projects must therefore think upstream about the clean-up strategy that is least harmful to biodiversity. The stated objective is to breathe new life into degraded soils while designing a new landscape based on the dynamics and resilience of ecological systems. Choices are not easy to make insofar as projects do not have the same time horizon as the dynamics of ecological systems. While ecosystem services can structure projects, we show that the renaturation of polluted wastelands is a very complex subject because it also comes up against the complexity of urban territories and the diversity of ways of thinking, which causes tensions and sometimes incomprehension about the future of the environment that is to be built. It is therefore necessary to gather feedback from in situ experiments carried out in projects for the phytomanagement of formerly polluted wastelands.
In shrinking cities, with large populations of low-income and people of color, redeveloping vacant lots can improve access to the benefits of greenspace, but also spur or accelerate gentrification. Understanding people’s viewpoints on gentrification and vacant lot redevelopment in shrinking cities is important, especially as these perspectives may differ depending on people’s socioeconomic conditions and proximity to these spaces. One common development of vacant lots is into parks. As such, we assessed people’s beliefs and attitudes about gentrification, their levels of support of park development in low-income areas, and differences based on presence of vacant lots in their neighborhood, through an online survey of residents in St. Louis, Missouri—a shrinking city (N = 521). We found that respondents valued investments in their neighborhood, including park development. Specifically, respondents supported signs of gentrification from those investments, but also supported preserving neighborhoods—a potentially contradictory viewpoint. When comparing by proximity to vacant lots, we found some differences in respondents’ views. Further, respondents’ beliefs and attitudes about gentrification influenced their support for different types of development, particularly building parks in formerly vacant lots, if there were not vacant lots present in their neighborhood. Among residents living near vacant lots, beliefs about neighborhood change were unrelated to their attitudes toward gentrification or support of park development—suggesting that abstract beliefs about neighborhood change are not salient to their attitudes and support. These findings have implications for urban planning and community engagement, particularly in shrinking cities where legacies of environmental racism endure.
An analysis of trees in Chicago, IL, reveals that this city has about 3,585,000 trees with canopies that cover 17.2 percent of the area. The most common tree species are white ash, mulberry species, green ash, and tree-of-heaven. Chicago's urban forest currently stores about 716,000 tons of carbon valued at $14.8 million. In addition, these trees remove about 25,200 tons of carbon per year ($521,000 per year) and about 888 tons of air pollution per year ($6.4 million per year). Trees in Chicago are estimated to reduce annual residential energy costs by $360,000 per year. The structural, or compensatory, value is estimated at $2.3 billion. Information on the structure and functions of the urban forest can be used to inform urban forest management programs and to integrate urban forests within plans to improve environmental quality in the Chicago area.
Neglected vacant lots in the modern urban setting pose great hazards to community life. These lots, which host criminal behavior, accumulate trash, and create various health risks, epitomize the frustration and despair nearby residents often feel. A recent study reports that more than one-fifth of all land in American cities is classified as vacant. Despite the prevalence of vacant land and the reality of urban blight, many communities have been successful in transforming these dangerous urban spaces into thriving community gardens. Part I of this article discusses the stark reality of urban blight, emphasizing the success of community gardening as a means of addressing the problems associated with vacant lots. It also explores the diverse values involved in a community’s effort to transform unused land into productive gardens. Part II examines the current issues facing urban gardens and the institutions that have evolved to address them, such as land trusts and other nonprofit organizations. Part III of the article presents an in-depth analysis of current state, District of Columbia, and local ordinances governing community gardens. The article concludes by proposing core elements of a model community gardening ordinance that, when adapted to local needs, can encourage and protect community gardening efforts.
Five Borough Farm (Phase I) was a project of the Design Trust for Public Space, in partnership with Added Value, which operates the 3-acre Red Hook Community Farm in Brooklyn. Five Borough Farm (Phase I, which concluded in 2012) had three main goals:
• Document New York City’s existing urban agricultural activity through photographs, maps, infographics, and detailed interviews with key stakeholders, and describe the opportunities and challenges facing the city’s urban agriculture community.
• Establish a shared framework and tools to allow users to track urban agricultural activities citywide, and evaluate their social, health, economic, and ecological benefits.
• Develop policy recommendations that will help make urban agriculture a more permanent part of the city’s landscape and governance.
This publication has three main chapters – Urban Agriculture in NYC, Metrics, and Policy – and outlines steps to implement these recommendations.
Urban environments are in continual transition. Yet, as many cities continue to grow and develop in ways deemed typical or standard, these transitions can be difficult to acknowledge. Narratives of continued growth and permanence become accepted and expected while the understanding of urban dynamics becomes lost. In many parts of the world, the shrinking cities phenomenon has given rise to a new awareness of urban transition that provides a laboratory of new conditions at the intersection of urbanism and ecology. With property vacancy rates easily exceeding 50% in certain locations, cities in the American Rust Belt look more like successional woodlands than bustling metropolises, yet these cities still contain significant numbers of urban residents. A central question that arises from this phenomenon is: how can vacant land, through the provision of ecosystem services, become a resource as opposed to a liability? This paper looks to recent studies in urban ecology as a lens for understanding the land use potential of shrinking cities, while discussing unconventional solutions for sustainable development of urban land.
Spontaneous vegetation colonizes large areas in and around cities. These unmanaged areas are considered to have low economic value or indicate dereliction, but recent research suggests that these can contribute valuable ecosystem services. This study evaluates indicators of ecosystem services in three habitats: urban spontaneous vegetation (USV), managed lawns, and semi-natural urban forest, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. USV had higher indicator values for habitat provisioning (plant species diversity, invertebrate abundance and taxonomic diversity) than the other habitats. Indicators of climatic regulatory services (albedo and leaf area index) in USV were similar to those in lawn habitats. Organic carbon content of the soils, an indicator of carbon storage, was lowest in USV but only marginally lower than in lawns. Standing biomass, an indicator of production services, was lowest in USV but lawn production may have been overestimated. While USV sites are usually transitory components of the urban landscape, they deserve further consideration due to their provision of ecosystem services, in some cases to a greater extent than conventionally valued urban habitats.
I examine the conflict over the community gardens in New York City. I argue that this contest was an example of Lefebvre's "trial by space," and that ultimately, the struggles concerned the right to space, or "the right to the city." The city, operating from the perspective of entrepreneurial governance, claimed that the gardens represented a loss of exchange value and potential housing. I contend that more was at stake: the gardens and gardeners represented a threat to the hegemonic project of the government to maximize exchange values and to beautify and sanitize the city. I also argue that the issues of commensurability and narrative were critical to the conflict. The city used the rhetoric of a market economy paradigm to dismiss incommensurable use values, thus restricting rights to the city within a demonstration of power and "reason." In response, the garden advocates resorted to "tactics" and other persuasive arguments.
Cities experiencing social chaos may be viewed as socio-ecological systems that, as a result of a disturbance such as disaster or conflict coupled with lack of resilience, have shifted into a qualitatively different, undesirable state. We argue that urban community greening and other "civic ecology" approaches that integrate natural, human, social, financial, and physical capital in cities, and that encompass diversity, self-organization, and adaptive learning and management leading to positive feedback loops, have the potential to play a key role in developing urban community resilience before a disaster, and in demonstrating community resilience after disaster strikes. This paper adds to existing literature on resilience by applying resilience theory to urban socio-ecological systems, by expanding comparative analysis of resilience narratives in cities to encompass more community-based and environmental approaches, and by proposing an asset- and community-based tool, i.e., urban community greening, which can serve as the focus of social learning about resilience in cities. The paper also integrates knowledge of urban community greening and the resilience theory literature to propose a new "civic ecology", which we define as a set of tools to help people to organize, learn, and act in ways that increase their capacity to withstand, and where appropriate to grow from, change and uncertainty, through nurturing cultural and ecological diversity, through creating opportunities for civic participation or self-organization, and through fostering learning from different types of knowledge. Finally, we call for policy makers and researchers to work with community members to formally integrate civic ecology approaches into adaptive co-management strategies, thus enhancing our understanding of the importance of urban community greening relative to other resilience building tools in reducing risk in cities.
Urban agriculture is touted as a strategy for more locally reliant food systems, yet there is little under-standing of its potential food provisioning capacity. Using Detroit, Michigan as an example, we use secondary data to develop a methodology for estimating the acreage required to supply, as far as seasonally possible, the quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed by city residents. We com-pare these requirements with a catalog of the publicly owned, vacant parcels in Detroit to assess the feasibility of producing significant quantities of the fresh produce consumed within city limits. We demonstrate that if high-yield, biointensive grow-ing methods are used, 31% and 17% of the sea-sonally available vegetables and fruits, respectively, currently consumed by 900,000 people could be a Corresponding author: supplied on less than 300 acres without incorpo-rating extraordinary postharvest management or season-extension technology. This indicates that urban agriculture could play an important role in food provisioning in many places.
To determine the role Latino community gardens play in community development, open space, and civic agriculture, we conducted interviews with 32 community gardeners from 20 gardens, and with staff from 11 community gardening support non-profit organizations and government agencies. We also conducted observations in the gardens, and reviewed documents written by the gardeners and staff from 13 support organizations and agencies. In addition to being sites for production of conventional and ethnic vegetables and herbs, the gardens host numerous social, educational, and cultural events, including neighborhood and church gatherings, holiday par- ties, children's activities, school tours, concerts, health fairs, and voter registration drives. In some cases, the gar- dens also serve to promote community activism. The primary concern of gardeners is to secure land tenure in the face of pressures to develop the garden sites for housing. The support organizations and agencies provide help with land tenure, as well as with advocacy, organization, and horticultural practices. Although the role of the Latino gardens in community development appears to be more important than their role in open space or agricul- tural production, the gardens can also be viewed as unique ''participatory landscapes'' that combine aspects of all three movements, as well as provide a connection between immigrants and their cultural heritage.
In the midst of the current economic crisis, there is renewed interest in transforming vacant lots into food-producing gardens. This study analyzed whether vacant lots are suitable for food production, by comparing the soil nematode food webs and nutrient pools of vacant lots and community gardens in two post-industrial U. S. cities, Akron and Cleveland, Ohio. Twelve vacant lots and 12 community gardens were examined in the two cities. All six Akron community gardens were established just prior to the initiation of this study, whereas the six in Cleveland were 15-30 years old. Soil pH, texture, moisture, organic matter, mineral nitrogen content, microbial biomass, and nematode communities were measured in both cities. Soil decomposition rate was also measured in Cleveland. Results show that the soils of vacant lots surpassed those of the newly-established Akron gardens and were equal to the soils of the well-established Cleveland gardens in the amount of ammonium-nitrogen, total nematode population, genus diversity, and maturity and structure indices. The soils of the vacant lots were lower than the community gardens in the amounts of soil moisture, organic matter, and nitrate-nitrogen, which we associate with the addition of water, compost, fertilizer, and tilling in the gardens. No significant difference was found between community gardens and vacant lots in microbial biomass, decomposition rate, or nematode enrichment index, which seems to indicate that vacant lots are equal to community gardens in nutrient availability and nutrient cycling. We conclude that barring any contamination, the soil in vacant lots maybe suitable for the establishment of food gardens, which can provide many desirable ecosystem services and enhance human well-being. We also find that the disturbance associated with tillage and conversion of a vacant lot into a community garden has short-term ramifications for both nematode food webs and mineral-nitrogen content.
The future of Earth's ecosystems is increasingly influenced by the pace and patterns of urbanization. One of the greatest challenges for natural and social scientists is to understand how urbanizing regions evolve through the complex interactions between humans and ecological processes. Questions and methods of inquiry specific to our traditional disciplinary domains yield partial views that reflect different epistemologies and understandings of the world. In order to achieve the level of synthesis required to see the urban ecosystem as a whole we must change the way we pose questions and search for answers. Cities are the result of human and ecological processes occurring simultaneously in time and in space and the legacy of the simultaneous processes of the past. Urban ecology is the study of the co-evolution of human-ecological systems. Scholars of both urban systems and ecology must challenge the assumptions and world views within their disciplines and work towards a hybrid theory that builds on multiple world views. The synthesis of research findings provided in this book is a first step towards articulating the challenge for scholars of urban ecosystems; it leads the way toward the integration we must achieve if we are to better understand and solve emerging issues in urban ecosystems. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC All rights reserved.
New York City community gardens have been the subject of political contestation over the course of their thirty-year existence. In 1999, 114 gardens were slated for public auction and redevelopment. This article examines the controversy over the garden auction as a politics of scale in which garden advocates successively raised the scope of the controversy beyond the scale of individual gardens, and ultimately beyond that of the city. Analysis of this land-use conflict highlights the significance of politics of scale for grassroots organizations within a market-centric, neoliberal economic framework.
The flowering plant species richness of twenty-six vacant urban lots which varied in age, size, isolation from other lots, and in intensity of 'weed control' (sporadic seasonal mowing), was investigated in the light of equilibrium island biogeographic theory. Species richness for all lots increased logarithmically with lot age. The species richness of lots 40 months and older, each of which had been mown at least once, did not increase with age, and was positively related to lot area and negatively related to measures of lot isolation. These results suggest that species richness had reached or was nearing equilibrium in these older-mown lots, possibly due to mowing and immigration-extinction phenomena, and that other lots are significant sources of colonists. That the slope of a plot of log-species richness against log-area for the older-mown lots is similar to that for oceanic islands suggests that these lots have immigration-extinction rates similar to those of true islands.
Analyses of urban ecosystems are steadily providing novel perspectives to the environment within and around urban areas. Prior analysis of plant species richness in urban vacant lots has suggested that they act as "islands in space and time amidst a sea of impervious surfaces" (Crowe, 1979, p. 1). Considering vacant lots to be island analogs places the vegetative species diversity of vacant lots within the framework of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography. The abundance of vascular plants within thirty-one vacant lots was sampled in a nine-block-square area in the neighborhood of Harlem Park in west Baltimore, MD, USA. Regression analysis indicated no significant relationship between species richness or species diversity with isolation. There was a significant negative relationship of species richness with area (R²= .2, p=.02) suggesting that the theory of island biogeography does not adequately explain the species variation within this area of vacant lots. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that clustering of species within the lots was partially driven by the variables of area, isolation, lot shape, species diversity and species richness. Within individual lots, the vegetational composition differed between the footprint of the demolished building and the relic backyard. Overall species richness and diversity may depend on a variety of factors that include but are not limited to the variables measured in this study. Other likely important factors not measured in this study include human management, seed dispersal rates and species imported for lot recovery.
While recent attention has cast a spotlight on urban brownfields (contaminated industrial sites), relatively little research or policy work has considered the vast untapped potential of the large number of small vacant and abandoned lots that lie in the midst of most economically depressed urban neighborhoods. Understanding the circumstances that create this situation—and inhibit its amelioration—will enable us to develop alternative policy mechanisms that promote redevelopment and neighborhood revitalization. This research focuses on the nature of the urban vacant land problem common to many U.S. cities and the barriers to redevelopment of such land. The paper characterizes the myriad causes and consequences of urban vacant land, and provides several examples of innovative approaches to redevelopment. Several findings have emerged from this work. First, urban vacant land redevelopment may be addressed through broad policy approaches such as regional governance and land-use planning, and/or through programs targeted to address specific place-based barriers. Neither approach alone will conclusively resolve the issue of urban vacant land. Since urban disinvestment and decline is inextricably linked to suburban growth, in order to effectively address the problem the governance structure must include both.
Urban areas are heterogeneous. Transitions in architecture and building density, vegetation, economic activity, and culture can occur at the scale of city blocks. Ecologists have been criticized for treating the city as homogeneous and urbanization as one-dimensional. To develop ecological understanding of integrated human-natural systems, the fine-scale heterogeneity of their built and natural components must be quantified. There have been calls for the integration of the biophysical and human components of systems, but here we provide a new tool to quantify this integrated heterogeneity by reconceptualizing urban land-use and land-cover classification approaches. This new tool, High Ecological Resolution Classification for Urban Landscapes and Environmental Systems (HERCULES), balances detail and efficiency and is flexible, allowing it to be used for interdisciplinary research, with ancillary datasets, and across urban systems.
City governments own or regulate vacant land and abandoned structures. In this article, the authors summarize new vacant-land survey data, examine the conditions and causes of vacant land, analyze city policy toward vacant land, and explore the possible interconnections among conditions, causes, and policies. They find that vacant land most often is associated with cities that have expanded their political boundaries, and the number of abandoned structures is related to a city’s change in population. Thus vacant land and abandoned structures are not interchangeable indicators of decay and destruction; rather, they have separate causes and need different policies.
Urban agriculture offers a framework for local self-reliance by provisioning food security, employment opportunities, and other community benefits. However, urban agriculture must rely on the supporting and regulating services of the soil food web. Hence, we quantified belowground biocontrol activity in urban gardens and vacant lots in two post-industrial cities using an in situ insect baiting technique. Due to the differences in habitat structure, we hypothesized that belowground biocontrol services will differ between gardens and vacant lots and the influence of habitat structure would differ with the type of biocontrol organism. Results revealed that biocontrol activity, as assessed by % mortality of baited insects, varied between 51% and 98% with higher activity often recorded in vacant lots than gardens. Major contributions to bait insect mortality were by ants, followed by microbial pathogens and entomopathogenic nematodes, respectively. Ants showed higher (p
Currently, over 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas. By 2050, this estimate is expected to be 70%. This urban growth, however, is not uniformly distributed around the world. The majority of it will occur in developing nations and create megacities whose populations exceed at least 10 million people. Not all urban areas, however, are growing. Some are actually losing populations because of changing economic conditions and population demographics. Whether a city is growing or losing population, governances face unique challenges with respect to infrastructural, water and transportation needs. To meet these challenges, agencies within city government are cooperating by pooling resources and removing conflicting policies, partnering with the private sector to offset costs of infrastructure, and taking new approaches to design infrastructure. By linking ecological theory with urban design, a more integrative approach to create liveable spaces, which are sustainable, can be achieved in rapidly expanding and shrinking urban areas.
Vacant and abandoned property is increasingly recognized as a significant barrier to the revitalization of central cities. This study sheds some light on the nature of the property abandonment problem and on current city efforts to address it. It is based upon the findings of a survey of the 200 most populous central cities in the United States, conducted during the summer and fall of 1997, and on follow-up interviews with a portion of the survey population, conducted during the summer of 1998. The findings of the survey and interviews indicate that vacant and abandoned property is perceived as a significant problem by elected and appointed officials in the nation's largest central cities. This type of property affects many aspects of community life, including housing and neighborhood vitality, crime prevention efforts, and commercial district vitality. Single- and multi-family housing, retail properties and vacant land are the most problematic types of vacant and abandoned property for most cities. Cities use a variety of techniques to address this problem, including aggressive code enforcement, tax foreclosure, eminent domain, and cosmetic improvements. One-third of the cities surveyed use a variety of other innovative tools to combat the vacant and abandoned property problem. Nevertheless, current efforts to combat the problem suffer from a number of shortcomings that are described in the article.
New York City community gardens have been the subject of political contestation over the course of their thirty-year existence. In 1999, 114 gardens were slated for public auction and redevelopment. This article examines the controversy over the garden auction as a politics of scale in which garden advocates successively raised the scope of the controversy beyond the scale of individual gardens, and ultimately beyond that of the city. Analysis of this land-use conflict highlights the significance of politics of scale for grassroots organizations within a market-centric, neoliberal economic framework.
The resilience perspective is increasingly used as an approach for understanding the dynamics of social–ecological systems. This article presents the origin of the resilience perspective and provides an overview of its development to date. With roots in one branch of ecology and the discovery of multiple basins of attraction in ecosystems in the 1960–1970s, it inspired social and environmental scientists to challenge the dominant stable equilibrium view. The resilience approach emphasizes non-linear dynamics, thresholds, uncertainty and surprise, how periods of gradual change interplay with periods of rapid change and how such dynamics interact across temporal and spatial scales. The history was dominated by empirical observations of ecosystem dynamics interpreted in mathematical models, developing into the adaptive management approach for responding to ecosystem change. Serious attempts to integrate the social dimension is currently taking place in resilience work reflected in the large numbers of sciences involved in explorative studies and new discoveries of linked social–ecological systems. Recent advances include understanding of social processes like, social learning and social memory, mental models and knowledge–system integration, visioning and scenario building, leadership, agents and actor groups, social networks, institutional and organizational inertia and change, adaptive capacity, transformability and systems of adaptive governance that allow for management of essential ecosystem services.
Research indicates that neighborhood environment characteristics such as physical disorder influence health and health behavior. In-person audit of neighborhood environments is costly and time-consuming. Google Street View may allow auditing of neighborhood environments more easily and at lower cost, but little is known about the feasibility of such data collection.
To assess the feasibility of using Google Street View to audit neighborhood environments.
This study compared neighborhood measurements coded in 2008 using Street View with neighborhood audit data collected in 2007. The sample included 37 block faces in high-walkability neighborhoods in New York City. Field audit and Street View data were collected for 143 items associated with seven neighborhood environment constructions: aesthetics, physical disorder, pedestrian safety, motorized traffic and parking, infrastructure for active travel, sidewalk amenities, and social and commercial activity. To measure concordance between field audit and Street View data, percentage agreement was used for categoric measures and Spearman rank-order correlations were used for continuous measures.
The analyses, conducted in 2009, found high levels of concordance (≥80% agreement or ≥0.60 Spearman rank-order correlation) for 54.3% of the items. Measures of pedestrian safety, motorized traffic and parking, and infrastructure for active travel had relatively high levels of concordance, whereas measures of physical disorder had low levels. Features that are small or that typically exhibit temporal variability had lower levels of concordance.
This exploratory study indicates that Google Street View can be used to audit neighborhood environments.
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