From green spaces to vital places: connection and expression in urban greening

ABSTRACT

Urban greening, the improvement or increase of green spaces in cities, has purported environmental, individual, social and cultural benefits. The extent and qualities of urban green spaces, and our opportunities to engage with them, reflect and shape human responses to those spaces. Planning scholars recognise the traditional role and obligation of planning to help reduce social problems and see the potential for the public to be leaders in defining responses. However, use of technical, scientific and economic approaches by urban land managers can limit recognition of diverse connections to urban green and advance narrow conceptions of nature. We sample people’s responses to different forms of urban green and greening in three case studies from Melbourne, Australia. We show that modern connections and expressions are personal, social and dynamic. Human experiences are embedded in nature and connections develop from interactions with and about nature, in formal and informal spaces. Diverse connections prompt responses to nature, and actions affecting nature itself. Accordingly, we propose ways to develop more receptive, responsive, inclusive and connected forms of urban greening. These include recognising diverse connections and expressions, encouraging dynamic relationships with nature, and providing varied ways of engaging with urban green spaces that foster stewardship.     

The politics of urban greening: an introduction

ABSTRACT

Global enthusiasm for nature in cities is at high point. Australia is no exception, where there is a great deal of policy momentum and research interest in urban greening. The challenges presented by increasing urban heat associated with climate change, greater awareness of the potential social, physical and psychological benefits of exposure to ecologies for people, and recognition of cities as vital habitats for more-than-humans are central tenants of urban greening enthusiasm. Yet, there is a need for a more critical lens on urban greening in Australia. One that interrogates the purported normative, apolitical and instrumental benefits of greening, to position greening within a trajectory of the power relations, settler-colonialism, socio-ecological processes and capital flows that constitute the urban. This editorial introducing the special issue on urban greening politics explores how different conceptions of urban natures – green space, urban forestry and green infrastructure – have been put to work, before outlining the potential of ‘urban greening’ as the terminology for a more politically sensitive and process-orientated framing. The editorial concludes with a summary of the contributions to the special issue.     

Urban re-generations: afterword to special issue on the politics of urban greening in Australian cities

ABSTRACT

‘Urban re-generations' is written as an afterword to the special issue of Australian Geographer on ‘The Politics of Urban Greening in Australian Cities'. The collection prompts a deep questioning of reparative and regenerative work associated with greening, green spaces and green infrastructures. The climate-driven 2019-2020 bushfire crisis and COVID-19 have amplified the visibility of the more-than-human connectivity of our cities and the deep underlying structures of social and environmental inequity underpinning a variety of urban green spaces and agendas. Inspired by the articles in this special issue, the afterword explores how we might call back the grammars and practices of regeneration from their service to the neo-liberal, settler-colonial city and instead nurture reparative de-colonial practices that aid in the collaborative work of re-composing, becoming into better relation with, and working in modes of situated historical and cultural difference, with green and just cities.     

Geographies of energy transition: the case of high-performing commercial office space in the central business districts of Sydney and Melbourne,Australia

As a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement, Australia committed to reduce emissions significantly by 2030. In a country highly urbanised and dependent on fossil fuels as its primary energy source, one key avenue for meeting these commitments is energy transition in the built environment. Australia has emerged as a leader in the design and construction of high-performance buildings in the premium commercial office sector. In this paper, we address a significant gap in understanding the diverse mechanisms through which building energy transition is being constituted in this sector, focusing on Sydney and Melbourne. In the absence of substantive publicly available data, we draw on mixed methods comprising a database developed around high-performing CBD office buildings and qualitative interviews with a range of sectoral stakeholders. We characterise the building stock in each city, and document five trends constituting energy transitions. We demonstrate that building energy transitions are not only shaped purposefully by dominant governance regimes but also by opportunistic responses to specific material and commercial conditions and legacies in each city. Thus the urban built environment affords significant opportunity for energy transitions, but pathways towards such transitions are necessarily multiple and ultimately shaped by material as well as institutional geographies.     

Domestic Residential Garden Food Production in Melbourne,Australia: a fine-grained analysis and pilot study

Even though cities cover approximately only 3 per cent of the earth's land area, they are often located on what previously was prime agricultural land. In line with what was common historically, many cities around the world are now deliberately seeking to promote and expand agricultural production within their borders. Pressure for change is coming from a number of sources, including both governments and private citizens. Potentially, community gardens and domestic backyard food production have an important role to play in this process, but while there now exists a sizeable body of research on the former, there is a serious lack of data on current productive practices in private domestic gardens. While other researchers have asked householders to estimate garden production, we believe this to be the first project to carefully document measured output by multiple households. The paper presents the results of a fine-grained study of 15 selected householders in metropolitan Melbourne. Participants collected detailed daily information about their food production over a three-month period. In addition, two of the respondents had been keeping daily production records continuously for one or more years. The results demonstrate enormous diversity in the food harvested, as well as some extremely high levels of productivity from relatively small domestic spaces. Participants were also questioned about their motivations for engaging in backyard food production and dealing with surpluses.     

Changing urban governance in Ghana: the role of resistance practices and activism in Kumasi

ABSTRACT

This article examines traders’ resistance practices in Kumasi, Ghana and their significance for changing urban governance in Africa. Conceptually, we introduce “activism” as a new variable into the present concept of urban governance as decentralization, entrepreneurialism and democratization (DED). From an empirical study in Kumasi, Ghana, findings reveal that activism by non-state actors does not only occur at the crucial earlier phases of the urban regeneration process, but extends into the subsequent phases, because urban governance is a continuous process. We demonstrate that activism and a multiplicity of resistance practices are embedded and significant dimensions of everyday urban governance in Africa. This paper argues that the additional dimension – activism – is necessary in rethinking urban governance in Ghana and Africa. This conceptualization views non-state actors not as resisters of urban governance but as activists whose resistance practices and innovations produce tangible and far-reaching changes in city governance. We learn that non-state actors do not rely on the state to control all aspects of urban governance but invent new practices to secure their socio-economic interests and provide them with leverage where they have to negotiate with or stand up to authorities. The study shows that successful change in urban governance is a function of the complementary and strategic adoption of contention, subversion and co-production. When the state perceives that the intervention of other key stakeholders legitimizes the grievances of non-state actors, it responds positively.     

Human Capital and the Structural Integration of Polish Immigrants in Australia in the First,Second and Third Generations

The Polish diaspora is one of the largest in the world. Australia's 2011 census identifies 48 611 born in Poland and 170 000 claiming Polish ancestry. Using the census, we assess the structural (socio-economic) and spatial integration of the first (Poles who arrived in the post-World War II period as largely displaced persons and refugees), second (their children) and third (grandchildren) generations, and compare the first generation with another cohort: the skilled first-generation (‘Solidarity') immigrants who arrived in the 1980s and early 1990s. Key OECD indicators of integration—education attainment, proficiency in English, employment status and occupational progression, home ownership, naturalisation, return rates and patterns of residential distribution—are examined. Results point to their successful integration, with high levels of labour market participation, earnings, and naturalisation, levels of spatial integration as exemplified in a Melbourne case study (where the highest proportions of those of Polish birth or ancestry reside), return migration and language retention, and levels of owner-occupied housing (the ‘middle-class dream') higher than among Australians generally.     

Integrated,Regional, Natural Resource and Environmental Planning and the Natural Heritage Trust Phase 2: a case study of the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council,Western Australia

Since 2002, the Australian Natural Heritage Trust Phase 2 (NHT2) has required community groups seeking funds for natural resource management projects to have developed nationally accredited regional strategies and investment plans. This case study reports on the progress of one such regional (and sub-regional) group, examining in particular the perceptions of the community group members and other stakeholders of the overall process. Through interviews, participant observation and document analysis in 2004–05, the process of developing a regional strategy and an investment plan by the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council in Western Australia, and the involvement of regional stakeholders in the process, were examined. While the concept of regional-scale management was perceived favourably by community interviewees, their concerns related to increasing bureaucracy, the need for further local involvement, more on-ground action instead of further planning, the relevance of the regional Council to local communities, and the motives of Council members. Communication with regional stakeholders was extensive in preparing the regional strategy, but fell short during the development of the investment plan. The success of the regional planning process will be evidenced by whether members of the regional community actively implement regional priorities, and whether long-term funding and support from the State and Australian governments are provided.     

Wild things in urban places: America's largest cities and multi-scales of governance for endangered species conservation

Endangered species live inside the world's most densely populated cities. In the United States, the Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for the protection and recovery of endangered species – wherever those species are found. Unfortunately, very little is known about urban endangered species policy or programs. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the five largest cities in the United States and examines issue of governance around conservation. Cities have a responsibility to steward the environment, but through the 1973 Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service has a legal mandate to protect endangered species throughout the country. Thus, this paper asks: What is the USFWS doing inside cities to recover endangered species? What are cities doing? Conservation is a shared duty but it is not clear that anyone is taking responsibility for urban endangered species.     

城市情感地理与空间治理：广州市区宣传类户外广告案例

受人文地理“情感转向”思潮的影响,城市公共空间研究开始关注情感对空间的构建作用,情感空间的营造与城市空间的治理存在一定的耦合关联。本文以广州市区的宣传类户外广告为例,援引情感地理与空间治理的相关理论,采用访谈、文本分析等方法,探讨宣传类户外广告在营造情感氛围过程中与城市空间的内在关联,进而讨论情感氛围与城市空间治理的联系。研究发现,户外广告尤其是宣传类户外广告通过视觉表征生产情感空间,由身体-街区-城市三个尺度构成情感化的公共空间,置身城市公共空间的个体在宣传类户外广告的话语作用下重构对城市空间的想象,产生“归属感”“认同感”和“安全感”等情感,并通过视觉、情感等非表征形式使居民在自我审视中加深群体文化认同,使空间治理内化。研究将情感地理的研究放置在城市这一中观尺度,通过广州市区宣传类户外广告的讨论丰富了情感地理的实证研究,同时对拓展情感地理研究的尺度与视角进行了有益探索。     

Lots for greening: Identification of metropolitan vacant land and its potential use for cooling and agriculture in Phoenix,AZ, USA

The greening of vacant parcels for urban sustainability continues to gain attention from researchers and practitioners, including its use to ameliorate the urban heat island effect and food deserts. Planning for such uses requires accurate inventories of the amount and distribution of vacant parcels, which may prove difficult to produce for large, sprawling urban complexes. This study provides a systematic approach that combines remote sensing and cadastral data to distinguish different forms of vacant land for the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area while reducing computation time. The approach identifies vacant parcels for potential greening, focusing on privately owned land lacking buildings and impervious surfaces. The results for the Phoenix area reveal hot spots of these parcels, many of which reside along the fringe of the metropolis awaiting development. A large number of vacant parcels, however, reside within the metropolitan core and are suitable for greening as well, potentially serving to mitigate the urban heat island effect and food deserts in this region. The identification method and parcel results are detailed.     

Modeling different urban growth patterns based on the evolution of urban form: A case study from Huangpi,Central China

Spatial patterns of urban expansion mainly include infilling, edge expansion, and outlying growth patterns. The cellular automata (CA) model, is an important spatio-temporal dynamic model and effectively simulates infilling and edge-expansion urban expansion. but is evidently lacking in outlying scenarios. In addition, CA cannot explain the causes and processes of urban land expansion. Given these limitations, we proposed a novel urban expansion model called simulation model of different urban growth pattern (SMDUGP), which can work well in both adjacent (i.e., infilling and edge expansion) and outlying growth patterns. SMDUGP has two main components. First, we divided the non-urban region into two categories, namely, candidate region for adjacent pattern urban growth (CRFAP) and candidate region for outlying pattern urban growth (CRFOP). Second, different methods were utilized to simulate urban expansion in the different categories. In CRFAP, a CA model based on the potential of urban growth was proposed to simulate urban growth in relatively randomly selected urban growth regions based on the discrete selection model and Monte Carlo method as the expansion area was implemented in CRFOP. Huangpi, a suburban area in Wuhan, is utilized as the case study area to simulate the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban growth from 2004 to 2024. SMDUGP can effectively simulate outlying urban growth with a highly improved simulation precision compared with the traditional CA model and can explain the causes and processes of urban land expansion.     

Tufa Accumulations in Ephemeral Streams: Observations from The Kimberley,north-west Australia

Four types of tufa occur along creeks draining the Oscar Range in the Kimberley region of Western Australia; stream-bed tufa, tufa dams, stream-bed tufa waterfalls, and rimstone pools. Well-developed tufa dam and waterfall formations occur at significant breaks of slope within the channel long profile. This suggests that disruption of the hydraulic flow regime and increased turbulence at these points has an important role to play in determining the location of tufa deposits. However, the best-developed stream-bed tufa deposits are located immediately upstream of dam and waterfall formations, which indicates that the evaporation of water ponded behind these flow obstructions may lead to calcium carbonate precipitation during the dry season. The presence of plant and cyanobacterial communities on, and the incorporation of organic material into, the best-developed tufa formations indicates that biological activity may have an important role to play in determining both the rate of tufa deposition and the internal structure of the resulting accumulations.     

Funding and Facilitation: implications of changing government policy for the future of voluntary Landcare groups in Western Australia

Landcare groups in Australia work to increase biodiversity, eliminate invasive species and promote sustainable land-use practices. With the implementation of the Rudd government's ‘Caring for our Country’ policy during 2008–09, financial and organisational resources available to these groups diminished. This paper examines whether the National Landcare Program's initial intentions—that agency support could be provided to ‘kick-start’ the community groups into action with the Landcare groups quickly becoming independent bodies—are ultimately realistic. The results show that the majority of Landcare groups continue to be reliant on government-sourced funding and Landcare facilitators, and that those groups which do not have access to support have reduced their activity levels accordingly. Landcare groups were suffering from a reduced volunteer base, with static or decreasing numbers of participants, an inability to set regular meetings and a lack of volunteers to take up leadership positions. The reliance of Landcare groups on government support suggests that Landcare was an unsuccessful form of state-sponsored community participation, making Landcare groups similar to other volunteer organisations in terms of their functional characteristics and reliance on externally sourced funds.     

A diatom-based Holocene record of human impact from a coastal environment: Tuckean Swamp, eastern Australia

Diatom-based paleolimnological studies are being increasingly used to track anthropogenic change in estuaries. Little is known, however, about the direction and nature of long-term environmental changes in Australian estuaries. In this study, shifts in diatom assemblages preserved in a ²¹⁰Pb and C¹⁴ AMS dated sediment core from Tuckean Swamp were analysed to determine environmental changes that had taken place as a result of changing land-use practices. Prior to European impact, the diatom assemblage remained relatively stable and was dominated by Actinocyclus normanii and Diploneis smithii. An increasing dominance of Cyclotella meneghiniana correlates well with changed land use activities in the catchment area and indicates an increase of freshwater influence in the swamp’s environment. A major shift in species composition began ∼1970, Eunotia flexuosa becoming dominant. The assemblage shifts recorded at this site appear to be consistent with environmental changes triggered by human activities such as vegetation clearance, drainage and the construction of a barrage. This study demonstrates the use of paleolimnoology in an estuarine environment to provide pre-impact data necessary for management of the aquatic environment.     

城市政治生态学视角下的空间转型与中国环境治理创新——基于深圳城—水关系动态演变的分析

城市空间是探讨城镇化特征、动力机制和效应的重要载体,但生态空间作为传统城市—自然二分对立认识论下被人类控制和支配的对象,却较少成为城镇化研究的主体。论文以深圳为例,从城市政治生态学视角展现了过去40余年深圳城—水关系的阶段性演化及其背后的权力结构关系变迁。研究认为,水是权力不可分割的一部分,具有多元复杂的本体特征,它与城市发展并非二元对立,而是相互建构。在深圳城镇化的不同阶段,国家、资本、自然展现出差异化的动态关系,塑造了水的商品化、去商品化、再商品化过程,使之成为经济发展所需开发利用的自然资源、支撑城市可持续运作的生态保障、提升城市长期竞争力的新动力。深圳城—水关系的演变揭示了中国环境治理从路径依赖到路径创新的过程。尽管改革开放初期为了确保经济发展,以水为代表的城市生态空间出现了同质化和退化,但在后续发展过程中,国家权力未必在资本和市场的扩张中出现“空心化”;相反,国家权力的主动介入修复甚至扭转了单一市场逻辑下的生态退化和社会不平等。这些新型的国家—资本—自然关系和社会经济实践,不仅呈现了人类寻找公平、正义、可持续城市建设的中国方案,而且为城市—自然辩证关系的理论深化提供了中国经验。     

社区可持续发展指标体系研究——以上海崇明为例

本文探索了在专业人员指导下的小组参与方法建立符合中国国情的社区可持续发展指标体系。研究以上海崇明为例,分析了不同社会群体对可持续发展的认识和需求,比较了不同经济发展水平、不同社会背景和不同决策层面对可持续发展的不同关注点,提出由4个核心指标、7个扩展指标和5个附加指标构成的社区可持续发展指标体系,为其他地区制订可持续发展指标体系提供了参考,并有利于实施社区发展可持续性的评估。     

中国城市基层地域的领域化与领域政治——基于东莞东泰社区的案例研究

从领域视角出发,城市化过程即是城市地域的(再)领域化过程,也即空间资源在个人和社会群体间的(再)分配和(再)组织过程。20世纪90年代以来中国城市单位制的解体及社区制的建立,标志着中国城市基层地域领域化机制的变革,本文在此背景下以东莞市东泰社区为例,分析了变革后中国城市基层地域领域化动态,探究了其中政府、市场和民间力量主体作用的机制变化。研究发现:单位制下中国城市基层地域的行政领域化已经被社区制下的市场领域化所替代,同时民间力量开始参与其中。由于缺乏合理的领域化协调机制以及政府角色偏差,城市基层管治呈现恶性的领域政治,成为社区制下城市管治失败不可忽视的原因。换言之,领域单元及领域政治机制建设是当前城市基层管治的要务。为确立有效的城市基层地域管治模式,需要尽快改革社区体制、明确管治单元,并要防止资本和行政权力向生活空间的过度渗透。     

Local provenance in rehabilitation of degraded landscapes: a case study from the Hawkesbury–Nepean catchment, Australia

Throughout Australia thousands of volunteers are engaged in Landcare projects that should help rehabilitate degraded landscapes. Many of these projects involve tree planting, but their seed is not necessarily of local provenance. Based on a survey of 85 Landcare groups working in the Hawkesbury–Nepean catchment, data were collected about Landcare groups' knowledge of their seed source, understanding of local provenance and the ecosystem in which they were planting trees and the source of funding for their projects. The findings from the study indicate that about one in five (21%) of the groups surveyed that introduced plant material were not aware of local provenance issues. Indirect indications were that a large number of Landcare groups state-wide may be doing more harm than good to the landscape while trying to rehabilitate it. The data also showed that one in seven (13%) of the groups funded by the Australian Government through the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) had limited awareness of local provenance issues. With millions of dollars being spent on 'works on the ground', it would be prudent to allocate some funds to document and monitor current Landcare activities, so that the environmental outcomes can be quantified and more effective Landcare policies can be developed in the future.