A Preliminary Study on Connectivity and Perceived Values of Community Green Spaces

Abstract

Green spaces in residential communities are important yet understudied features of the urban ecological system. While large urban parks and remnant wildlands in urban areas tend to receive public attention from conservation and management perspectives, less is known about the importance of spatial and ecological characteristics of the community-scale green space. This study investigates natural elements in four planned communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona; two of which represent conventional types of neighborhoods and two which exemplify community development type with a proclaimed vision of sustainability. These distinct types of communities, which illustrate variations in age, location, open space type, and a cross-section of housing density, are compared with regard to landscape connectivity as a means of gauging the ecological condition for community sustainability. Using Geographical Information Systems and landscape connectivity indices, a community's green space features were examined including size, physical connectedness, and ecological potential. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was designed and implemented to examine the perceptional differences between the two types of community residents. The findings demonstrate that the green spaces in conventional communities are more physically connected than their counterparts, but the naturalness and ecological qualities manifested in the amount of the land that may serve as potential urban desert habitats were higher in the sustainable communities. The results of the survey indicated that the respondents inhabiting sustainable communities possess a higher level of satisfaction than the people in conventional types of communities. This is due mainly to the amount of easy access to, and the perceived ecological values of the green spaces in their neighborhoods and surrounding areas. The study concludes that careful community design with ecological consideration can help create sustainable communities which can benefit both site-scale ecosystems and perceived human well-being.

Linking Social Perception and Provision of Ecosystem Services in a Sprawling Urban Landscape: A Case Study of Multan, Pakistan

“…The explanatory variables in this study included gender (male/female), age group (youth/mature), profession (farming/other than farming), literacy (illiterate/literate), and the area of residence (urban/peri-urban) of the respondents. These variables were chosen after a detailed review of the published literature [27,28,31,47]. A detailed analysis of the explanatory variables is presented in Table 2.…”

Sustainability

“…Social benefits are associated with volunteering to maintain GI, and the, "composition, characteristics and mechanisms," by which these groups remain engaged in the decision-making processes of GI management and maintenance are evaluated (Jerome et al, 2017). An assessment of resident perception of green infrastructure in four communities in the Phoenix (Arizona, USA) area showed that respondents inhabiting communities with GI Water Environment Research, Volume 90, Number 10 -Copyright © 2018 Water Environment Federation have higher satisfaction than the people in conventional communities (Park, 2017). The management of urban green spaces by resident volunteers is discussed identifying three key factors for success 1) established rules and procedures within groups provide stability to citizens 2) citizens need to be able to adapt to contextual changes in order to cope with external political, socioeconomic and cultural developments over time and 3) the supporting role of authorities was also key to provide legitimization and support (Mattijssen et al, 2017).…”

Does the Connectivity of Urban Public Green Space Promote Its Use? An Empirical Study of Wuhan

“…Evidence has shown that biodiversity is an important factor in influencing green space use and green spaces with higher biodiversity (such as variety in birds and richness in vegetation) are more likely to be visited [29]. In addition, the connectivity of green space is found to have a positive impact on the perception of greenness and safety [26]. Subsequently, it can improve the attractiveness of green space and induce green space use, to a certain degree.…”

“…new green spaces or largely change the structure of existing urban green space systems to promote PGS use and physical activity [18,22,23]. Considering that, several researchers have argued that enhancing the connectivity of these green spaces by referring to the principals of landscape ecology is likely a relatively economical and efficient way to handle with the aforementioned challenges [22,24,25].In the urban context, well connected green spaces not only reflect more ecology and sustainability, contributing to improved residents' perception of well-being; but they also tend to increase the accessibility to green space system [26]. In other words, the connectivity of green space could improve the micro-climate, living environment, urban landscape quality, etc., which, in turn, has the potential to enhance green space use [27].…”

“…In the urban context, well connected green spaces not only reflect more ecology and sustainability, contributing to improved residents' perception of well-being; but they also tend to increase the accessibility to green space system [26]. In other words, the connectivity of green space could improve the micro-climate, living environment, urban landscape quality, etc., which, in turn, has the potential to enhance green space use [27].…”