Informal Urban Green Space: Residents’ Perception, Use, and Management Preferences across Four Major Japanese Shrinking Cities

Abstract

Urban residents' health depends on green infrastructure to cope with climate change. Shrinking cities could utilize vacant land to provide more green space, but declining tax revenues preclude new park development-a situation pronounced in Japan, where some cities are projected to shrink by over ten percent, but lack green space. Could informal urban green spaces (IGS; vacant lots, street verges, brownfields etc.) supplement parks in shrinking cities? This study analyzes residents' perception, use, and management preferences (management goals, approaches to participatory management, willingness to participate) for IGS using a large, representative online survey (n = 1000) across four major shrinking Japanese cities: Sapporo, Nagano, Kyoto and Kitakyushu. Results show that residents saw IGS as a common element of the urban landscape and their daily lives, but their evaluation was mixed. Recreation and urban agriculture were preferred to redevelopment and non-management. For participative management, residents saw a need for the city administration to mediate usage and liability, and expected an improved appearance, but emphasized the need for financial and non-financial support. A small but significant minority (~10%) were willing to participate in management activities. On this basis, eight principles for participatory informal green space planning are proposed.

Urban Agriculture as a Sustainability Transition Strategy for Shrinking Cities? Land Use Change Trajectory as an Obstacle in Kyoto City, Japan

“…These include embedded ultra-local food systems where local farmers produce exclusively for their neighbors (personal communication) and sell via unattended vegetable stands, peddling farmers making their rounds selling (often traditional) vegetables in a way closely linked to daily diets of locals [35], and a limited number of community gardens. Previous research has also shown that in a representative survey, residents of four shrinking Japanese cities, including Kyoto, supported urban agriculture and community farms for target land use for land freed up in the process of shrinking [36]. …”

New pathways for governing food system transformations: a pluralistic practice-based futures approach using visioning, back-casting, and serious gaming

“…The same study pointed to food consumption as Kyoto's second largest contributor to its ecological footprint, composing 24% of the total (World Wildlife Fund Japan 2016). A recent survey shows Kyoto residents favor using space in a shrinking Kyoto for urban agriculture and leisure (Rupprecht 2017).…”

Ready for more-than-human? Measuring urban residents’ willingness to coexist with animals

“…As discussed elsewhere (Rupprecht et al 2015b;Rupprecht 2017), planners could help making the territories of encounter more accessible by reducing barriers or mapping such spaces, but a number of constraints (liability issues, private ownership, historical/political/financial constraints) limit planner's ability for direct interventions. Therefore, participative management approaches could help to avoid outcomes like the New York High Line, where IGS was simply converted into neoliberal green space, demonstrating how the fascination and promise of engaging with 'wild' nonhumans can be reduced to its aesthetic appeal in the name of capitalism (Millington 2015).…”

“…One possible approach is to facilitate participatory management of IGS (Rupprecht 2017), thereby allowing residents to explore their individual taste for coexistence, rather than planners setting the ground rules in advance. Planners can draw upon the results of this study which suggest urban residents' willingness to coexist with wildlife is influenced by species, geography, cultural factors, education and age (but not income or sex).…”