The relevance of urban parks to achieve sustainable development in metropolitan areas

摘要

Even though metropolitans' sustainability and regeneration strategies focus mainly the man-made and built components of the urban environment, in the last years we have seen an increasing interest in the development of nature in cities. In fact, the growth of metropolitan areas all over the world poses several redevelopment challenges which the global community is recognising. In this scenario sustainable development have been recognized as widely accepted strategic framework considering city planning and the creation of urban parks play an important role in it. Nonetheless, it is argued, that urban parks and other open green spaces are important for the quality of life of an increasingly urbanized society. This paper approaches three different urban park projects of the Oporto metropolitan area. These case studies were examined and analysed with objective to study how does urban green spaces contribute to ecological, social and economic sustainability of metropolitan landscapes, addressing the importance of urban nature for citizens' quality of life and sustainable city development.