beyond 'green is good' - the policy and practice dilemmas of urban nature and human wellbeing

摘要

Green spaces are good for us: from the Victorian philanthropists such as Titus Salt, who funded Roberts Park in Saltaire in 1871, to contemporary academic researchers, observers have recognised the links between urban greenery and wellbeing.What the Victorians took for granted has been reinforced by scholarship over at least three decades, going back to Roger Ulrich's famous study in 1984 of the recovery times of hospital patients with views of green spaces from their wards.1As our understanding of the benefits of urban green spaces increases, the threats to the future of those spaces become more acute. The outcry over the proposed sale of the Forestry Commission estate in 2010 is still fresh in public memory. In 2017 members of an influential parliamentary select committee declared that public parks were 'at a tipping point' due to continued funding cuts.2 There is still no statutory duty for public or private bodies to provide and maintain this essential infrastructure.