The governance of urban green spaces in selected EU-cities: Policies, practices, actors, topics

In a time of continuing urbanization, there is an increasing focus on developing attractive and healthy urban environments. Green spaces, ranging from woodlands and parks to allotment gardens and green roofs, provide a range of ecosystem services that contribute to better cities (Lovell and Taylor, 2013). The Green Infrastructure and Urban Biodiversity for Sustainable Urban Development and the Green Economy project (GREEN SURGE in brief), funded under the EU’s 7th Framework Programme for research, will identify, develop and test ways of linking green spaces, biodiversity, people and the green economy in order to meet the major urban challenges related to land use conflicts, climate change adaptation, demographic changes and human health and well being. The contents of this report are based on work conducted in Work Package 6, one of the eight Work Packages of GREEN SURGE. Work Package 6 focuses on governance arrangements for urban green spaces. In this report, we discuss the findings of the GREEN SURGE Work Package 6 Tier 1 research on identifying and conceptualising innovative participatory governance arrangements in regards to the management of urban green infrastructure.