Public Green Space in Developping cities
The
United Nations (1991) identifies that the number of people living in
cities almost tripled in the world. More specifically it identifies that
in developed countries the urban population doubled while in developing
countries it linearly quadrupled. The main factor behind this
transformation is a population boom of the 20th century coupled with the
rapid economic growth which is unfortunately associated with a decline
in the share of agriculture in economic activities and increased share
of the industrial and service sectors, the latter of which are mostly
located in urban areas.
Public
spaces and green spaces have many functions in a city that are
important. Some of which are physical, ecological, social, provision of
recreation opportunities, as well as opportunities for pedestrian
circulation, provision of comfort for citizens , encouragement of
natural habitats to remain in the city, as well as the reduction of
noise and air pollution among others. To be able to provide these
contributions, public green space needs to be planned systematically and
maintained or at least protected. I believe gardens are much more than
natural vegetation's in a dense urban context These spaces have a
potential through which many cultural, social, economic, and political
concerns, can be directed, expressed and brought forth to the public
sphere.
Provision
of urban green spaces has to be planned and realized together with the
planning of housing, transport infrastructure, etc. In developing
countries where all these planning resources are inadequate and are
coupled with traffic
congestion, air pollution, insufficient services such as water and
electricity green spaces are regarded as less important aspects of land
use.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION for Public Green Space
The problem
of disregarding planned green spaces in cities have been exacerbated
and highlighted by the World Health Organization(WHO). Currently the
WHO has established indicators for what makes a city healthy. These
include a varying amount of issues including private green space,
pollution levels, water quality etc....It specifically established a
metric that links public green space to public health with an
international quota of 10 square meters per person as a benchmark for
healthy cities.
Several cities
have produced the number for themselves to compare to the WHO number.
Only a few Western European Cities make the cut for surface area. Not a
single Middle Eastern City comes anywhere close.
The data graphed here are collected from varying sources between 2005 to 2010 |
City Intiatives:
None
the less cities across the world cities are taking measures to add
green space, trying to meet the WHO criteria in order to be included IN
THE HEALTHY CITY NETWORK
- In Cairo, an moderate Islamic NGO, the Aga Khan Development Network,
created a new Park in the center of the city. The park was basically a
gift but the land had to be expropriated by the Egyptian government.
0.04m2 PBS/person
- In
Beijing, the government planned a ring of green spaces around the city,
expropriating land and trying to distribute it radically
- In
New York, the city government is teaming up with private interests to
transform existing privately owned parks into publicly accessible green
space. This adds up to a distributed network of greens.
Gardens in Beirut
Beirut has
even less available public green space than these examples. Only 1.8% of
its surface area is green, this would have to be multiplied by 22 to
arrive at the WHO indicator. The city would have to demolish 41% of
the city, and transform it into a park, in order to meet the World
Health Indicator.
The
Greenest Beirut has ever been was during the war, from 1982 and 1992.
This is because a line divided the city--a no-man's zone where fighting
occurred--which was overgrown and created a green desert landscape. To
qualify for the WHO city networks Beirut will need to demolish 41% of
its existing fabric, and this is only regarding the existing urban
population which is still continuously increasing.
In CITIES
that value the density of their urban fabric, a green infrastructure
needs to be inserted into the existing city fabric. We need to reimagine
what and how we can inject public green space in such cities. Such is
the case in Beirut where the urban fabric and the real estate is in such
high demand for housing and other basic urban needs.We need to start
dreaming of new types of public green-spaces that can be inserted into
existing congested cities.
Ref: http://spatiallyjustenvironmentsbeirut.blogspot.com/
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