The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: Identification of successful green and open space development in large city regions

Project briefing

The development and safeguarding of green and open spaces requires long-term strategies at both urban and regional level. The major significance of these concepts becomes apparent in the light of current challenges such as the increasing utilisation pressure, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. The project team researched the success factors of green and open space development in towns and regions and derived success factors and recommendations.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are the dominating issues of current political discussions in Europe. The restrictions on movement to help combat the pandemic have brought to the fore the positive health effects of green and open spaces in the vicinity of housing areas. At the same time, however, the failings during the past decades to stop or at least mitigate climate change are becoming increasingly evident. Tropical nights and urban heat island effects are increasingly present in media reports.

As temperatures begin to rise in towns and cities, green spaces are a sustainable solution to make a positive impact on the microclimate, while also fulfilling other ecological and social functions. In an age when social distancing is “resetting” public areas, green and open spaces also play a crucial role in terms of the social health of the population.

In view of these constantly changing framework conditions, urban green and open space development is gaining both new and additional significance. The benefits of the resilience of green space concepts that endure for decades or even centuries are becoming obvious. They also prove to be robust, despite political and administrative structural changes. The significance of the long-term and strategic safeguarding and high-quality development of green spaces also becomes apparent in the face of urbanisation and the increasing utilisation pressure in towns and cities.

But just how resilient are the “old” city-regional concepts, given today’s utilisation pressure? To what extent are these concepts secured when it comes to planning? How are they developed further? Which conceptual approaches to solutions make an impact and under which spatial conditions? What significance have green and open spaces in actual municipal planning under conditions of persistent growth and utilisation pressure? To what extent is successful green and open space development actively managed, and to what extent is it pure coincidence? Which success criteria can be transferred to other municipalities and which are specific to particular cities? The study provides the empirical foundation for these questions.

Objective

The project team analysed existing green and open space concepts in the three case study regions: Magdeburg, Nuremberg and Kiel. Based on literature research, interviews and a workshop, the team analysed which conditions are beneficial and which detrimental to the preservation and development of open and green spaces by means of quantitative and qualitative research, conducting longitudinal analyses over a longer period of time, at both city-regional and urban levels. The development of the green and open spaces was placed in the context of the political and administrative circumstances. The result is a structured catalogue of various success factors of green and open space development.

The contractor of the research project was RaumUmwelt® Planungs-GmbH, Vienna.

Contact us

  • Dr. Brigitte Adam
    Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
    Division RS 6 "Urban, Environmental and Spatial Monitoring"
    Phone: +49 228 99401-2325
    Email: brigitte.adam@bbr.bund.de

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