Evaluating Urban Green Public Spaces: The Case Study of Krasnodar Region Cities, Russia

Abstract

The 21st century challenges, in particular those of climate change, population growth, air pollution and the COVID-19 pandemic global health crisis, demand greater emphasis on infrastructure facilities capable of keeping pace with population needs in well-being, health and economic prosperity. Green infrastructure aimed to intensify ecological processes in built-up areas and deliver vital ecosystem services is of a key significance for Russia, one of the most urbanized countries in the world. The article is dedicated to the issue of providing cities sustainability through creating a basic element of the urban green infrastructure—a public green network—by incorporating and linking a variety of already existing urban environmental components, both spatial and linear, such as natural areas, squares, parks, streets, boulevards, embankments and others. The territory of the case study is Krasnodar region located in the southwestern part of the North Caucasus, the warmest region of Russia characterized by highly varied urban areas. The authors propose the multiple criteria method for evaluating the existing GreenPS and creating a GreenPS framework for six cities located in Krasnodar region both on the southern seaward part and on the northern steppe part. This approach is focused on the sustainable development of the cities, adaptation to climate change and the prevention of local risks with respect to the preservation of ecosystem functions and cultural heritage. The methodology includes three stages: investigating and evaluating the present state of the existing urban GreenPS; defining sustainability potential; and the submission of master plan proposals for the improvement and further development and management of the GreenPS network implementing nature-based solutions. In addition, it follows seven main integral criteria, namely, Accessibility, Density, Sufficiency, Continuity, Diversity, Value and Clean and Sanitary, illustrated by ray diagrams. The results of the study show good potential for construction in Krasnodar region cities of an efficient GreenPS network integrating ecological and social city components. The flexibility of the method proposed makes it replicable for any other city aimed at creating a GreenPS network in sustainable, climate-change-adapted cities.

Willingness to Pay for Urban and Suburban Green

“…The impending phasing-out of lignite in the region of Western Macedonia is another challenge and will have a significant impact on employment, income, output, consumption and regional GDP in this geographical unit [76,77]. The COVID-19 pandemic, which is plaguing the entire planet, also remains a challenge [78][79][80]. The lifestyle of the inhabitants of Greek cities has deteriorated mainly due to all these economic and social problems.…”

Place and time in architecture of university campuses

“…С градостроительной точки зрения на жизнеспособность кампусов существенно влияют транспортно-пешеходные коммуникации, которые играют важную роль при выборе места размещения вуза в планировочной структуре города. В зависимости от местоположения комплекса в городе -центрально-планировочной, срединной, периферийной или пригородной зоне -существенно меняются условия доступа студентов и преподавателей к его территории [4].…”

Evaluation on the urban green space layout in the central city of Yuxi based on big data

“…Under the background of ecological civilization construction, urban green space has become the current research hotspot (Danilina et al, 2021;Ye et al, 2022). As a basic element of urban green infrastructure, the urban green space system represents urban sustainability (Chen S. S. et al, 2021;Danilina et al, 2021).…”

“…Under the background of ecological civilization construction, urban green space has become the current research hotspot (Danilina et al, 2021;Ye et al, 2022). As a basic element of urban green infrastructure, the urban green space system represents urban sustainability (Chen S. S. et al, 2021;Danilina et al, 2021). Urban green space is a green space open to the public, with recreation as the main function and ecology, beautification, and disaster prevention and is also an important part of the urban green space system (Wu et al, 2007;Jordan et al, 2022) and has significant social, ecological, cultural, and economic value (Zhou et al, 2020;Chen D. et al, 2021).…”