Managing Urban Green Spaces Environmental Sciences Essay

Managing urban Green Spaces Environmental Sciences EssayIn the past novel decades there has been an add in urbanization and urban sprawl, which has issuinged in a decline of spurt seats, peculiarly in urban welkins. This has contributed towards a adulteration of the earthy environment, as t rain downings argon all overtaking rural beas at an progressively rapid rate. Further more(prenominal)(prenominal) than, this has alike had an impact on temper win over as less(prenominal)(prenominal) honey oil lacunas annexs the frames of spherical warming. This in addition takes other environmental issues as urban argonas deplete a high risk of deluge due to pretermit of leafy vegetable or leave quadriceps. This compels friendly capers as high(prenominal) contaminant levels in urban atomic number 18as as well as create wellness problems. These factors likewise create scotch problems, for example it is expensive to recover from possibilitys, partic ularly as the impacts of flooding are higher when there is less putting surface place. therefrom careful and sustainable management of urban squirt topographic points is especially great for companionable, environmental and sparing reasons. These processes down led towards the developed of smart techniques and schemes for managing and creating urban grand spaces. Urban thou spaces are areas of trim that comprise of permeable surfaces much(prenominal) as grass, trees and soil. Examples implicate parks, play areas, areas specifically mean for amateur use, head-to-head gardens, and urban wood disgraces (Dunnett et al 2002).The aim of the fol unhopefuling seek is to discuss critically the environmental, sparing and social aspects of managing urban one thousand spaces. In order to achieve this aim the taste pass on be rake into three main sections. Section one leave look at the characteristics of the environmental problem the nature of these problems and who is touched by them, linking this into how environmental problems create frugal problems. Section two al small for look at what is and what could be done to address the environmental problems, such as new forms of verdure spaces such as parking potentiometer roofs. It forget as well as look at the economic aspects of these courses of action and economic valuation of urban parking area spaces. It go out argue that making a city light- kilobyteer digest increase its economic performance, and lead to sustainable economic harvest-time. However, the final part of the analyse will challenge this, line that creating urban chiliad spaces may non be the best solution for economic sustainability. Finally, the conclusions reached are that there compulsions to be a well managed balance of ballpark and build areas in cities. merchandise failures in the urban primer coat tradeToday we realise that we moldiness protect networks of unmannerly space (Benedict and McMahon 20023).Re garding natural resource use, market forces suss out the choices muckle make. However, resources such as urban third estate spaces do non give way securely enforced retention rights which result in a lose of markets. then, environmental resources hobonot be like a s het uply traded in an bluff market which leads to externality problems. Thus, due to market failures the full cost are not represented in the private cost (Panayotou 2000). The structure of the market fails to maximise social welfare, and the true cost to society is higher than the private costs to the producer as property rights are neither defined nor enforced, the private costs of exploitation environmental resources is zero (Gwartney et al 2000). thereof producers deal no incentive to protect environmental resources (Cropper and Griffiths 1994). To illustrate this problem of environmental externalities Pigou (1932) used the example of a company who builds a factory in a residential area and thus destro ys some of the conveniences of the neighbouring sites. The result is that the company sells its products at a overthrow value than the full costs felt by the society.Consequently, as a result of these market failures there has been a rapid increase of urbanisation and urban sprawl without efficacious land-use planning, and conservation of environmental resources. Nationally, urban areas consist of approximately 14% kelvin space (Comber et al 2008). However, the United Nations (2001, cited in Tzoulasa et al 2007) estimated that in europium the level of urbanisation will increase to almost 80% by 2015, which will result in a bring forward loss of urban green spaces. Environmental amenities are unremarkably ignored or underestimated by urban planners, resulting in a shrinking of urban green spaces that rent gradually been taken over by urban development (Kong et al 2007). accordingly urban development projects create contradict externalities (Tyrvinen and Vnnen 1998).This le vel of urban produce presents numerous environmental challenges for tackling environmental issues such as climate change and biodiversity (Tzoulasa et al 2007). Less green space contributes to global warming, which is especially important in cities where the mean pollution levels are higher. Urbanisation replaces green spaces with impermeable built surfaces which causes damaging environmental effects as green spaces provide rainwater interception and infiltration, evaporative cooling, and blending functions (Gill et al 2007). Furthermore, urban areas are more at risk to global warming due to the lack of green spaces, and urban areas are unremarkably hotter than the surrounding countryside. In urban areas, the concentration of buildings and paved surfaces creates higher temperatures, this is cognize as the heat island effect (Dunnett et al 2002). City centres sight be up to 7c hotter than the surrounding countryside (Hilliam 2010).Furthermore, build environments restricts wind tend which in turn restricts the dispersal of pollutants, and causes an increase in surface run-off from rainfall. Furthermore, levels of pollution are higher in urban areas as emissions mainly go in from the use of private vehicles (Morancho 2003). It is important to tackle these issues as in 2003, during the European summer heat wave, 35,000 lives were lost (Gill et al 2007). Moreover, tackling environmental issues in urban areas is especially important as in 2001 nearly eight of every ten quite a little in the United Kingdom lived in urban areas (Pointer 2005). Therefore due to a higher universe and an increase of built surfaces, urban areas are where climate change impacts will be largely felt in these areas (Gill et al 2007). Therefore as the level of urbanisation increases, this create environmental externalities as urban developers ignore the external environmental costs.This also has economic impacts as a lack of green space can increase the costs of public infrastructur e and services such as, flood control and storm water management. Lack of green areas increases a communitys susceptibility to natural disasters, as green spaces tackle climate change by means of carbon storage, and flood surety (Goode 2006). Furthermore, a lack of green spaces was often seen to be the main motive for plurality leaving the city, as they bunkd to the urban fringe for more green space (Van-Herzele and Wiedemann 2003). Therefore this results in economic decline of an area as plurality move out. This then results in lower property cherishs, which can act as a poverty magnet, attracting less wealthy people. This makes it hard to secure coronation or attract and retain business in the area. A lack of green space also has negative impacts on tourism as few people will want to visit the area (Crompton 2001). Furthermore, a lack of green space creates wellness issues which are costly for the preservation as an un full-blooded society increases the costs of health c are to UK revenue enhancement yielders (Mell 2008).Therefore the demand for urban green spaces exceeds add together, which results in consumer shortage. Furthermore a rising concern for environmental and economic impacts of urban green space have resulted in a growing interest in, and a requisite for more urban green space (Shaw et al 2007). For example, in great Manchester the pro ploughshare of tree cover is fairly low, with an average of 12% cover, and 16% in urbanised Greater Manchester (Gill et al 2007). The next part of the essay will discuss how to tackle these environmental and economic problems.efforts to preserve natural areas, acquire new greenspace, initiate plantings, and manage existing greenspace resources.Solution to the problemUrban green spaces have many benefits which can be dissever into market benefits and non-market benefits. Non-market benefits fall into three categories use, option and existence appreciate. Option value occurs when the future benefits are un trusted and depletion of the resource is irreversible. Existence value refers to the keen the resource exists, and use value is from the direct use of the resource. Total value is the sum of all three. Thus, urban green spaces have existence value, and direct use value, such as recreational use. Furthermore, urban green spaces create consumer surplus, which is the difference between what one is uncoerced to support (WTP) and what one rattling pays, as the cost of using urban green spaces is usually relax (Goodstein 2010).The issues discussed above raises the need for egis and allocation of urban green spaces. In 2004-2005 local anesthetic authorities in the UK spent an estimated 700 million on renovating and saveing urban green spaces (Comber et al 2008). Furthermore, Londons draft Climate Change Adaptation schema in May 2010 (online), proposes that there is a need to increase the citys green spaces by creating small green spaces, which will help to absorb rain on wet days and cool the city on hot days. Therefore, green spaces are multifunctional, which is one the mention aspects why urban green space are important for tackling environmental, social and economic issues. For example, regenerating a park may increase tourism and result in fewer medical expenses. Developing green spaces in urban areas is one agency to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. Urban green spaces have many environmental functions that provide areas within the built environment where alteration to climate change can take place (Gill et al 2007). Therefore making cities greener with parks, more trees and green roofs will provide cooling and ventilation, as well as water storage and infiltration (Bulkeley and Betsill 2003). Urban green spaces can also help to come down pollution, and act as sinks for carbon dioxide which is a major contributor to global warming (Dunnett et al 2002). In cities, gardens and parks absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which come from private vehicles in urban transport (Morancho 2003). Vegetation, particularly trees reduce air pollution by bewitching pollutants in the air, and by intercepting particulate matter. Hence 20 trees can call off the pollution from a car driven 60 miles per day. Therefore trees can form a buffer round sources of pollution to control the effects. Plants reduce the urban heat island effect by shading heat entrancing surfaces and through evapotranspirational (ET) cooling, and evidence has shown vegetation lowers wall surface temperatures by 17C (McPherson 1994). This has led to the phrase park cool island to contrast urban heat island (Gill et al 2007). This will regard economic sustainability as less money will be needed to recover from natural disasters, and climate change impacts (Hilliam 2010, Goode 2006).In such a congested environment, existence of verdure along the streets and small parks within residential zones are considered to cleanse air note. This creates soci al benefits from direct use such as recreational use and health benefits as a higher proportion of green space and less air pollution is associated with a better population health (Popham and Mitchel 2007). Health improvements lead to economic benefits, as a healthy community costs less to the providence. There is a growing mention that green space can increase activity and will ensure a healthy population, which is essential for economic growth, as health benefits from urban green spaces would lower costs of health care to UK tax payers (Mell 2008). This results in economic sustainability as healthier communities work longer hours, take less sick days and cost less money in health benefits (Goode 2006). Bird (2004 cited in Tzoulasa et al 2007) found that if people live circumferent to green space then they are more probable to sign physical activity, which would save the UKs National Health Service up to 1.8million a year. Moreover, inactivity in children often results in inac tive adults, which costs the economy approximately 8.2billion (Tzoulasa et al 2007). Therefore, protecting and creating green spaces ensures there is economic sustainability through a healthier society (Amati and Taylor 2010). Thus a key characteristic of green spaces is that they provide multiple benefits to communities and the economy (Dunnett et al 2002).Urban green spaces can act as catalysts for wider economic benefits, such as increase in property prices, attracting and retaining businesses and an important role in attracting tourists to urban areas. This is a key part of the solution for economic growth as urban green spaces makes cities more desirable and this can result in local economic stimulation (Dunnett et al 2002). Green amenities attract the super skilled, who pursue a higher standard of living and quality of keep, Florida (2002) describes how green spaces can attract creative class workers and the businesses that hire them. Moreover, employers locate in areas wher e the skilled want to live and this further attracts skilled workers, and high-end restaurants and retail stores. Therefore urban green spaces can raise a citys economic growth. Cities with more skilled workers experience an increase in population, foretoken price and wages. Additionally, people who are highly educated will also be more likely to support investments for environmental protection and are usually spontaneous to pay higher prices for environmental quality. Furthermore, a greener city will also have an insurance against recessions as the city remains attractive and people still want to live there. This will pull other industries into the area over time. Therefore it is important to protect existing urban green spaces. Londons Green Belt is an example of an attempt to reduce development in order to improve the environment by restricting house supply (Kahn 2006). The Mayor of London has set targets to plant 10,000 more street trees by 2012, and enhance up to 1,000 hecta res of green space (Environmental Agency 2010).Additionally, new manners, such as green roofs have been developed to increase green space in urban areas. A green roof is the roof of a building that is covered by vegetation, most common are greensward roofs. They have several purposes which are similar to urban green space in general such as cooling the heat island effect and absorbing rainwater. They also provide insulation and create habitats for wildlife. The benefits can thus be divided into private and public benefits. Private economic benefits include saving energy cost and an increase in roof life. human beings benefits include storm-water management (Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004). Currently there is only one green roof in Manchester.These trends raise the need for green space protection and allocation, which in turn requires estimates of the value of green spaces (Kong et al 2007). Due to their lack of set, expressed in monetary terms, green spaces are often not considered in cost-benefit analyses of urban planning policies. Therefore, there is a risk they will fall below the social optimum. Furthermore, it is the failure of the market system, as discussed above, which creates the need for economic measures to value environmental services and guide policymaking (Freeman 1993). Environmental quality is an economic beloved that people are voluntary to pay (WTP) for.Urban green spaces have non-market benefits and thus do not have a market price. Thus there is a need for economic measures to value these amenities. Several methods have been developed to value non-market amenities such as the travel cost method, the contingent valuation method (CVM) and the hedonic set models. The hedonic pricing method uses house prices to quantify environmental amenities by how much consumers are WTP. The hedonic pricing model is a revealed preference method and is based actual behaviour in the market. Properties have many characteristics which reflect the selling pr ices such as housing structure, neighborhood and environmental amenities. The monetary value of each characteristic is calculated by observing the differences in the market price of commodities sharing the same attributes. at once all the characteristics are collected the next step is to measure the portion of the property price that is attributable to each characteristic (Boyle and Kiel 2001). By using the hedonic pricing method the value of green spaces can be estimated from the prices of related actual market house transactions (Kong et al 2007).This method has been used to show the value of changes in the environment by spirit at how the value of the average home changes when the environment changes, for example a new park is created. Therefore the amenity of urban green spaces can be valued in monetary terms according to how much people are willing to pay for such benefits in their housing. The impression of hedonic pricing is that property values can be affected by the pr esence of urban green spaces. Green spaces can have a positive impact on house prices. There is usually a shortage of land in urban areas, and therefore an increase in green spaces will increase the positive amenity values. propinquity to urban green spaces has a positive impact on property values, while proximity to negative impacts such as highways reduces property values, as it is desirable to live close to a park, and people are willing to pay higher prices. Especially in city centres where demand for land is high, open spaces are often subject to development pressures. The demand for a property increases with the creation of new green spaces nigh (Tajima 2003). This then increases the price of those properties as numerous studies have shown that property values are typically 8-20 percent more expensive if they are located near a park (Crompton 2000). The real estate market often reveals that people are willing to pay higher prices for properties located close to parks and open spaces, than for homes that do not (Crompton 2000). The creation of a new park nearby increases the demand for a property, which in turn raises the price of those properties. Therefore, in fatheaded urban areas the value of nearby parks and green space can be one of the key selling points and a stronger feature than lot itself (Tajima 2003).Morancho (2003) did a study in Castelln (Spain) and found there was an antonym relationship between the selling price of the dwelling and its surpass from a green urban area. According to the estimates obtained, every 100m further away from a green area means a swing out of approximately 1800 in the housing price.Therefore, Green spaces in city centres are also an important aspect of the citys character, such as Royal park in London. Urban amenities are be feeler increasingly important as cities compete for skilled workers. Help to build a good reputation of an area, which will further increase house prices and encourage people to move there . This enables the community to grow economically, without damaging the environment, and simultaneously create a desirable place to live for present and future generations (Benedict and McMahon 2002). Urban green areas also benefit more people as the city draws more people into the area, such as residents, commuter trains, and tourists (Tajima 2003). Hedonic valuation can also be applied to retail situations as people are willing to pay about ten percent more for products in greener obtain areas (Miller and Wise 2004). Therefore to reduce the impact of urbanisation, allocation of new and protection of existing urban green spaces is required to ensure economic growth (Kong et al 2007).DeSanto and others ( 1976 ) used the least-cost approach to compare trees and mechanical air pollution control devices to maintain air quality standards for particulates and sulfur dioxide in St. Louis, MO. They find out that open space plantings were over three times as cost-efficient for controllin g sulphur dioxide as scrubbers located in power plants. Benefits from trees are environmental externalities because these benefits are not reflected in consumer prices we do not pay money to trees for cooling homes. McPherson 1992.Urban green spaces in isolation will not increase economic growthHowever, not all green spaces are equally beneficial. To ensure that urban green spaces enhance economic growth, they must be well maintained, safe and secure. Over the past new decades there has been a decline in the quality of urban green spaces in England. This can be linked to the declining budgets for local authorities over the past 20 to 25 years (Dunnett et al 2002). This has a negative economic effect as green spaces that are dangerous or unmanaged are likely to ebb the value of nearby homes, which would lead to economic decline (Crompton 2001). Furthermore if green spaces are perceived to be exceed or unmanaged this may have a negative effect on peoples well-being by increasing a nxiety caused by fear of offence (Tzoulasa et al 2007). Research shows that open spaces which a most highly values are those which enhance the qualities of urban life and offer a manakin of opportunities (Burgess et al 1988). If there is a lack of facilities or the area in poor condition then people are less likely to use it. Evidence suggests that lower-income suburban areas may have a big proportion of poor-quality green space. Thus even if green spaces are in large quantities, if they are of poor quality then economic and health benefits are not felt by the population (Popham and Mitchel 2007). Additionally, if green spaces are poorly managed so that they become inaccessible, then less people will use them, especially the elderly or people with disabilities. Therefore, quality as well as quantity of green space is a key factor. Moreover, McConnell and Walls (2005) argue for the importance of distinguishing between different types of open space. The value of green spaces depend s on its usage for example, whether it is a well managed park or an open field. Barker (2003) also reported that the value of open space depends powerfully on its location and use. Green space in the urban total was valued higher than greenbelt land. Anderson and West (2006) show that the value of open space depends on the type of open space, how far away it from the house and the neighbourhood characteristics. They find that benefits from open space range from a low of 0.0035% of sale price for every 1% decrease in the distance to the nearest neighbourhood park, to a high of 0.034% for every 1% decrease in the distance to the nearest lake.Furthermore, the net result of restricting housing supply is that prices are driven up. This results in poverty magnets in areas with low property prices, resulting in a segregation of the poor and urban social problems. For example, Glasgow has lost population over time, and relative poverty has grown. Therefore Londons rocking horse to a green er city could further increase house prices and it could be argued that a city can become too green when economic growth is damaged. An upward pressure on house prices could have a negative impact on some residents and first time buyers as it would overeat out the poorer renters and new immigrants (Kahn 2006). The constraints on housing supply are already high and this will be exacerbated if more green space is created or current green space is not used for development. The result of this restrain supply would not lead to economic sustainability as it would limit economic growth. Therefore it will not necessarily lead to a bear on economic growth nationally, but only benefits certain regions (Kahn 2006). It is often the wealthier people who benefit most, as studies have shown that vegetation and tree cover is lower in residential areas with higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation. Therefore only certain areas benefit as less wealthy areas might not be able to afford to maintai n new green spaces (Pauleit et al 2005). Moreover, an increase economic wealth will also increase the values of losings making the cost to restore damages after a disaster much greater (Shaw et al 2007). Therefore, there are difficulties in coming to a firm conclusion.Therefore, conserving green spaces may restrict the supply of valued goods, such as housing, shops, offices or private open space. This results in distributional effects as those landowners who can build get an increase in their asset value, whereas those unable to develop will experience a diminution in asset values. Part of the market failure associated with urbanisation is the increase in land prices imposed on existing inhabitants by additive workers. Furthermore, policies of containment, such as greenbelts, may increase energy use as commuters move out beyond the greenbelt which results in longer commuter journeys. Therefore it could be argued that policy in the UK restricts urban growth which leads to higher co sts and welfare losses. Hence land regulation can have adverse economic effects as it diverts resources from other growth activities. Therefore the solution maybe not regulating land markets but regulating or taxing energy markets (Cheshire).However, the value open space is contextual as it rises with increased income. Open space is a normal good, and therefore has a higher value in richer areas. The value is also higher in high density areas, which suggests that public green areas are a substitute for private open space (Anderson and West 2006). Therefore the willingness to pay for environmental quality is highly elastic with respect to income.literature has also examined the degree to which brown cities have to pay higher wages (i.e. battle pay) to lure high quality workers relative to high quality of life cities. Kahn 2006having a clear narrative voice, making judgements and interpreting others work and also the data. economic and policy concepts.ConclusionTo conclude, this essa y has highlighted the environmental problem of urbanisation, explaining how this is a result of market failures. It has also shown how this can lead to economic problems. This essay then goes on to argue that a solution would be preserving, maintaining and evolution new green spaces in urban areas. It goes on to explain the environmental, social and economic benefits of urban green spaces. It also highlights the hedonic pricing method, which shows how urban green spaces can be valued. It also argues that green spaces create economic benefits by increasing property values. However, the latter part of the essay challenges this, arguing that not all green spaces is equally beneficial. It also argues that preserving green spaces could also have a negative impact as the cost of land increases further, resulting in large increase in house prices.Therefore, it is important to maintain urban green spaces for the many environmental, economic and social benefits. However, this cannot be in i solation as for green spaces to be beneficial they must be well maintained and managed. Furthermore if too much green space is protected then this could have negative impacts overall. Therefore urban land policies need to be well managed in order to achieve the uttermost benefits. Furthermore, methods other than land protections could also be used, such as taxes.