Essential infrastructure or ornamental afterthought? Reimagining urban green space planning in the contemporary city

我的研究致力于城市绿色空间的争议角色。我研究的矛盾，建立规划目标和政策，强调城市绿色空间作为当代和未来的城市生活的关键，但管理他们作为一个可选的舒适与不一致和脆弱的资金。因此，我发现了城市绿色空间的理论讨论方式和实际交付方式之间的差距。城市绿色空间已经上升到政策和研究议程，这是由于人们对自然在应对当代城市挑战（如气候变化、慢性健康状况和生物多样性减少）中所起作用的认识提高。对绿色基础设施的关注进一步提升了城市绿色空间的作用，将其与城市冷却和防洪等关键城市系统和服务联系起来。然而，随着城市化的继续快速发展，城市绿色空间尚未实现其经济、环境和社会潜力。我的研究发现，与其作为“关键脚手架”来管理，（艾森曼，2013年：298）或多功能、相互连接的绿色基础设施系统的基本要素，绿色空间被概念化为装饰性的事后想法，我展示了一个强大的文化和制度对遗产的关注--根植于一个拿破仑时代的自然视角--导致了一种“体制上的束缚”（Lowndes，2001年：1955年），导致错失了利用绿色空间作为规划工具的机会，无法提供战略连通性和多功能基础设施，而这些基础设施被认为是城市可持续发展的关键。我的研究挑战了现有的关于绿色空间概念如何构建的规范。新制度主义很少应用于城市可持续性问题，它提供了一个与历史的联系，有助于解释当代绿色空间规划的局限性。在此基础上，我的研究表明，路径依赖的概念化的城市绿色空间，并奠定了维多利亚痴迷“理想化的农村”（韦尔奇，1991年：6）主导绿色空间交付和管理的今天。我的研究也有助于绿色基础设施的新兴框架，显示如何，尽管属于“绿色”的大伞下，城市绿色空间没有概念化的绿色基础设施，由于从遗产为基础的政策，规划过程和机构的限制。使用在伦敦市中心收集的实证证据，这项工作表明瘫痪的影响，一个制度化的概念化的城市绿色空间对规划，治理和筹资进程。这超越了以可持续发展和绿色基础设施为基础的当代政策，以减轻城市化的有害影响。此外，我扩展了绿色空间治理。两个新成立的组织--伦敦绿色空间委员会和伦敦国家公园城市基金会--致力于超越当地规模的城市绿化。这项工作探讨了这些组织是否代表了一个更综合的，战略性的方法，以提供绿色空间作为一个系统的互联，多功能的绿色基础设施的转变。随着规划，治理和可持续性辩论的影响，我的研究认为，真正实现广泛的好处城市绿色空间可以提供，绿色空间必须被视为与道路和公用事业同等重要的基础设施。这与传统的关于绿色空间作为遗产资产和舒适设施的对话不同。由于人们对气候变化及其对伦敦经济、环境和社会活力的威胁的认识提高，这种转变变得更加紧迫。33%的伦敦被认为是植被覆盖的公共绿色空间，如果重新定义绿色空间，很难忽视这种资产对城市生活的贡献。

My research addresses the contested role of urban green space. I examine the paradox of establishing planning goals and policies that emphasise urban green spaces as critical to contemporary and future urban life, yet managing them as an optional amenity with inconsistent and vulnerable funding. As such, I identify a gap between the theoretical way urban green space is discussed and the practical way it is delivered.Urban green space has risen up policy and research agendas, buoyed by a heightened awareness of the role nature plays in addressing contemporary urban challenges, such as climate change, chronic health conditions and waning biodiversity. A focus on green infrastructure has further elevated the role of urban green space, connecting it with critical urban systems and services, such as urban cooling and flood prevention. Yet, as urbanisation continues at a rapid pace, urban green spaces have not realised their economic, environmental and social potential. My research finds that, instead of being managed as "critical scaffolding" (Eisenman, 2013: 298) or essential elements of a multifunctional, interconnected system of green infrastructure, green spaces are conceptualised as an ornamental afterthought, detached from the city around them.I demonstrate how a powerful cultural and institutional preoccupation with heritage - grounded in a Victorian-era perspective of nature - leads to an "institutional straightjacket" (Lowndes, 2001: 1955), resulting in missed opportunities to use green space as a planning tool to provide the strategic connectivity and multifunctional infrastructure identified as essential for urban sustainability.Drawing from the frameworks of new institutionalism and green infrastructure, my research challenges existing norms around how the concept of green space is constructed. Rarely applied to urban sustainability issues, new institutionalism offers a link with history that helps explain limitations of contemporary green space planning. Building on this, my research demonstrates a path dependency of the conceptualisation of urban green space and lays out how a Victorian obsession with "idealised countryside" (Welch, 1991: 6) dominates green space delivery and management today. My research also contributes to the emerging framework of green infrastructure, showing how, despite falling under the broad umbrella of "green," urban green spaces are not conceptualised as green infrastructure due to constraints from heritage-based policies, planning processes and institutions.Using empirical evidence collected in Inner London, this work demonstrates the paralysing impact an institutionalised conceptualisation of urban green space has on planning, governance and funding processes. This overrides contemporary policies, grounded in sustainable development and green infrastructure, to mitigate harmful impacts of urbanisation. Further, I expand on green space governance. Two newly established organisations - the London Green Spaces Commission and London National Park City Foundation - address urban greening beyond the local scale. This work examines whether these organisations represent a shift towards a more integrated, strategic approach to providing green space as a system of interconnected, multifunctional green infrastructure. With implications for planning, governance and sustainability debates, my research argues that, to truly realise the broad-ranging benefits urban green spaces can provide, green space must be conceived as critical infrastructure on par with roads and utilities. This differs from traditional conversations about green space as a heritage asset and amenity. This shift is made more urgent by a heightened awareness of climate change and its threat to London's economic, environmental and social vitality. With 33 percent of London considered vegetated public green space, it is hard to ignore the contribution this asset could make to urban life if green space is reconceptualised.