A New Urban Greening Scheme Approach: Increasing Quantity and Quality of Urban Green Space

ABSTRACT

Urban green spaces are perceived as vital urban infrastructure for healing from the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Regarding the limited availability and the high price of land in urban areas, local governments are encouraged to find alternative solutions that are good, appropriate, and fast to achieve the target of 30% green open space in their area. Based on the Green City Development Roadmap by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in 2015, several cities were creatively assessing and determining the components of green open space based on the city's natural character and stipulated in local regulations. This causes the diversity of existing green open space data in each city which cannot be compared validly. Furthermore, along with technology development in providing more environmentally friendly elements, the term "green open space"is considered to limit improvement efforts in the quantity and quality of urban green spaces. Therefore, this descriptive-qualitative study was conducted to find a new paradigm in defining green open spaces through benchmarking methods based on selected cities' strategic and practical policies. The study results found the term "green space"in general as a response to the spatial problem that does not limit the function and utilization of the space, such as the condition of being open or closed by a tree canopy, owned by public or private, or furnished with vegetation and/or hardscape elements. However, we consider that implementing this breakthrough idea needs to be supported by related scientific studies and best practices relevant to the environmental context, both ecological, social, and cultural aspects. Consequently, a deeper study in realizing the green space concept needs to be carried out, primarily related to proving that this concept can increase both the quantity and quality of the urban green space. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.