Throughout our lab project on urban green spaces we have struggled to bring the topic back to global relevance. Our preliminary work showed that most of the literature surrounding green spaces is situated in the northern hemisphere in high-income countries. This makes sense considering urban green spaces seem to be a concern for cities that are already developed and established, and have resources to devote to greening efforts. However, considering the numerous benefits provided by urban green spaces we would have expected to see them more fully incorporated into the rapidly growing urban areas.
In trying to understand why urban green spaces were not as widely studied as we had hoped, I sought out literature from areas not represented in our original background analysis. One such study I found compared green spaces in nine different cities in South Africa. What was interesting about this study area is how historically divided the neighborhoods were due to lingering effects of apartheid. Numerous sources have asserted that access to green spaces is dishearteningly unequal among various racial groups. Therefore, this study area unqiue in its strongly segregated neighborhoods. They found that neighborhoods of affluent white communities had the greatest amount of green space, which fits trends seen both in the United States and globally. It is understandable that people in growing areas would not support green spaces if they have historically seen them only used to benefit the dominant groups.
This study examined different types of suburbs and urban areas, which is greater depth than our lab project went into. It was found that even within the type of urban area, such as suburb or urban core, there were different amounts of green spaces. Our project compared urban sprawl to green spaces, which does not account for extremely different communities that all have the same level of urban sprawl. The South African case studies looked at socio-economic factors to explain the variance in green spaces between neighborhoods that on the surface would appear to have the same level of development. South Africa is still developing and is currently experiencing intense population growth. The article rightfully points out that in countries such as these urban land is usually needed for more practical uses such as urban farming. Portland have have scattered community gardens, but nothing comparable to the urban farming integrated into South Africa’s cities. This exemplifies the numerous issues in taking the results we found in Portland and making broad assertions.
Our project has illustrated the relevance and complexity or urban planning. Studies we have read from all around the world come from the perspective of using development to redress issues of inequality and improve the standard of living. One unique aspect of urban planning in South Africa is a rigourous housing campaign that is trying to meet the needs of all the people moving into these urban areas. This puts the focus on providing safe housing for as many people as possible, and will usually conflict with green spaces. Urban green spaces provide a multitude of benefits, but only to those who can access them. By comparing the state of green spaces in South Africa to those in the United States it becomes clear that decisions of urban land use reflect the current concerns and values of each unique urban area.