Seeing the wood for the trees - Exploring the role of municipalities in creating equitable green space
Summary
Urban greening is increasingly promoted and used in urban planning and decision-making due to the ecological, social and economic benefits they provide. Consequently, cities around the world have been developing greening strategies to deal with challenges as climate change and urbanisation. Yet, the discourses promoting the benefits of UGS such as ecosystem services, raise issues of justice. The benefits of urban greening are argued to portray green space as a win-win solution while not paying enough attention to the negative spatial and social outcomes such as the so-called green-gentrification. As more or better green space is added to the neighbourhood, the attractiveness and public health of that neighbourhood improves, making it more desirable and increasing housing costs. In turn, these housing costs are no longer affordable for the original residents, leading to gentrification. This research focused on how municipalities take these negative spatial and social outcomes into consideration during the provision of urban greening interventions, while looking at the city of Amsterdam. Through a single-case study with two subunits this research sough therefore to understand ‘To what extent are environmental justice concerns included in the urban greening strategies of the city of Amsterdam?’. This research showed that the municipality of Amsterdam does try to involve residents and their values into the urban greening projects, however, thereby does not take potential gentrification into consideration, increasing the chances of marginalized groups being displaced.