Urban Gardening and Green Cities: Exploring The Main Concepts

The theme of urban gardening of this essay revolves around the concept of urban nature. It is seen as an ideal provider of services, and a key concept for city development. The concept of urban green infrastructure is thus exemplary for strategic and integrated planning, protection, development, and management of urban nature. This requires citywide, district-based, spatial concepts.

Modern Concepts of Urban Nature and Urban Forests

Culturally shaped nature showed that 'culture' was achieved, irrespective of 'Wilderness,' which has traditionally been represented as forests. Both agrarian landscapes and forests have been symbolically incorporated in cities. Urban nature has historic-cultural foundations as well as symbolic properties. A simple method for presenting urban nature in a clear and concise manner was suggested by Kowari. Urban woodlands are typical (residual) elements of cultural landscapes used for agriculture and forestry, which have expanded into the city and now exist within the direct vicinity of urban development.

Spontaneous growth is typically not tolerated and suppressed as the focus lies on aesthetic interpretation of nature. In accordance with typical urban-flora, pioneer species develop, followed by spontaneous shrub-communities and urban pioneer-forests. There is an ongoing debate regarding the use of the terms 'urban woodlands' and 'urban forests'. Urban forest refers to the entirety of urban tree stock, irrespective of ownership. It includes woods and woodlands as well as all trees on both public and private land (street trees, private gardens, cemeteries, orchards).

Urban forest refers to the entirety of urban tree stock, irrespective of ownership and is considered a resource and provider of ecosystem services benefitting the city residents. City parks were once typically located on the outskirts of the city. They soon became embedded into the urban environment as cities expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth century. The criteria 'park-area per inhabitant' fails to equally distribute parks as a public good. Distance alone often limits their accessibility for some city residents. Further reasons for the unequal accessibility of parks can be attributed to the historical development of parks.

Standards for park design, management and distribution are also subject of debate. Although basic standards are frequently proposed, they too are subject to debate. In 1995 The European Environmental Agency (EEA) published a report in which it was mentioned that in most European cities urban green spaces could be reached within 15 min. Grunewald et al. calculate the accessibility of public green spaces for the residential population in Germany by using the digital vector-dataset of the landscape model.

Practicing Urban Gardening

Gardening is the practice of shaping and maintaining nature (soil, relief, vegetation cover) as a usage- and aesthetic object with freely chosen goals. The cultivation off fruits and crops has always been a subsidiary use of nature in cities and primarily serves as food supply for the city residents. Urban gardening and urban agriculture cannot be definitively separated from each other, particularly at the level of small-scale production. Urban gardening is a term that encompasses many forms of gardening in urban areas. In community gardens a (often socially heterogenous) group of city residents jointly shape and use the garden according to a mutual agreement.

In many cities around the world, urban gardening is neither a trend nor a lifestyle, but a significant part of the economy and a necessity for human subsistence. Allotment gardens play a significant role in the twenty-first century regarding ecologically oriented urban development, as well as human health and leisure activities within the urban environment. In Germany alone there are approximately 17 million hobby gardeners. The concept of organized allotment garden clubs originated in Germany (Leipzig) between 1886 and 1910 and spread throughout Europe.

Wildlife gardens are a model for the reintegration of nature with the processes of gardening and garden-structures. Maintenance is reduced in favour of natural processes and natural elements are used wherever possible. This provides the gardener with a sense of contributing to nature and a healthy environment. A community garden is a publicly accessible piece of land that is collectively maintained and used by a group of people for the purpose of gardening. Community Gardening has emerged as the most important access to urban gardening in general.

They are actively and concretely contributing to the 'cultural and energy revolution' by collectively using and shaping green spaces. Examples for urban water bodies are small water bodies, ponds, lakes, water bodies in parks, rainwater retention basins, streams, rivers, drainage channels, canals, and harbour basins. Both open water bodies as well as wetlands of a narrower proportion exist in cities. Open water includes all above-ground flowing water bodies. Still water bodies include naturally occurring small water bodies, ponds, lakes, but also artificially created water bodies and rainwater retention basins. The transition between 'natural' and 'artificial' is particularly blurred in cities and 'renaturation' is considered a developmental goal.

Natural andor man-made water bodies are frequent elements of city parks. Coastal areas, such as beaches, are considered to be particularly attractive forms of urban nature. Cities with wetlands are not as rare as one might presume, yet residents are seldom aware of these areas. Pollution of urban bodies of water has seen a decline in many cities. Efficient monitoring of water quality is required to recognize and eventually prevent water pollution.

New urban wilderness in the form of industrial-shaped habitats that (re)enable the spontaneous development of nature constitutes the nature of the fourth approach. New urban wilderness refers to previously used areas in the city that are temporarily (ranging from years to decades) unused. It typically emerges in industrial areas, near railway tracks, or on independent abandoned areas. An understanding of this 'new' approach of urban nature is still being developed and established.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this essya of urban nature is to plant more and more trees. That will help for more production of CO2. Which is obviously help full for human and animals as well. Urban gardening is a modern eco-friendly way to make our cities better and to help in solving environmental problems. 

References

1. Lawson, L. J. (2005). 'City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America.' Berkeley: University of California Press.

2. Mougeot, L. J. (2000). 'Growing Better Cities: Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Development.' Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.

3. Nagendra, H. (2018). 'Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future.' Oxford University Press.

4. Beatley, T. (2011). 'Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning.' Island Press.

5. Douglas, I., Hargreaves, C., & Penny, C. (2011). 'Urban Wildlife Habitats: A Review of Current Literature.' London: Countryside and Community Research Institute.

6. Kaplan, R. (1984). 'Impact of Urban Nature: A Theoretical Analysis.' Urban Ecology, 15, 1-15.

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7. Pickett, S. T. A., Cadenasso, M. L., Grove, J. M., Nilon, C. H., Pouyat, R. V., Zipperer, W. C., & Costanza, R. (2001). 'Urban Ecological Systems: Linking Terrestrial Ecological, Physical, and Socioeconomic Components of Metropolitan Areas.' Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 32(1), 127-157