Working Towards a Sustainble City

The Urban Greening Home Page

Sponsored by the
International Centre For Sustainable Cities
and the
Thailand Environment Institute
with funding from
CIDA, The Canadian International Development Agency

Having green space—which can refer to everything from roof-top gardens to community forests—within a city is a necessary component of a healthy urban area. Given that in the developing world a high proportion of urban residents do not have access to basic services such as sanitation and electricity, urban greening is not seen as a priority by all municipalities. Planting and maintaining green areas, however, is within the abilities of individual communities as it does not require a huge investment in infrastructure. Once educated about the benefits of urban green space, communities can form working groups to design and implement urban green plans. It is necessary that this process includes representatives and input from municipal governments, urban forestry experts, women's groups, youth groups, local community leaders, and any other relevant parties.

The purpose of this web page is to provide both the necessasry background information as well as a practical "how-to" guide that community groups could use to develop their own urban green plan. This page has emerged from a partnership project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) between the Thailand Environment Institute and Canada's International Centre for Sustainable Cities. For the last few years these two organizations have been working together with communities in Bangkok Thailand to address local environmental problems.

PART I—INTRODUCTION TO URBAN GREENING

This section introduces the ideas of the urban environment. This should provide a community group with a theoretical background to view the city and understand how the city affects both the local and global environment.

PART II—HOW TO CONDUCT AN URBAN GREENING PROGRAMME

This section outlines some practical how-to steps that a community should follow in order to develop an urban green plan.

PART III—FINAL REPORT FROM PHASE I

PART IV—HUMAN HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF URBAN GREEN SPACE

Report commissioned from Ms. Christine De Vuono

PART V—URBAN GREENING RESOURCES