Site-specific factors in the production of local urban ecosystem services: A case study of community-managed green space

M. Dennis and P. James

Ecosystem Services, 2016, vol. 17, issue C, 208-216

Abstract: Pockets of green space in cities can provide important ecosystem services for urban residents. As naturalistic spaces in urban areas become increasingly sparse, communities are beginning to co-manage existing incidental pockets of land towards the creation of communal natural resources. Such green commons can be productive in terms of ecosystem services through targeted management such as in the case of urban agriculture. Although some work has been done to explore the motives behind and potential benefits of informal green space management, further research is required to understand those characteristics of site management and community input which contribute to the enhancement of site-specific ecosystem service production. A case study of ten examples of community-managed green space was undertaken to evaluate the contributory factors relating to site character and management which influenced productivity as defined by the cumulative provision of four urban-relevant ecosystem services. The analysis revealed that the level of community involvement, measured as intensity of volunteer hours, was highly instrumental in the productivity of sites. Food production also proved to be catalytic for the enhancement of ecosystem services whereas extent of vegetative cover and increasing site size were, counter-intuitively, detrimental to overall site productivity. The study therefore supports the promotion of participatory approaches to the management of ecosystems services in urban areas, particularly those which take small-scale urban agriculture as a primary practice.

Keywords: Social-ecological; Ecosystem services; Urban ecology; Green space (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041616300031
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:17:y:2016:i:c:p:208-216

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.01.003

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().