Urban Resilience and Residential Greenery—The Evidence from Poland

Joanna Dobrzańska (), Adam Nadolny, Robert Kalbarczyk and Monika Ziemiańska
Additional contact information
Joanna Dobrzańska: Department of Landscape Architecture, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Grunwaldzka 55, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Adam Nadolny: Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Grunwaldzka 53, 50-357 Wrocław, Poland
Robert Kalbarczyk: Department of Landscape Architecture, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Grunwaldzka 55, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
Monika Ziemiańska: Department of Landscape Architecture, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Grunwaldzka 55, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-18

Abstract: Social distancing and movement restrictions associated with COVID-19 have highlighted the role played by easily accessible greenery at one’s own residence, which is of key importance to people’s physical and psychological wellbeing. The main focus of this study is to provide insights into residential green areas in Wrocław, Poland in terms of knowledge, investment, trends and associated issues, as examined from the perspective of the potential to boost urban resilience. Sixty-six representative multi-family construction projects typical of Central European cities were analyzed. The study is divided into three stages: I—pre-construction (selection of locations), II—construction of a housing estate (clearance of vegetation, number of trees planted, use of pro-ecological solutions), and III—post-construction (monitoring of the condition of green areas by means of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and data from Sentinel-2 satellites). The results highlighted the insufficient use of pro-ecological solutions (green roofs, fountains or ponds) and shortage of woody plants in residential green areas. Their implementation should be included in any strategies for Wrocław’s transformation toward a sustainable post-pandemic city. Furthermore, the main findings of the study also revealed an imbalance between the amount of vegetation cleared vs. vegetation planted during construction and unequal access to high-quality greenery for local residents. Although some positive trends in spatial planning were observed compared to previous studies, two construction projects were implemented in floodplains. NDVI analyses indicate the poor condition of residential green areas; moreover, the change in NDVI for the period 2015–2020 attests to the poor standards of vegetation maintenance. The results of this study suggest that the potential of residential green areas for boosting urban resilience has not been fully utilized in Wrocław. It is highly recommended to implement monitoring of the condition of green areas by means of NDVI and to introduce detailed provisions on the shaping of green estate areas in the Local Development Plans to enhance Wrocław’s resilience. The main findings being presented expand the directions of methods of monitoring residential areas’ conditions in terms of applied landscape research and boosting urban resilience.

Keywords: urban green spaces; residential area; sustainability; cities; NDVI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11317/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11317/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:18:p:11317-:d:910871

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().