E-Weekly-5/48
Green Earth Movement
An E-Newsletter for the cause of Environment, Peace, Harmony and Justice
Remember - “you and I can decide the future”
FOR A HEALTHY AND
HAPPY FUTURE
PRESERVE AND
PROTECT PARKS AND
OPEN SPACES !
EDITOR’S NOTE
“The BMC has planned to develop Aarey
Colony, one of the few green spaces
left in the city, as a new development
zone in its Development Plan (DP)
for the next 20 years (2014-34).
However, environmentalists have
condemned the move saying it will
only expose Aarey Colony to rampant
development, which will result in loss of green cover”.
(courtesy: Asian Age)
In this context, this PowerPoint Presentation may help the
readers to be enlightened on the need of open spaces.
Father Felix Rebello, Editor
DEFINITION
Parks and open space
refers to land that has
been reserved for the
purpose of formal and
informal sport and
recreation,
preservation of natural environments,
provision of green space
and/or urban storm water management.
Parks and open space vary in size, form
and the functions that they perform. A
strategic approach is needed in
assessing the needs of a community
and planning an open space network.
Public open space is usually
categorised into a hierarchy of
neighbourhood, district and regional
open space and can be used for either
passive or active recreation.
Neighbourhood parks provide for regular local use and may
include:
•small areas of open space that are accessible to local residents,
generally providing for recreation such as children’s play and
relaxation, which also can provide an identity and a sense of place
for a community especially where it incorporates an important
landscape feature or historic characteristic
•playing fields for organised
sport (from 1ha to 3ha in size)
which can also be used for
walking and informal activities,
and
•Linear parks linking areas of
open space. These often follow
drainage lines or environmental corridors and can incorporate off
road shared pedestrian and cyclist paths.
District and regional parks are
larger and cater to the needs of
a broader population. The
types of parks may include:
•district playing fields that provide
for a range of active, organised sport
and recreation such as
football/soccer fields, cricket pitches, tennis courts, baseball
fields and the like
•waterfront and other regional parks for social gatherings,
such as picnics, recreation and education, and
•areas reserved for cultural or environmental retention
(escarpments and areas of biodiversity value such as wetlands
and bushland) that may provide some limited recreation
opportunities, such as bird watching, picnicking and
bushwalking.
Open space often comes under pressure for development
in existing neighbourhoods or is at risk of being
undervalued and underprovided in the planning of new
subdivisions.
However, in some cases a
strategic assessment will
identify a need to reorientate
or rationalise existing open
space to overcome past
planning mistakes and to
address access and
maintenance issues.
An open space network should encourage more active
lifestyles by offering a variety of safe and attractive spaces
that are well distributed throughout a neighbourhood and are
accessible and cater to the sporting and recreational needs of
the community . Preferably public open space should attempt
to cater for multiple users. For example, through landscaping
and the addition of facilities, a sporting oval could be
designed to cater for sportspeople, walkers, and children .
There are numerous health benefits associated
with access to public open space and
parks. Access to vegetated areas such as parks,
open spaces, and playgrounds has been
associated with better perceived general health,
reduced stress levels , with reduced depression
and more walking. Moreover, there is a
substantial body of evidence demonstrating
that increased walking improves physical and
mental health. Physical inactivity is a major
public health risk. Worldwide, mental health is
a leading cause of burden of disease.
One study found that people who use public open
spaces are three times
more likely to achieve
recommended levels
of physical activity
than those who do
not use the spaces.
Users and potential
users prefer nearby,
attractive, and larger parks and open spaces. More
specifically, the benefits from participating in sport
and physical activity include:
1] Improved physical health and wellbeing – with
reduced risk of lifestyle related diseases, higher
survival rate of other diseases, improved quality of life
and long term health, and, in young people and
children healthy growth and development.
2] Improved mental health – builds
individual self-esteem and self-image,
reduces stress, improves concentration
and enhances memory and learning.
3] Enhanced social outcomes – encourages
social interaction and development of
social skills,
improves social
networks and
social capital,
increases
community
cohesion and
pride, safer communities.
4] Reduced healthcare
costs – improved physical
health and the building
of stronger families and
communities helps lower
health-care costs, reduces
the costs of social
intervention and plays a role in reducing crime and
social dysfunction.
Thus, improving access to public open space has the
potential to increase levels of physical activity, and to
have mental health benefits and reduce healthcare
and other costs.
5] Public spaces also
enrich lives by providing
sites for festivals,
celebrations, expressions
of community identity,
or simply a space to
breath at leisure.
6] Children become the next generation of adults, and
will ultimately reflect the conditions of life they
currently experience.
Open spaces liberate
the ‘wild thing within’
but all forms of play
help children develop
their abilities, teaching
them personal
responsibility, and to
thrive as a member of a team or community.
Playgrounds increase civic engagement and solidarity.
Encourage
Amenity
Design public open space so that it:
•protects and enhances the
environmental, cultural and heritage
values of an area.
•assists with place-making by building
on the special attributes of an area, eg. hill tops, ridges, rocky
outcrops, remnant vegetation, water features, views, vistas, and
incorporating community art projects/public art.
•is pleasant and welcoming, eg. through embellishments such as
landscaping, park furniture (seats, drinking fountains) and lighting.
•is well maintained and actively managed, and
•is safe and perceived to be safe such as by providing lighting and
areas that can be viewed by people.
Accessibility
Ensure accessibility with open space that is:
•distributed throughout an area providing equitable
access to all residents
•easily accessible via public transport where appropriate
•easily accessible via the walking and cycling network and
with adequate
bicycle parking facilities,
and
•connected where
practicable with a
Broader open space
Network throughout
the area.
Useability
Useability is ensured by open space that:
•is of a sufficient size and shape to cater for its intended
purpose, in most states minimum standards apply for
the provision of open space
•is adaptable, catering for multiple users and types of
activities
•for children, has access to facilities such as basketball
hoops and running tracks which are associated with
moderate to vigorous physical activity, and
•is shared by a number of user groups, for example,
school ovals could form part of the open space network
and be available out of school hours for community use.
Rule of thumb
Design the open space
network as an integral
part of the urban
structure and offer a
variety of safe and
attractive spaces that
are well distributed throughout a
neighbourhood and that are accessible,
connected and cater to the sporting and
recreation needs of the community.
Avoid
•Public open space not being integrated into a new
development area. Rather it should be considered with
potential users in mind in terms of the range of activities and
location, and attention should be given to its detailed design.
•Concentrating only on the quantity of open space provided.
It is equally important to consider the quality of public open
space and how it will be used, in order to maximise
community value and its contribution to creating green
spaces in the urban environment.
MUMBAI SITUATION
With a population
growing towards 14 million,
Mumbai’s citizens inhabit
a compressed urban
condition within a dense
landscape of harsh social
and economic divides.
As one of the most
densely populated cities in the world, the public
domain is further compromised by a lack of public
spaces.
A citizen of Mumbai gets 1.1 square metre of
open space against the international standard
of 11 square metre per person. Only 6 percent
of the total land in the city is made up of open
public spaces. Out of this, 45 percent is partially
or completely encroached upon.
The urban fabric of Mumbai is thus characterized
by two forms of ad-hoc growth. One fueled by
squatters who cannot afford formal housing and
are compelled to live in self-built organic
settlements that are densely packed and
infrastructurally under-served. The second, more
dominant growth pattern is driven by private
developers who are filling in the void left by the
lack of planning, with shopping malls, office plazas
and gated communities. While these are packaged
into well-designed modules, they plug-in to the
city in a similarly ad-hoc manner with little regard
for infrastructure or open spaces.
HOW TO PROTECT OPEN SPACES?
1] There are areas of the city that
can be considered as open space,
but are under constant threat of
development. Within the city's limits
are 37.3 sq. km of mangroves,
10.68 sq.km of salt pans, 13.35 sq. km of marshy areas
and 46.5 sq. km of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, for a
total of 107.83 sq.km. Currently No Development Zones
are allowed to be constructed on. These land should be
reserved strictly under non buildable open space
reservations. Once these lands are declared protected
from any future development, the amount of open space
per capita will be secured for our future.
2] Our second recommendation
is to give custody/responsibility
of the open spaces to the
individual ward Office.
Currently, playgrounds,
recreation grounds and
gardens are the responsibility
of the Superintendent of Gardens,
a centralized office within the
BMC under the Department of
Gardens and Zoo.
3] Lastly it is the opportune time for citizens
groups and individuals to adopt an open space
as purely non-buildable reservation. Once the
city's open spaces are secure and a minimal
level of physical intervention
is made (benches, trash bins,
lighting, fencing, etc.), they
are prime opportunities for
an ALM, housing society or
cooperative or school to
adopt these open spaces.
Increasing or even
maintaining the existing
amount of public open
space in Mumbai has
and will continue to be
a challenge in the city.
Political will, public
consciousness and
pressure on decision
makers and developers are the only tools available to
ensure that Mumbai does not lose its precious public
open spaces. This in turn will prevent several factors
that negatively affect residents' health and restore the
city's ecological balance.
This educational PowerPoint Presentation (editable) is
prepared by GEM Team (courtesy: internet).
For other similar GEM PowerPoint Presentations on various
environmental issues see next slide.
These PPTs may be downloaded from our website
www.stfrancisxavierpanvel.in
The GEM PPTs can be creatively used for various groups
like school/college students, NGOs, government officials,
Church groups, SCC groups, housing society members
and so on.
Zero Garbage
Solar Energy
Junk Food
Twenty Tips To Save Nature
Plastic – a boon or bane?
Green Passion
Soft drink – A Health Hazard
Waste to energy
Rain Water Harvesting
Eco-friendly Religions
Happy Green Diwali
Climate Change
The future of Biodiversity
Genetically Modified Foods
Waste Water Treatment
Give thanks, Give Life (Body,
Organ, Tissue Donation)
Organic Farming
Waste to cooking gas
Reduce, Reuse. Recycle
Protect Mangroves
Say NO to Bottled water
Save Lakes and Ponds
Forests are green lungs
Coal Mining and Ecology
Sin of Food Waste
Climate change and Poverty
Stop Water Pollution
Carbon Footprints
Parks and Open Spaces
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