Green Spaces as an alternative for the natural environment

Abstract

The study in this report seeks to investigate green spaces at a micro and an intermediate level in order to establish whether or not green spaces are an alternative for natural environments. One of the issues raised in this study is that human being relations and that of other species has deteriorated owing to human being’s interference of the natural environment.

One of the key findings is that green spaces provide significant benefits to the environment in terms of air purification, erosion control, energy and cost saving, and temperature modification. The data acknowledges the conception that the need for a healthy and properly maintained green space is not only ornamental or aesthetic but significant to the benefit of all species.

Green Spaces as an alternative for the natural environment

Introduction

The present environment that human beings have interfered with has been transformed ever since creation. As human beings living in this contemporary society, our relations with other species have deteriorated. The environment developed within urban areas has become unsuitable for nearly all wild animals, even though the less wild ones have since evolved to the contemporary society. It is important that as part of urban planning, some green spaces are preserved for the less wild animals as well as for other organisms so that a balance of respiratory gases is achieved.

Other significant aspects regarding the adequacy of the green spaces has been acknowledged by Budruk et.al, (2009) whereby they emphasize that green spaces raised home values, reduced cooling-related energy costs as well as enhanced business revenues.Moreover, Barnett et.al, (2009) believes that green spaces have resulted in an improvement in community life, provided community safety in addition to making the public more sociable.

This particular study will explore green spaces at the micro as well as the intermediate level. The results of this particular investigation will be obtained using the internet information, information from colleagues as well as by visually assessing the green spaces. This particular report will investigate the current green space uses randomly in vicinities of Sydney, which will afterward be used to make a conclusion as to whether or not green spaces are an alternative for natural environments.

Materials and Methods

Materials:

pen

paper

watch

camera

internet

Method:

For this particular experiment, a green space was chosen and recordings of the name of the park, vicinity of the park as well as the park’s characteristics such as the surface area under shrubs, trees water-sealed surfaces etc were recorded including a photograph of the selected park .The recordings consisted of establishing the number of people pass through the selected park as well as the activities they were undertaking within a period of one hour.

Other observations consisted of establishing the number of other species such as mammals, reptiles, birds and insects in addition to observing the various activities they were undertaking. The day, time and weather were also recorded with the observations carried out by sitting on the park chair within the time interval.

An internet program was employed to estimate the area of the selected park; the program is provided in the link HYPERLINK “http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm.Before”http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm.Before all these, a topographic map was employed to gather information regarding the geographic location of the green space, number of green spaces within the vicinity (area) as well as the areas of every green space in the area. The population was also found out from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

Results

The following table shows class results, however not all the class results are shown as this may be tedious to extrapolate, nevertheless majority of the results are shown below.

Suburb Name Population Green area total (km2) Park or reserve name

Maroubra 26538 0.487 Nagel Park

Mascot 8540 0.088 Mascot Oval

Chippendale 3300 0.002 Peace Park

Burwood 11678 0.082 Burwood Park

Haymarket 5091 0.105 Belmore Park

Bayview 3088 3.920 Rowland reserve

Panania 11331 0.045 Smith Park

Waterloo 11112 0.067 Waterloo Park

Zetland 578 0.006 Mary Obrien Park

Randwick 131714 0.680 Woolwash Park

Cabramatta 20337 0.866 Cabravale Park

Chatswood 13513 0.699 Bales Park

Strathfield 20489 1.377 Strathfield Park

Greenacre 22463 0.460 Roberts Park

Carlton 850 0.410 Beverly Park

Hurstville 23331 0.377 Poulton Park

Petersham 6639 0.700 Petersham Parl

Campsie 143111 0.058 Anzac Park

Auburn 76519 0.220 Mona Park

Kogarah 58137 0.510

Scarborough Park

Table 1. Shows class data on green spaces around Sydney

Specific details of the selected park in this particular investigation are shown below. The information was obtained from the internet. Sources are ABS, Google maps as well as an internet application cited earlier in the method.

Feature Name/ Type/ Number Area (in km 2)

Suburb Name Kogarah 16

Location Latitude: -33.963

Longitude: 151.133 ______________________

Green areas (total) 5 0.510

Population 58 137 ————————————

Table 2. Characteristics of the suburbs and green spaces

The green spaces indentified within the Kogarah region are as shown below.

Type of Green Space Names of green spaces Average area ± SE (m2)

Park or reserve Scarborough Park 2.4 x 105

National Parks, Nature Reserves and Sanctuaries Leosmith Reserve

As Tanner Reserve 7.8 x 104

2.62 x 105

Sporting fields (golf clubs, sporting complexes) Kogarah Park

Kogarah Golf Course 1.99 x 104

3.49 x 105

Table 3.Details of the types and areas of green spaces in the suburb

Activities observed in on the day below at Scarborough Park are shown below in table3.

Day: Saturday (05/03/2011)Time: 15.30Weather: Partly cloudy

Species Activities/ Observations No. Seen or heard

Human Walking, running, sports, picnics 15

Birds Looking for food, flying around 48

Insects (butterfly) Flying around 3

Reptiles (lizards) Lying on a rock in sun, looking for food 7

Table 4.Shows details of activities observed by species at Scarborough Park

The following map shows the geographic location of Scarborough Park, a photograph of the park is next to it.

Figure1. Location of Scarborough Park Figure 2. Photograph of Scarborough Park

Discussion

In reality, green spaces bring about nature’s heart to all species within an urban environment. Besides being an alternative to the natural environment, they also seem to bring value to areas within Sidney. Observations made from the class data as shown in table 1 shows that green space areas do not have an effect on the area population. For instance, Greenacre and Kogarah have similar green space area even though the population of Kogarah exceeds the population of Greenacre by approximately 36K people.Moreover; it reveals that Bayview has a very small population for the green space area.

Data obtained from HYPERLINK “http://www.homepriceguide.com.au”www.homepriceguide.com.au reveal that areas having a lot of green space areas have housing prices higher compared to regions having low green space areas. The data obtained compared Kogarah and Greenacre, with Kogarah putting up houses for sale at an average of $681,000 when compared to Greenacre that puts up houses for sale at an average of $490,000.This data supports statements recommended by Gilbert et.al, (2007) that state that green spaces raised home values and enhanced business returns. Another author, Barnett et.al, (2009) also backed the statement that green space areas have an impact the price of houses. Prices of rooms having visual variety as well as outside green space view were 20 per cent higher compared those of other regular rooms.

Green spaces have their own categories by which they are used. A reserve park may be employed in a different way as a sports park, for instance, the ANZ stadium. Majority of the green spaces are mostly used for leisure and recreational activities for those who enjoy relaxing. Green spaces can therefore be seen as way for people to connect with natural world. The observations in table 4 reveal that animals for instance birds and lizards still act naturally as if they were in the natural environment. There are also a large number of birds recorded showing that they are comfortable within the green space environment.

Barnett et.al, (2009) points out that, green spaces have a significant functional role within urban landscape by offering ecosystem services, for instance the alleviation of erosion and flooding. Other factors such as accessibility ought to be considered when carrying out the process of urban planning. Transport is normally the major focus when considering accessing these green spaces and ought to be strongly taken into account by urban planners.

In conclusion, green spaces have proved to be an alternative to natural environments. Barnett et.al, (2009), for instance, states that over 50 per cent of rare birds, plants and fresh water fish residing around the major towns and high population areas of Australia prove that that these animals have been able to adapt to change. On the other hand, human beings are also bound to pay more to live in a Mother Nature’s feel that really proves the value green spaces have. It is therefore important that these green spaces are maintained so all species can benefit from.

Bibliography

The success of this report has been dependant on the contributions of many people, especially those who spared their time to share their thoughtful insights and suggestions to it. Lastly, a very special thanks to Renee for her insight into the subject, in addition to helping me reflect in a more scientific way.

References

Barnett, G. & Doherty, M. & Beaty, M, 2009, ‘Urban Greenspace: Connecting People and Nature’, Environment 13, vol.1, no.1, pp 1-10

Bundruk, M. & Thomas, H & Tyrrell, T. 2009, ‘Urban Green Spaces: A study of place attachment and Environmental Attitudes in India’, Society and Natural Resources, vol.22, no.1, pp 824-839

Gilbert, M. & Brack, C. 2007, ‘Changes in Public Requests to Remove significant Urban Trees after Severe Bushfires in Canberra, Australia’, Science Direct, vol.6, no.1, pp 41-48