Marija Opačak

By Marija Opačak

Many developed countries have recognized the importance of public parks in sustainable development of cities as they help minimizing the negative impact of urbanization. Developing countries, on the other hand, are facing problems such as lack of public awareness and inadequate facilities for sports and social activities to attract visitors to public parks, which positively affect the social and psychological human well-being. Parks are venues that enable people of all age groups to engage in different activities with family and friends and connect with nature. While planning a city development, policy makers should consider new findings in the area of brownfield regeneration, to use the existing land more efficiently and ensure public acceptance of the proposed projects. This chapter contains five sections. Section 1 gives an introduction to land use challenges faced by policy makers, brownfield sites, and stimulus that motivate people to use public parks. In Section 2, the importance of urban parks to human health and key elements to achieve urban sustainability are presented. Section 3 introduces novelty among park facilities. Section 4 gives an example of a landfill-to-park transformation. Section 5 summarizes policy suggestions for decision makers to increase their focus on the importance of parks.

Part of the book: Outdoor Recreation