Urban green space management : manual for local municipalities

One of the goals of the project “GreenMan” (ELRI-177) is to develop a system formanaging urban green areas in the border regions of Estonia, Latvia and Russiawhile enhancing the cooperation between specialists in urban green space planningand universities focusing on green space planning and management. One ofthe outcomes of the “Green Education” work package executed by the EstonianUniversity of Life Sciences is this manual and the accompanying study course ongreen space management.The manual gathers together and presents good practices for maintaining urbangreen spaces. All the issues are viewed in the context of the environmental, socialand economic challenges of the new century such as better use of limited natural aswell as economic resources, enhancing biodiversity and dealing with the pressurescaused by increasing numbers of city dwellers, their lack of everyday contact withnature and their need for recreation. Traditional ornamental parks and gardens canonly look their best and function well where there are sufficient financial resources,suitable equipment and well-trained staff to manage and maintain them. In theirabsence it may be a necessary to look at alternative and innovative practices thatsave money and require lower intensities of all types of inputs.The manual is mainly intended to help the staff of local municipalities to focus theiravailable resources in the most efficient way onto the most important maintenanceactivities and to nurture and care for the often sensitive plants under their carewhich, if incorrectly treated can be lost or their value diminished. The manualpresents an overview of all the relevant topics of urban green space managementand provides the most up to date information about what to focus on in preparingmanagement plans, what maintenance works to order and how to make sure thetasks are properly fulfilled while securing a high quality end result. The recommendations presented in this manual are based on expert reportsmade within the framework of the project as well as from a wide range ofrecent high quality and relevant literature on the topic. No references are givendirectly in the text but all base materials are listed at the end of the manual.All illustrations are provided by Labie Koki.We hope that the manual will be used as the first point of reference and that asmany of the recommendations as possible will be followed. Urban green spaceis as important a part of the infrastructure of an urban area as the roads, servicesand communications and should be given the same degree of protection andmaintenance.Liina Jürisoo, Anna-Liisa Unt, Simon Bell, Jekaterina Balicka,Editors.