Majority of City Residents in Austria Want More Green Spaces
A study by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Boku) Vienna shows that the majority of city residents would be willing to give up parking spaces in favor of more green spaces and even pay for it. City residents from all over Austria were surveyed.
According to the survey, 65 percent of city residents in Austria would be willing to pay up to 45 euros annually as a fee to the municipality if new urban greenery in their vicinity noticeably improved air quality and temperature - even with a longer walking distance of up to ten minutes to their home.
The ecological benefits of green spaces in the city are well researched, but there are challenges in finding suitable areas, Boku announced on Tuesday. For example, the repurposing of parking spaces and streets as potential green spaces is being discussed.
Open preferences.
The team led by Ulrike Pröbstl-Haider from the Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning at Boku surveyed 1,055 adults from Austrian cities with over 20,000 inhabitants about their willingness to pay for new green spaces and whether they would also be willing to accept longer distances. According to Pröbstl-Haider, the result shows "that the willingness to participate in the Austrian population has so far been underestimated in many urban planning models." While politics often shy away from repurposing, the urban population is already further ahead on the topic of green spaces and climate change adaptation. The therefore researchers advocate for "bold urban planning."
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here .
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