The cities that offer quality of life must not only have good services, practical urban furniture and controlled pollution levels, but to make available to citizens Urban green areas through policies responsible with the environment.
These green areas are key to improving the health of the population, as they act as lungs that renew the polluting air, while relaxing and supposes a necessary evasion to forget the concrete, constituting authentic bubbles of nature rezuman and insufferate life.
There are innumerable studies that have concluded the convenience of having trees near the home, natural spaces in which to exercise, take a walk or simply sit to read, talk or do any other activity. Here are the Importance of green spaces in cities.
Green spaces: definition
A Green spacealso known as Green zone or green areait is a delimited terrain in which there is vegetation. It can be a forest, a jungle, a park or a garden, but it must be delimited and have vegetation. In addition, when we talk about urban green spaces we refer to those that are within a city or an urban agglomeration. However, not all green areas are the same and, when we talk about green spaces, as in this article, we usually refer to some particular. These green spaces can be distinguished in two types:
- Natural green spaces: They are the ones that have developed naturally, without man intervening.
- Unnatural green spaces: They are those that have been created by man and their origin coincides with the moment when natural green areas began to decrease.
The definition given by the National Environment Commission is that urban green areas, or on the periphery of the cities, are areas occupied by plants, shrubs or trees whose uses can be variable, can be given ecological, leisure, decoration, rehabilitation, protection or some joints.
Importance of green areas in cities
They decrease violence
An interesting line of research relates violent behaviors to the lack of these places, proposing a Greenst urban landscape To fight it, according to a survey from the University of Temple, in the United States.
Increase life expectancy
From a positive approach, natural environments They encourage creativity, mental and emotional abilitiesso urban green areas would help improve the longevity and quality of life of its inhabitants. Since it has been shown that contact with nature benefits in the long term, urban planners have a great resource to design cities intelligently, making them more habitable. Not surprisingly, parks, gardens and small groves are authentic oasis in the middle of the urban jungle, valuable resources to improve health and well -being.
Healthier sport
It has been a lot of talk about the importance of practicing sports and avoiding sedentary lifestyle. However, research carried out by specialists from the Australian University of Queensland have shown that practicing this exercise in green areas is much more beneficial than doing it in other areas of the city where there is asphalt and cars.
Improve social relations
If there is something that everyone hates of urban agglomerations are noise and crowds. Pradójically, one of the consequences of the agglomerations of people – so as of noise – is that social relations between the neighbors are weakened, something to make the feeling of community be lost. That lack of community feeling ends up causing individuals to fail to integrate, partly because there is nothing to integrate. Another thing to keep in mind is that studies show that the feeling of community and good social relationships reduce mortality levels, suicide rates and increase health levels, both mental and physical.
Create ecological awareness
All studies indicate that one of the most important things when creating ecological awareness is to be able to live nature. It doesn’t matter if it is at home, in parks or on the mountain, living nature and being in contact with it is the fundamental factor for us to worry about it and try to keep it. With classes or just explaining it, it is not enough for children to understand the importance of conserving nature, living and loving it – for example with urban green areas – is what will create that consciousness.
Urban Green Areas: Examples
Next we will talk about some of the Examples more representative of Urban green areas In some cities:
- New York: In this American city is the one that, surely, is the most emblematic and famous urban green area worldwide. This is the Central Park, the scene of numerous films, with 341 hectares of forest, park, lakes, bridges and sculptures that make it the most visited park in the world and in the lung of the Big Apple.
- Barcelona: The Parc that of the Ciutadella is, although much smaller than that of Manhattan, the lung of the city. In its 17 hectares a lake, monuments, walks and leisure areas, and even the Parliament of Catalonia and the Zoo.
- Madrid: The Spanish capital also has a large urban green area, the famous Retiro Park, a garden with great history converted to Public Park in the nineteenth century that is considered a good of cultural interest.
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