Foreword	7
	Preface	9
	Acknowledgements	10
	Contents	11
	Contributors	12
	Chapter 1: Why Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect	13
	1.1 The Global Scale of the Challenges We Face	14
	1.2 Urban Nature and Human Wellbeing	16
	1.3 Alignment and Misalignment	16
	1.4 Beyond Success or Failure	17
	1.5 The Structure of the Book	18
	References	19
	Chapter 2: What Is Urban Nature and How Do We Perceive It?	20
	2.1 Defining Urban Nature	20
	2.2 Why Is Urban Nature So Important for Human Health and Well-being?	23
	2.2.1 Air Quality	23
	2.2.2 Physical Activity	24
	2.2.3 Social Cohesion	24
	2.2.4 Stress Reduction	25
	2.3 Why Is Human Perception of Urban Nature So Significant? The Nature Dose	26
	2.4 Perceptions of Urban Nature: Diversity in Nature	28
	2.4.1 Diversity in Nature: Biodiversity Perception and Preference at Different Scales	28
	2.4.2 Biodiversity: Can People Recognise It?	29
	2.4.3 Diversity in Nature: Varying Aesthetics – Perception and Preference	32
	2.4.4 Varying Aesthetics – Flowering and Colour	33
	2.4.5 Varying Aesthetics – Structure and Care	35
	2.5 Socio-Cultural and Geographical Contextual Factors	38
	2.5.1 Gender	38
	2.5.2 Education	39
	2.5.3 Professional Background	40
	2.5.4 Nature-Connectedness	40
	2.5.5 Migration Background	41
	2.6 Urban Nature Perceptions: What Do We Know? Implications for Policy, Practice and Further Research	42
	References	43
	Chapter 3: Naturally Feeling Good? Exploring Understandings of ‘Green’ Urban Spaces in the Global South	48
	3.1 Introduction	49
	3.2 Nature As Asset…?	50
	3.3 In the Beginning… “It Was Just Dirt Roads and Overgrown Land”	52
	3.4 Understandings of ‘Nature’ As Asset	55
	3.4.1 Growing Natural Assets	57
	3.4.2 Planned and Public Urban Green Space	59
	3.4.3 Fearing the Green and the Blue	61
	3.4.4 Grey and Green … Pink, Yellow, Red and Purple Spaces	62
	3.4.5 Gendered Understandings of Green Spaces	63
	3.4.6 Trees of Life: Unnatural Assets?	65
	3.5 Constructions of Nature: Concluding Thoughts	65
	References	66
	Chapter 4: Making a Governable, Value-able Nature: Calculative Practices and Eco-system Services	69
	4.1 Introduction: Numbers and Nature	70
	4.1.1 The Structure of Calculative Regimes	71
	4.1.2 Political Economy and Calculative Practice	72
	4.2 Making Nature Governable and Value-Able	74
	4.2.1 The Qualification and Classification of Natural Environments	75
	4.2.2 The ‘Unbundling’ of Ecosystems into Categories	77
	4.3 Valuing Nature	79
	4.3.1 A Natural Capital Account of Sheffield’s Parks and Green Spaces	80
	4.3.2 A Natural Capital Account of the Ponderosa Park, Sheffield	83
	4.3.3 A CBA of an Intervention to Increase the Benefits Derived from the Ponderosa Park, Sheffield	87
	4.4 Conclusions	90
	References	93
	Chapter 5: Contesting Longstanding Conceptualisations of Urban Green Space	97
	5.1 Introduction	98
	5.2 Measuring Fitness for Purpose	100
	5.3 Unchanging Rationales	101
	5.3.1 Connection to Health	102
	5.3.2 Leisure and Recreation	104
	5.3.3 Behavioural and Moral Wellbeing	105
	5.4 Changing Cities	107
	5.4.1 Changing Environmental Awareness	109
	5.5 Discussion	110
	5.5.1 Perseverance of Nineteenth Century Rural Ideals	110
	5.5.2 Planning Designations	112
	5.5.3 Statutory Designations	114
	5.5.4 Governance Structures	115
	5.5.5 Planning and Green Space	116
	5.6 Conclusions	119
	References	121
	Chapter 6: The Challenges of Changing Governance: Curating New Civic Identities for Health and Wellbeing	127
	6.1 Introduction	128
	6.2 Wetlands as Climate Change Mitigation Spaces	129
	6.3 Political Austerity and Its Relationship with Emergent Forms of Environmental Citizenship	131
	6.3.1 Environmental Activists in Wetlands: Rural and Urban Volunteering Experiences	132
	6.3.2 The Study Sites	133
	6.4 Creating a Meaningful Life in a Post-work World: Curating New Civic Identities	137
	6.4.1 Resilience in Counterpoint to Austerity Localism: Building Communities	139
	6.4.2 Activism and Community: Working Within and Against Current Governance Regimes	143
	6.4.3 Connected Lives, Shaping Meaning with Concerned Others	144
	6.5 Concluding Thoughts: ‘Grey Power’ and Environmental Activism in Wetland Spaces	146
	References	149
	Chapter 7: Mind the Gap: Does What We Know About Greenspace and Wellbeing Change What We Do?	153
	7.1 Introduction	153
	7.2 Innovation Before Infrastructure?	154
	7.3 Fractured Governance	156
	7.3.1 Evidence in Governance	157
	7.4 A Case Study from Sheffield, UK	160
	7.5 Grounded Governance and Fragmented Agendas	162
	7.5.1 Do Actors Believe They Can Achieve Change?	163
	7.6 Evidence-Seeking as Myth and Ceremony	170
	References	172
	Chapter 8: Measuring the Gap Between Rhetoric and Practice: Examining Urban Green Space Interventions Post-implementation	176
	8.1 Introduction	176
	8.2 Why We Need (Policy) Rhetoric on Green Space Management	177
	8.2.1 Evaluating over the Long Term	179
	8.3 Tracing Processes, Post-implementation	180
	8.4 Green Space Strategies: A Worldwide Phenomenon	181
	8.4.1 A Worked Example: Strategies in Westminster	182
	8.4.2 Westminster and Beyond: Common Symptoms in Strategies?	184
	8.5 Material Change in Green and Open Spaces: Changing Practices…?	185
	8.5.1 Reflecting on Failures in the Evaluation Process	189
	8.6 What Do We Know About the Gap Between Rhetoric and Implementation?	190
	8.6.1 It’s Dependent on Context, but…	191
	8.6.2 Mismatch Between Intended and Achieved…and the Pressure to Succeed	191
	8.6.3 The Power of Public Outcry	192
	8.6.4 The Problem with the Data	192
	8.6.5 Estimating the Importance of Context: A Purely Academic Exercise?	193
	References	193
	Chapter 9: Realigning Knowing and Doing: An Agenda for Reflection and Action	197
	9.1 A Need for Reflection	197
	9.2 Perceptions in (and of) Urban Green spaces Are Contested: So What?	198
	9.3 How Can We Address the Misalignments Between What We Know About Green Space and What We Do in Practice?	200
	9.4 Why Is “Business as Usual” No Longer Good Enough?	201
	9.5 A Realignment Towards Learning from All, Not Just Good, Practice	202
	References	204
	Index	205