RECREATIONAL QUALITY OF URBAN GREEN SPACES. CASE STUDY - CRAIOVA.

MARINESCU, Ioan Eustaţiu; CURCAN, Gheorghe

Sustainable cities base their existence on urban green spaces. These places are intended to provide high quality-services for the recreational activity of urban dwellers. At present, most of the green spaces became overcrowded and intensely used. The analysis of recreational quality was carried out in the Botanical Garden of Craiova, which offered us the perfect experimental area for the study. The Botanical Garden is surrounded by blocks of apartments and intensely inhabited areas. There has been recorded an increased number of visitors as a result of the degradation and disappearance of smaller green areas in the neighborhoods like Craiovita and Brestei. Thus the Botanical Garden became the place that serves almost exclusively one third of the city dwellers of 5 surrounding territorial units of Craiova. For this reason, we proposed a set of criteria for the analysis and assessment of recreational quality of green spaces, namely overloading, satisfaction and shift addressability. This criteria would explain why urban densification around the green areas contributed to the reduction of its recreational quality. The final outcomes of the study can contribute to a better management of overcrowded urban green areas. It may also be a useful tool for local authorities and city planners.

CRAIOVA (Romania); PUBLIC spaces; RECREATION areas; URBAN planning; BOTANICAL gardens

Annals of the University of Craiova. Series Geography / Analele Universitatii din Craiova. Seria Geografie, 2020, Vol 21, p29

1224-4112

Academic Journal