Governing and transition of greenspace in urban regions

The international scientific literature calls for research on governing of greenspace, on localknowledge and on the impact of different actors on greenspace and its quality. It expresses concernabout the sustainability of urbanization. This study makes a literature inventory concerning urbangreenspace, especially using recent review articles and focusing on greenspace in a context of urbandevelopment, the meaning of nature, greenspace management and governing. It looks into governing atthe level of functional urban areas and at the local, neighbourhood level. It makes an internationalcomparison between functional urban areas by using the ‘policy arrangement approach’ which specifiesthe means of influence at the urban regional level, and collects evidence from case studies, based onfour years of international research together with practitioners. At the local level, local initiatives bycitizens in cooperation with municipalities or companies are studied. (Again) the means of influence arelooked into, and the differences are identified with state management of greenspace and with the typeand use of greenspace that the local state produces. By using the ‘multilevel perspective’ and ‘strategicniche management’ approaches from transition studies, the study identifies ways to upscale the localknowledge of citizens.The thesis provides evidence that to preserve greenspace and integrate it in urban development,hierarchical government at the scale of the urban region is needed, equipped with a powerful set ofmeans of influence. For the adaptation to local and private needs, pursuing complementarity between themeans of local parties (citizens, companies) and the municipality is a workable strategy. The local studyshows among others that innovation calls on all involved parties, not only the municipality.