Proposal of indicators regarding the provision and accessibility of green spaces for assessing the ecosystem service “recreation in the city” in Germany

Abstract

The paper summarises the multiple benefits of urban green spaces for city dwellers and provides an overview of proximity approaches and common key parameters for green-space quantification in cities. We propose indicators for the assessment of the ecosystem service ‘recreation in the city’ on a national scale. The calculation procedure, which takes into account the best available data sets in Germany, is explained. The determination of threshold values regarding green-space standards comprising type, size and distance is crucial to such studies. The results, the degree of provision with public green spaces in all German cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants (n = 182) and their accessibility, are presented. In total, green spaces are accessible for daily recreation for 74.3% of the inhabitants in German cities, which means that underprovision affects 8.1 million city dwellers. Some indicator details are shown for the examples of Wiesbaden and Stuttgart. Finally, we discuss the approach and values of the proposed and quantified indicators in a German and European context.