Greenway Controversies

The social and economic values of parks and open spaces have been well studied especially to justify their economic value in relation to other competing types of land use. Although the benefits of such green spaces (including greenways) are well understood, less can be found in current literature that address the practical issues in the planning and implementation of greenways. The factors and forces that affect the translation of greenways from plan to reality was the key research question of the thesis. In particular, the research focused mainly on land use factors that affected the planning and implementation of greenways, such as land ownership and regulation. The thesis also examined the inter-related complexities of other factors such as politics, planning tools, regulations and context.