Vegetation complexity and greenspace diversity in urban schools

Abstract

Urban greenspaces are critical for maintaining biodiversity and people’s connection to nature. Schools are distributed throughout cities and have the potential to provide for and enhance native biodiversity, while facilitating positive relationships between children and nature. However, very little is known about greenspaces on school grounds, particularly their ecological condition. We evaluated the size and quality of greenspaces in 64 urban primary schools in Auckland, Aotearoa–New Zealand by undertaking a rapid greenspace assessment to identify the relative proportions of greenspace types on school grounds, vegetation and habitat quality. All schools had trees present on their grounds, however only 36 % had a native forest patch, and habitat quality was generally low due to the dominance of sports fields, artificial turf and a lack of shrub layer. A larger number of different greenspace types on school grounds was associated with more large trees (>6 m), and a higher habitat quality score. A third of schools also had one or more environmental weed species present. The socio-economic status of schools did not appear to be a key factor in predicting the quality of a school’s greenspace. There are many opportunities to improve school greenspaces to better contribute to urban biodiversity as multifunctional spaces. Increasing greenspace type diversity, adding more vegetation layers, and increasing the diversity of native plant species on school grounds, would increase habitat complexity and improve biodiversity and cultural connection outcomes. The value of school grounds as multifunctional spaces will depend on place-specific ecological and cultural contexts.