(Re)greening transition of academic green spaces as a response to social and environmental challenges: The role of bottom-up initiatives

Abstract

While university campuses provide a substantial and diverse array of green areas, their development usually contributes to the adverse effects of urbanisation on ecosystems. However, academic green spaces may contribute to socio-ecological transitions, and higher education institutions can use their educational and scientific potential to implement sustainable development strategies. Our study explores the (re)greening transition of a university campus in Central Europe. Specifically, we aim to identify the role of grassroots university activism in this process, the driving forces behind it, and the challenges encountered. We understand the (re)greening transition as a multifaceted shift that includes changes in landscaping practices, the implementation of nature-based solutions, and the reduction of impermeable surfaces wherever possible. We identified three stages of the transition: green opposition, green acupuncture with collaborative projects, and patchworked palimpsest with the institutionalisation of bottom-up initiatives. These stages constitute a response to an earlier period of top-down ‘terraformation’ that destroyed semi-natural habitats and implemented traditional landscaping. While the (re)greening transition cannot fully restore pre-construction habitats, the academic green spaces on campus now serve a wider range of functions, including aesthetic, social, regenerative, ecological, educational and scientific roles, thereby enhancing the cultural, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services provided by these spaces.