Defining the Urban Greenspaces in the Indian Context

Abstract With the increasing rate of urbanization and decreasing percentage of overall greenspaces in the cities, the urban areas are becoming vulnerable to various hazards and climate change. The presence of adequate and well-maintained greenspaces plays a vital role in society’s well-being and the creation of a healthy environment. Despite being such an essential feature of urban areas, Indian legislative & regulatory documents still lack in terms of a standard working definition. Hence, this study aims to frame a standard working definition of “urban greenspace” in the Indian context. In order to achieve the goal of this work, a rigorous study of 237 research papers based on Indian scenarios was done. These papers were categorized based on the domain and the context of their study. From the literature review, the evolution of greenspace definition specific to the planning domain was traced and the criteria used to define urban greenspace in the various other domains were identified. The proposed definition of “urban greenspace” will incorporate the maximum criteria identified and shall best suit the heterogeneous nature of the Indian cities. This research is an initial attempt to trace the evolution of the definition of urban greenspace in the planning domain and to frame a standard working definition of urban greenspaces for the urban Indian context. The outcome of this work will help urban planners and policymakers to overcome the current issue of the dilemma about the standard definition of “greenspace”.