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Cities need more green spaces to adapt to climate change and facilitate community resilience. However, successfully managing green spaces is challenging. City governments consistently employ top-down management practices that limit the benefits, usage, and perception of such spaces as Nature. Further, current management practices overlook socio-cultural factors important to residents. Using the existing categories of urban green spaces (UGS) and informal green spaces (IGS), this article situates the cultural practice prendersi cura as a way to conceptualize successful, bottom-up green space management. The term prendersi cura, meaning "to take care of" in Italian, emerged through interviews in Perugia, Italy, and reflects the socio-ecological value of IGS and the disconnect between residents and city-managed UGS. This study employed mixed methods, combining 10 weeks of participant observation, 13 interviews, and GIS analysis to understand the relationship between Perugians and their green spaces. Results indicate that interviewees did not describe city-supported UGS (i.e. top-down green spaces like parks or historic gardens) as Nature, even if they were areas of dense vegetation and recognized by the City of Perugia in GIS analyses. In contrast, interviewees described IGS (i.e. community gardens, vacant lots, or potted plants) that were unrecognized in city GIS visualizations as Nature, indicating a stronger attachment to green spaces when interviewees had active roles in their management or witnessed community-based management practices. This paper demonstrates the importance of managing green spaces through a socio-ecological framework that considers user perceptions and cultural values. To allow greening initiatives to reach their full potential, it is critical to embrace local values and participation in management practices. • Value of urban parks is based upon community engagement, not park size. • Active, bottom-up management supports successful green spaces in Perugia, Italy. • Taking care of Nature provides a framework to improve the human-Nature relationship. • Mixed-methods approaches need to inform urban planning and policy development. • A comprehensive socio-ecological framework is necessary to evaluate green spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Abstract The main goal of this article is to identify and classify institutional barriers which prevent the use of urban green spaces (UGS) at three levels: availability (whether a UGS exists), accessibility (whether it is physically and psychologically accessible, e.g., not fenced off), and attractiveness (whether it is attractive enough for potential users to visit). We reviewed the impacts on UGS provision exerted by different actors (individuals, formal and informal groups, community councils, city authorities, national governmental and non-governmental organizations), along with the relevant institutional foundations of those impacts. As a result, we identified and classified the different barriers for which these actors are responsible in the case of fifteen UGS types in our case study city, Lodz (Łódź) in Poland. The main barriers at different levels concern conflicting interests, physical barriers (private green spaces), and the lack of funds, together with legal and governmental failures (public green spaces). These barriers result from the different actors' mandates or lack thereof. Our analysis has implications for the operationalization of UGS availability, accessibility and attractiveness, and, in particular, for mapping UGS and setting the relevant indicators and thresholds for UGS availability, accessibility and attractiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective urban planning, and urban green space management in particular, require proper data on urban green spaces. The potential of urban green spaces to provide benefits to urban inhabitants (ecosystem services) depends on whether they are managed as a comprehensive system of urban green infrastructure, or as isolated islands falling under the responsibility of different stakeholders. Meanwhile, different urban green space datasets are based on different definitions, data sources, sampling techniques, time periods and scales, which poses important challenges to urban green infrastructure planning, management and research. Using the case study of Lodz, the third largest city in Poland, and an additional analysis of 17 other Polish cities, we compare data from five publicly available sources: 1) public statistics, 2) the national land surveying agency, 3) satellite imagery (Landsat data), 4) the Urban Atlas, 5) the Open Street Map. The results reveal large differences in the total amount of urban green spaces in the cities as depicted in different datasets. In Lodz, the narrowly interpreted public statistics data, which are aspatial, suggest that green spaces account for only 12.8% of city area, while the most comprehensive dataset from the national land surveying agency reveals the figure of 61.2%. The former dataset, which excludes many types of green spaces (such as arable land, private and informal green spaces), is still the most commonly used. The analysis of the 17 other cities confirms the same pattern. This results in broader institutional failures related to urban green infrastructure planning, management, and research, including a lack of awareness of green space quality (e.g. connectivity) and benefits (ecosystem services), and the related political disregard for urban green spaces. Our comparison suggests that a better understanding of green space data sources is necessary in urban planning, and especially when planning urban green infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Łódź IGS are perceived as providers of a range of ecosystem services. • Regulating and habitat services are most often assigned to IGS. • design interventions can improve the attractiveness of IGS. • In turn, they will enhance cultural services and encourage citizens to use IGS. Urban green spaces (UGS) and the ecosystem services they provide are essential for the health and wellbeing of city dwellers. UGS are increasingly seen as a potential solution for sustainable urban planning and development. Informal green spaces (IGS), even though they may make up a large share of UGS, are often overlooked in this regard. This study examines residents' awareness of the ecosystem services provided by IGS and their need for redevelopment. The data were collected through structured interviews in the immediate vicinity of selected IGS in the Polish city of Łódź. Łódź is typical of post-industrial European cities struggling with environmental (heatwaves, cloudbursts), social (aging, depopulation) and spatial (a neglected and dense city center) issues. Our results show that residents saw IGS as places able to provide a range of services, mostly of the regulating type, and even minor design interventions can improve the attractiveness of IGS. Taking this into account, we conclude that IGS are important vegetated areas in the city, which can be complementary to formal greenery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]