Informal urban green-space: comparison of quantity and characteristics in Brisbane, Australia and Sapporo, Japan.

Informal urban green-space (IGS) such as vacant lots, brownfields and street or railway verges is receiving growing attention from urban scholars. Research has shown IGS can provide recreational space for residents and habitat for flora and fauna, yet we know little about the quantity, spatial distribution, vegetation structure or accessibility of IGS. We also lack a commonly accepted definition of IGS and a method that can be used for its rapid quantitative assessment. This paper advances a definition and typology of IGS that has potential for global application. Based on this definition, IGS land use percentage in central Brisbane, Australia and Sapporo, Japan was systematically surveyed in a 10×10 km grid containing 121 sampling sites of 2,500 m2 per city, drawing on data recorded in the field and aerial photography. Spatial distribution, vegetation structure and accessibility of IGS were also analyzed. We found approximately 6.3% of the surveyed urban area in Brisbane and 4.8% in Sapporo consisted of IGS, a non-significant difference. The street verge IGS type (80.4% of all IGS) dominated in Brisbane, while lots (42.2%) and gaps (19.2%) were the two largest IGS types in Sapporo. IGS was widely distributed throughout both survey areas. Vegetation structure showed higher tree cover in Brisbane, but higher herb cover in Sapporo. In both cities over 80% of IGS was accessible or partly accessible. The amount of IGS we found suggests it could play a more important role than previously assumed for residents' recreation and nature experience as well as for fauna and flora, because it substantially increased the amount of potentially available greenspace in addition to parks and conservation greenspace. We argue that IGS has potential for recreation and conservation, but poses some challenges to urban planning. To address these challenges, we propose some directions for future research.

Color me healthy: food diversity in school community gardens in two rapidly urbanising Australian cities.

Community garden research has focused on social aspects of gardens, neglecting systematic analysis of what food is grown. Yet agrodiversity within community gardens may provide health benefits. Diverse fruit and vegetables provide nutritional benefits, including vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. This paper reports research that investigated the agro-biodiversity of school-based community gardens in Brisbane and Gold Coast cities, Australia. Common motivations for establishing these gardens were education, health and environmental sustainability. The 23 gardens assessed contained 234 food plants, ranging from 7 to 132 plant types per garden. This included 142 fruits and vegetables. The nutritional diversity of fruits and vegetable plants was examined through a color classification system. All gardens grew fruits and vegetables from at least four food color groups, and 75% of the gardens grew plants from all seven color groups. As places with high agrodiversity, and related nutritional diversity, some school community gardens can provide children with exposure to a healthy range of fruit and vegetables, with potential flow-on health benefits.