Open Space Strategy - Glasgow

The Glasgow Open Space Strategy (OSS) is a strategy that sets how the city of Glasgow (United Kingdom) can utilise its open spaces in order to increase the city's livability, the health and well-being of the residents and flora and fauna and the long-term resilience in relation to issues such as climate change. The strategy was adopted by the Glasgow City Council in 2020 and it sets out a long-term vision for the city's open spaces and provides an overarching framework to guide the development and implementation of supporting strategies and action plans. The strategy develops a set of accessibility, quality and quantity standards for open spaces in the city, which help to determine where open spaces should be enhanced or new open spaces provided in the city. The OSS is informed by a number of other strategies including the Council's Strategic Plan 2017-2022 and the City Development Plan and has informed development of other strategies such as the Local Biodiversity Action Plan.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Legislative, regulatory and strategic instruments›Overarching/cross-sectoral strategy, plan, or law

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Heat stress and heat island effect
Air quality
Noise
Social equity
Human health, comfort and well-being
Other, please specify

Enhancing biodiversity, growing food

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The strategy aims to deliver on its goals of enhancing health and well-being of Glasgow's inhabitants, the livability of the city and its resilience by enhancing the amount, size, connectivity and quality of its open spaces which includes green space (parks, playing fields, allotments/growing space, natural/semi-natural areas), blue space (burns, rivers, lochs, bogs), and grey spaces with green elements (e.g. public squares). Open space elements are recognised as the most multifunctional parts of the city's green infrastructure. By pursuing its aims the strategy wants to address challenges such as flooding, biodiversity loss, mitigating and adapting to climate change, healthy food provision, sustainable mobility, air quality, pollution and heat.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Allotments, community gardens or agricultural areas

Blue areas

Green areas for water management

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Support multifunctional NBS

Sustainable in the long-term

Locally appropriate

Inclusivity

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Glasgow City Council

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The development of the strategy was led by the Glasgow City Council Development and Regeneration Services, in cooperation with colleagues across the Glasgow City Council. Some of the data to inform the strategy was provided by the Scottish government and other organisations such as the Biological Records Centre. A draft version of the strategy was put out to public consultation.

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Type of actor involvement:

Civil society consultation through e.g. workshops, surveys

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

In order to implement the strategy, the city will develop an Open Space Strategy Delivery Plan. The development of that plan is to include extensive engagement with local communities about the use, access and quality of open spaces. The development of the plan is to take into account the requirements of different population groups, for example children or the elderly. The council also wants to engage the public in the implementation of the strategy through partnership working and facilitating community building in order to develop cooperative working models or by sharing maintenance and funding responsibilities. The Open Space Strategy introduces a set of standards for accessibility, quality and quantity of open spaces. The standards will help to determine where new open spaces should be developed and may be used to determine a financial contribution from property developers for this purpose.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Citizen councils or consultation for co-planning (e.g. workshops, surveys)

Implementation of NBS (e.g. with government funds)

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public national budget

Public local authority’s budget

Corporate investment

European funds

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

The implementation of the strategy will be funded via a mix of public and private funds. Those includes European funds via a Horizon 2020 research funding programme; funds of the Glasgow City Council; funds from private property developers, the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Green Network Partnership, the Scottish government, the National Health Service and other sources. A concrete budget required to fund the implementation of the strategy is not specified.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Yes

A process has been identified to help monitor and deliver how the strategy can achieve its aims of enhancing local quality of life and the environment by establishing current and future needs, planning for current and future needs, informing and delivering future use.

Did an evaluation take place?:

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The development of the Open Space Strategy provided an opportunity to embed nature-based solutions and sustainable open-space management as a key asset management tool for the managed public land and to provide a guidance for the land in private ownership. In the preparation process of the strategy 15 local context analysis documents, covering 15 areas in the in the inner urban area and the outer urban area of Glasgow to inform Council's understanding of open space and green network issues at the local level. The strategy provided direction for future decisions and open spaces; maintenance priorities; opportunities to plan or naturally regulate trees. It provided opportunity to identify when you open spaces should be created.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The Open Space Strategy was developed in cooperation with a variety of stakeholders inside of the Glasgow city council as well as some external stakeholders, which was a relatively new approach for the council. Creating a wider interconnected network of stakeholders has helped raise the profile of the concept of nature-based solutions to audiences who may have previously been unaware of their benefits. Therefore, collaborative working practices are helping to localise, scale up and embed nature-based solution concepts within the city. The strategy has been drafted in a way that reflects the wider context of national level and local policy documents. Aligning the aspirations of these various strategies with the Strategy was recognised as a factor that can help the council to fund the upkeep and delivery of open space. The process of developing the strategy provided opportunities for an ongoing peer-education process with planners, consultants, architects working inside and with the Glasgow City Council etc. This was achieved via regular lunchtime slots that included interactive workshops during which the strategy was presented. The workshops open up discussion about such matters as where to add nature-based solutions, how to reach uninterested colleagues and how to create a shared narrative.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

Glasgow City Council (2020) Open Space Strategy. Available at: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=17192

Glasgow City Council (2017). LCA1: West End, Stage 1. Available at: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=42933&p=0

Connecting Nature (n.d.), Nature-based Solutions: A New Urban Planning Process for Implementation. The Glasgow Experience. Available at: https://connectingnature.eu/sites/default/files/images/inline/Glasgow%20FRC%20Report%20Draft.pdf

Glasgow City Council (2020), Open Space Strategy for Glasgow adopted by council. Available at: https://glasgow.gov.uk/article/25569/Open-Space-Strategy-for-Glasgow-adopted-by-council

Further documents

Documents:

Glasgow_Open_Space_Strategy_2020.pdf

Weblinks:

https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=17192

Photos

@Ayuntamiento de Glasgow