Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Urban areas of developing nations are continuously under the pressure of growing population, resulting in the excessive exploitation of the resources and adding to the pressure on existing infrastructure resulting in a choke. This situation is not only influencing the social, economic, environmental, physical and visual aspects of an area; but is resulting in chaotic and stressed lifestyle for the urban dwellers. Besides the impact of human activities is seen worldwide and is more evident in urban areas. Moreover, with the same scenario to continue, the situation will be worse. Parks as green spaces can be of relief here, as they are capable of providing socio-economic, cultural, psychological, environmental, aesthetic and health benefits. Therefore the role of parks in our urban environments can no longer be ignored. However despite all, parks are the most compromised areas of city planning and are forced to face budget constraints, lack of resources, lack of planning and lack of efforts for improvement; they also lack professional inputs and forethought or long-term planning when new ones are planned. Hence a need has been felt to invest in the provision of new parks, rejuvenating the damaged and improving the existing ones. The paper brings forward aspects of investment; including the financial part, that can be incorporated to improve the future of parks in urban areas improving the quality of life despite the rise in urbanization; it also focuses on how are the returns from the investment in parks paid back.