How Are Urban Green Spaces and Residential Development Related? A Synopsis of Multi-Perspective Analyses for Leipzig, Germany

Assessment of street-level greenness and its association with housing prices in a metropolitan area

Rapid global urbanization has made environmental amenities scarce despite their considerable advantages, ranging from aesthetics to health benefits. Street greenness is a key urban environmental amenity. This study developed a green index as an objective measure of greenness using street view images and assessed its predictive power along with that of other environmental amenities for metropolitan housing prices. Spatial interpolation was used to transform point data into areal data, enabling effective analysis of a dataset covering an entire metropolis. A series of hedonic models revealed that (1) street greenness is significantly and negatively associated with housing prices, (2) a traditional greenness indicator and the green index provide complementary information, indicating that they could be used for different purposes, and (3) environmental amenities, in general, demonstrated significant relationships with housing prices. Our analysis strategy including spatial interpolation can be widely employed for studies using different types of data. The findings demonstrating a complementary relationship between our two greenness indicators provide valuable insights for policymakers and urban planners to improve street-level greenness and green accessibility. Considering the significance of environmental amenities, this study provides practical approaches for executing sustainable and healthy city development.

Urban Cemeteries—Places of Multiple Diversity and Challenges. A Case Study from Łódź (Poland) and Leipzig (Germany)

This article presents a pilot study investigating the multidimensional diversity of cemeteries as an important element of cultural heritage and green infrastructure within the urban landscape. We studied the state and diversity of nature, perceptions, and activities of visitors. As religion is an important aspect that differentiates cemeteries from each other, we studied a sample of four multi-confessional urban cemeteries in Łódź (Poland) and Leipzig (Germany) by using site observation and a questionnaire survey. We found that cemeteries are far undervalued as public green resources that can perform important functions in sociocultural life and the mental well-being of the general public, as the perceptions of silence- and contemplation-seeking visitors tell us. The perception of cemeteries depends on the level of secularization, varying from a sacrum sphere up to specific recreational and touristic opportunities; findings that should be considered by town planners when optimizing the cultural ecosystem services of green spaces.

Will Good Service Quality Promote Real Estate Value? Evidence from Beijing, China

In the field of land use and urban management, real estate value-added issues have attracted much attention. Previous studies mainly focused on the premium of basic public services (such as infrastructure) in real estate value. As an important part of urban management, the contribution of property service is often underestimated. Few empirical studies mentioned the potential contribution of property service quality. Based on this, this paper aims to confirm and quantitatively evaluate the premium of good service quality in real estate value utilizing 155,845 samples of housing resale transactions in Beijing from 2012 to 2019. Furthermore, we also explore the dynamics and heterogeneity of the above premium. Our results show the following: Firstly, good service quality does show premium in real estate value, and the higher the service quality, the greater the premium in housing price. Secondly, this premium keeps increasing during our study period. With urbanization and rising incomes of residents, property service is increasingly important. Thirdly, the contribution of service quality to real estate value is greater when serviced houses have a higher price or larger area, are relatively newer, or further away from the city center. The findings of this current research not only deepen our understanding of service quality’s premium in real estate value, but also provide implications for urban management.

Editorial for Special Issue “Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in Cities and Their Interactions with Urban Land, Ecosystems, Built Environments and People: Debating Societal Implications”

Today’s cities increasingly serve as the nexus between nature and people in times of strong urban growth and, in some cases, urban decline [...]