Policy Challenges for Metropolitan Greenspace in Sydney

Greenspace has long been recognised as a crucial urban amenity for environmental, social and economic reasons. Garvin (2001, 11) maintains that ‘it is impossible to understand fully the functioning of cities and suburbs or plan adequately for their future’ without a ‘deep appreciation of parks and the way they affect every aspect of our lives’. Internationally, a wide range of research projects, strategic plans and planning guides, prepared by and for government authorities and not-for-profit agencies, attests to an increasing demand for well integrated and high quality greenspace in urban regions (Veal, 2009). Recent Australian work has ranged from evaluating the adequacy of standards of provision for the compact city (Byrne and Sipe 2010; Searle, 2011) to considering the contribution of regional open space to metropolitan form and quality of life (Dooley and Pilgrim, 2010; Low Choy, 2010).