Urban green spaces such as neighbourhood parks and playgrounds hold significance because they offer services and benefits related to human health and wellbeing. Despite recognition of these services by scientists, conservationists, and policy makers, these spaces in many urban areas face pressure and threat to their presence. Especially in developing countries where urban green spaces are inadequately managed, and often encroached upon, thus resulting in loss of quality. While local authorities have historically been responsible for managing urban green spaces, lately there is an increased involvement of citizens in green space management. It is therefore relevant to study how citizens contribute to managing these spaces and ensure their continuity and quality. The study here follows the Open Space Strategic Management approach, described as a complex process comprising of three different levels: strategic–formulation of policy, objectives, and targets; tactical– formulation of time bound plans; and operational–actual actions on these plans to maintain and upkeep the space. The conceptual approach has been operationalised to the area of East Delhi, citing Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) as a working example of the citizen organisation responsible for green space management. The research specifically focuses on the operational level and tries to explore their contribution towards the maintenance of these spaces. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with the presidents of these organizations (N=34), and information was collected about the actions undertaken by RWAs that constitute as green space maintenance, and their subsequent perceived influence on the green space quality. The findings suggest that for East Delhi, action such as arrangement of financial support in taking care of the local space is a major contribution by the RWAs that have higher influence on the perceived quality of space in terms of being visually appealing. Other actions such as providing guidance, raising up park related issues, and manual help have selective effect on the space being perceived as of good quality in terms of aspects such as user safety, cleanliness in the park space, and in creation of recreational opportunity in the green space for all users. The results from this study will contribute towards the body of literature on role of local citizens and citizen organizations taking part in management of smaller green spaces. The outcomes of this study can be utilized for recommending a comprehensive participatory strategy and design guidelines for green space management in the study area, especially for smaller spaces such as neighborhood parks. This should also contribute towards creation of knowledge to work towards achieving safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable green spaces as mentioned in UN Sustainable Goal 11, and the New Urban Agenda.:1. Introduction 3 1.1. Background 3 1.2. Problem 5 1.3. Structure of the thesis 8 1.4. Intended audience 9 2. Literature Review 11 2.1. Urban Green Spaces 12 2.1.1. Multi-functionality of Green Spaces: Ecosystem Services 24 2.2. Green Spaces and the New Urban Agenda 26 2.3. Green Spaces in Delhi- planning and design 29 2.3.1. Planning: Master Plan of Delhi 30 2.3.2. Design: CPWD landscape guidelines 40 2.3.3. The Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994. 41 2.3.4. Gaps in provision 41 2.4. Urban Green Space Management 42 2.4.1. Global Management approaches 42 2.4.2. Green Space Management in Delhi 49 2.5. Theoretical framework 52 2.5.1. Maintenance of green spaces 53 2.6. Summary of the chapter 57 3. Research Hypothesis 59 3.1. Working hypotheses 61 4. Study Area 65 4.1. East Delhi District 68 4.1.1. Civic Boundaries 68 4.1.2. Colony Structure 70 4.1.3. Land Use Pattern 73 4.2. Target group 75 4.3. Summary of the chapter 78 5. Methodological Approach 79 5.1. Survey Interviews 79 5.2. Sampling 80 5.3. Questionnaire Design 82 5.4. Data collection 83 5.4.1. Field work preparation 83 5.4.2. In the Field 84 5.5. Data Analysis 85 5.6. Validity, Reliability and Objectivity of results 86 5.7. Limitations 87 5.8. Summary of the chapter 89 6. Results 91 6.1. Descriptive results 91 6.1.1. Age Category 91 6.1.2. Work Situation 92 6.1.3. Highest level of education received 93 6.1.4. RWA functioning 93 6.1.5. Preferred way of contribution to the maintenance process 97 6.1.6. Preferred reason for involvement in the maintenance process 100 6.1.7. Perceived condition of the local green space 102 6.1.8. Perceived condition of their local green space in terms of safety 106 6.1.9. Desired Improvements to the local park 109 6.2. Hypothesis Testing and Measure of Association 112 6.2.1. Functionality of the equipment for creation of recreational opportunity 112 6.2.2. Cleanliness 115 6.2.3. Upkeep of vegetation 118 6.2.4. Safety 120 6.2.5. Perceived quality 123 6.3. Summary of the results 125 7. Discussion 129 7.2. Resident Welfare Association an example of active citizenship 129 7.3. RWA as a care taker of the local green spaces 131 7.4. Influence of RWA actions on the local green space 135 8. Conclusion 137 8.1. RWA perspective to maintenance 137 8.2. Implications for Green Space Development 139 8.3. Future Research 143 8.4. Theoretical Implications 144 8.5. Contribution of this thesis 146 8.5.1. Contribution to gap in literature 146 8.5.2. Contribution to Landscape Architecture 147 8.5.3. Contribution to Policy Development 147 9. Bibliography 149 Appendix A: Questionnaire 175 Section A: Description of Resident Welfare Association 175 Section B: Involvement in maintenance of local green spaces 177 Section C: Outcomes of RWA actions and activity on the quality of local green space 180 Appendix B 185 Invite 185 Support Letter 186 Appendix C 187 Table depicting administrative structure in territory if Delhi 187 Civil Society in Delhi: Bhagidari 188 Appendix D: Maps of sub areas under East district 189 Appendix E: Examples of Citizen Participation in other cities in India. 191 Appendix F: Statistical Test Values 193 Appendix G 198

In recent years, we have seen that global, national, and local governments have put sustainability goals on their agendas. Thus, at different levels and in different sectors, efforts are underway to promote a ‘green shift’, including the energy sector. As a result, landscapes of renewable energy sources are emerging in areas that have sufficient “empty landscapes” (LABLAB, 2023) – namely sparsely populated spaces that lie outside the administrative boundaries of cities. However, the discipline of spatial planning rarely discusses changing landscapes in the hinterlands and the resulting consequences for embedded communities. The city as an energy consumer is treated in isolation from its counterpart, the hinterland as an energy producer. In this context, it is unclear what interrelationships are present between the formation of ‘new energy landscapes’ (Pasqualetti and Stremke, 2018; LABLAB, 2023), the urban ‘hinterland’ (Brenner, 2016; Westlund, 2018; Brenner and Katsikis, 2020), and the realities of embedded communities there.The geographies in the Swedish province of Jämtland belonging to the territory of the indigenous Southern Sápmi offer a suitable basis for a study that could fill this research gap. Thus, the objective of this thesis is to raise awareness of potentially conflicting interests between cities - striving to become more ‘sustainable’ - and the emergence of ‘new energy landscapes’ in the ‘hinterlands’ by including two different perspectives: an urban economic lens on the hinterland and a non-urban lens taken from the lived everyday lives of Sápmi communities embedded in new energy landscapes. This thesis poses three research questions to which it aims to find answers by using qualitative semi-structured, problem-centred interviews. It thus follows an interpretative abductive research approach. Through the analysis of the empirical data, the thesis shows that a joint discussion of the two discourses (‘hinterland’ and ‘new energy landscapes’) can help to gain a new understanding of urbanisation processes by including the perspective of non-urban communities in questions of urban sustainability. Furthermore, the thesis serves as an eye-opener for spatial planners to incorporate indigenous knowledge and lived experiences into the field of urban studies.

ICT has become so deeply embedded into the fabric of European society – in economic, political, and socio-cultural narratives, practices, and structures – that it has been constructed as holding tremendous untapped and inestimable potential for instigating and unleashing far-reaching societal transformation, addressing key societal challenges, and solving all societal problems. It has recently been seen, given its ubiquity, as a critical driver and powerful catalyst for sustainable urban development due to its potential to enable substantial energy savings and GHG emissions reductions in most urban sectors, especially buildings. However, related to this ubiquity, there are also a lot of visions (of limited modern applicability), hopes, myths, fallacies, and oxymora, which applies for the environmental subsystem of information society where debates focus on whether ICT can advance environmental urban sustainability. There are intricate relationships and tradeoffs among the multidimensional effects of ICT for the environment that flow mostly from the use and application of ICT – e.g. energy efficiency technology - throughout the urban sphere. Regardless, the technological orientation and framing of the sustainable city and the green economy has gained dominance in European society and become prevalent in what has come to be identified or known as the discourse of ICT for sustainable urban development (ICT4SUD). The aim of this study is to carry out a critical reading of the social construction of ICT4SUD, the underlying ideology about the ICT potential in advancing environmental urban sustainability. To achieve this aim, a Foucauldian-Faircloughian discursive approach is employed to examine the selected empirical material. This approach consists of nine stages: (1) surface descriptors and contextual elements; (2) historical-diachronic dimension; (3) epistemic and cultural frames; (4) discursive constructions and discourses; (5) social actors and framing power; (6) discursive strategies; (7) discursive mechanisms; (8) political practice, knowledge, and power; and (9) ideological standpoints.As a scholarly discourse, ICT4SUD is inherently part of and influenced by economic, societal, and political structures, and produced in social interaction. ICT4SUD is thus neither paradigmatic nor value-free, but rather socio-politically situated. It is shaped by cultural frames that are conventionalized by European society and attuned to its values, and it is a matter of a pre-intellectual space where ICT and sustainability constitute salient defining factors of the dominant configuration of knowledge, institutions, and material forces of European society. Indeed, ICT4SUD is impacted by earlier representations of reality and how they were reproduced in relation to the significance of discursive constructions of ICT and sustainability issues in the broader context of European culture. Moreover, the ICT4SUD discourse plays a major role in (re)constructing the image of the ICT industry as a social actor and in defining its identity and relation with other constituents of society, in that it is relocated new roles and attributed new societal missions. The dominant framing of the reports is clearly the one advanced by the ICT industry: it is constituted into the main definer of the represented reality. Further, positioning the ICT industry as the driver of the low-carbon city/economy aids the construction of an image of leadership in creating a low carbon society. The reports’ construction of energy efficiency technology is a powerful legitimation of the ICT industry’s views and actions. In addition, the ICT4SUD discourse is exclusionary, namely a number of facts and issues pertaining to structural, indirect, and systemic effects of ICT and the associated rebound effects are left out, concealed, or neglected. Also, the discourse is inclined to be deterministic, i.e. it postulates that ICT, supported by policy, will achieve SUD while it falls short in considering social behaviour and socio-economic relationships. It moreover tends to be rhetorical – that is, it promises environmentally SUD without really having a holistic strategy to achieve that goal. Furthermore, given the scientific discourse and the legitimation capacity of computing, climatology, and sustainability indicators, one can subsume a range of social and political effects under the category of discourse mechanisms through which ICT4SUD operates, which both show the power of discourse and potentially empower the ICT industry and its cohorts. There are different justifications for the development of energy efficiency technology in relation to decision-making processes. Plus, politics, as a consequence of its interaction with ICT4SUD, forces, though different mechanisms, the emergence and development of the ICT4SUD discourse, which is, simultaneously, influenced by the power/knowledge relations established in European society that bounds or expands its success. Finally, as to ideological reproduction, the ICT4SUD discourse reconstructs cultural claims, conveys ideological messages, and reproduces and legitimizes power structures.

Les analyses spatiales et statistiques ont été réalisées avec les logiciels ArcView et SPSS / Ayant la contradiction entre le développement urbain et la conservation environnementale comme problématique, la stratification socioeconomique et spatiale emèrge comme champ privilegié d’investigation au sujet des indicateurs de durabilité urbaine. Cela constitue une des raisons du choix de la ville de Maringá comme terrain de recherche. La question de cette étude est de savoir quels sont les indicateurs durabilité urbaine permettant de dégager les quartiers plus proches de l’équilibre entre la qualité de vie humaine et l’équilibre de l’environnement, tout en tenant comme hypothèse de fond le lien entre la durabilité du développement et la conscience d’appartenance sociale et environnementale. En suivant une approche épidémiologique non anthropocentrique, cette recherche contribue à la discussion de la durabilité urbaine en offrant un cadre théorique et un modèle systémique pour la construction d’indicateurs de durabilité urbaine. L’application des indicateurs montre une classification de durabilité urbaine divergente de la stratification socio-economique mises en évidence par l’IDH. Cette classification, vérifiée au moyen de corrélation s multiples d’indices, dont l’empreinte écologique, l’indice de satisfaction de revenu, l’indice d’intégration sociale, les habitudes de santé et le poids santé, à l’échelle de deux aires échantillonnées dans les quartiers Conjunto Residencial Inocente Villanova Júnior et Zona 05. Les résultats suggèrent que le revenu a une forte influence sur l’empreinte écologique des familles, cependant, 10% des cas montrent la possibilité d’avoir une empreinte durable tout en ayant un revenu familial elevé. D’autres études se montrent nécessaires pour affiner le modèle proposé. / The aim of this research is to contrast the effects of urban development with environmental conservation practices. The investigation focuses on socio-economic segregation and its impact on sustainability, as measured by specific sustainability indicators. The city of Maringa in Central Brazil was selected as a case study, applying a targeted analysis to certain neighbourhoods. The study set out to determine which urban sustainability indicators are most appropriate to identify those neighbourhoods with the most sustainable practices and life-styles, assuming a fundamental link between sustainability practices and awareness of social and environmental responsibility. Using a epidemiological, but not anthopocentric, approach, this research contributes to and enriches the urban sustainability discourse by proposing a theoretical framework and model for the systemic construction of viable urban sustainability indicators. Applying these indicators to demographic and socio-economic data analysis results in a way of assessing urban sustainability that diverges from the socio-economic stratification approach of the HDI. This approach to sustainability assessment is validated through being applied to two sample areas of Maringa: the neighbourhoods of Conjunto Residencial Inocente Villanova Júnior and of Zona 05, using corrélations between ecological footprint, satisfaction index, social integration index, residents' health habits and body weight. Results suggest that income has a strong influence on household ecological footprint. However, in 10 % of cases a sustainable footprint is possible even in households with high incomes. Additional studies are recommended to refine the proposed model. / Tendo como problemática a contradição entre o desenvolvimento urbano e a conservação ambiental, a estratificação socio-econômica emerge como um campo privilegiado para o estudo da durabilidade do nível de vida. Esta é uma das razões que levaram à escolher Maringá como caso de pesquisa. A questão é saber quais indicadores de sustentabilidade urbana permitem identificar os bairros mais proximos do equilíbrio entre qualidade de vida humana e equilibrio ecológico. A hipótese de fundo supõe uma relação entre a sustentabilidade e uma consciência de interdependência socio-ambiental. Utilisando uma abordagem épidemiológica não anthropocêntrica, esta pesquisa contribui com o debate sobre a sustentabilidade urbana oferecendo um cadro téorico e um modelo sistémico para a construção de indicadores de durabilidade urbana, propondo e examinando alguns indicadores. Os resultados mostram uma classificação de sustentabilidade que diverge da estratificação socio-econômica evidenciadas pelo IDH. Esta classificação, verificada na escala dos bairros amostrados, Conjunto Residencial Inocente Villanova Junior e Zona 05, utilizando a análise estatística de correlação entre os indices de pegada ecológica, satisfação de renda, integração social, habitos de saúde e massa corporal identificam uma forte influência entre a renda e a pegada ecológica. Porém, 10% das famílias mostram que é possível reduzir a pegada ecológica a um valor sustentável mesmo obtendo renda familiar de até 3000 reais. Os resultados apontam a necessidade de outros dados para afinar o modelo proposto.

Ayant la contradiction entre le développement urbain et la conservation environnementale comme problématique, la stratification socioeconomique et spatiale emèrge comme champ privilegié d’investigation au sujet des indicateurs de durabilité urbaine. Cela constitue une des raisons du choix de la ville de Maringá comme terrain de recherche. La question de cette étude est de savoir quels sont les indicateurs durabilité urbaine permettant de dégager les quartiers plus proches de l’équilibre entre la qualité de vie humaine et l’équilibre de l’environnement, tout en tenant comme hypothèse de fond le lien entre la durabilité du développement et la conscience d’appartenance sociale et environnementale. En suivant une approche épidémiologique non anthropocentrique, cette recherche contribue à la discussion de la durabilité urbaine en offrant un cadre théorique et un modèle systémique pour la construction d’indicateurs de durabilité urbaine. L’application des indicateurs montre une classification de durabilité urbaine divergente de la stratification socio-economique mises en évidence par l’IDH. Cette classification, vérifiée au moyen de corrélation s multiples d’indices, dont l’empreinte écologique, l’indice de satisfaction de revenu, l’indice d’intégration sociale, les habitudes de santé et le poids santé, à l’échelle de deux aires échantillonnées dans les quartiers Conjunto Residencial Inocente Villanova Júnior et Zona 05. Les résultats suggèrent que le revenu a une forte influence sur l’empreinte écologique des familles, cependant, 10% des cas montrent la possibilité d’avoir une empreinte durable tout en ayant un revenu familial elevé. D’autres études se montrent nécessaires pour affiner le modèle proposé. / The aim of this research is to contrast the effects of urban development with environmental conservation practices. The investigation focuses on socio-economic segregation and its impact on sustainability, as measured by specific sustainability indicators. The city of Maringa in Central Brazil was selected as a case study, applying a targeted analysis to certain neighbourhoods. The study set out to determine which urban sustainability indicators are most appropriate to identify those neighbourhoods with the most sustainable practices and life-styles, assuming a fundamental link between sustainability practices and awareness of social and environmental responsibility. Using a epidemiological, but not anthopocentric, approach, this research contributes to and enriches the urban sustainability discourse by proposing a theoretical framework and model for the systemic construction of viable urban sustainability indicators. Applying these indicators to demographic and socio-economic data analysis results in a way of assessing urban sustainability that diverges from the socio-economic stratification approach of the HDI. This approach to sustainability assessment is validated through being applied to two sample areas of Maringa: the neighbourhoods of Conjunto Residencial Inocente Villanova Júnior and of Zona 05, using corrélations between ecological footprint, satisfaction index, social integration index, residents' health habits and body weight. Results suggest that income has a strong influence on household ecological footprint. However, in 10 % of cases a sustainable footprint is possible even in households with high incomes. Additional studies are recommended to refine the proposed model. / Tendo como problemática a contradição entre o desenvolvimento urbano e a conservação ambiental, a estratificação socio-econômica emerge como um campo privilegiado para o estudo da durabilidade do nível de vida. Esta é uma das razões que levaram à escolher Maringá como caso de pesquisa. A questão é saber quais indicadores de sustentabilidade urbana permitem identificar os bairros mais proximos do equilíbrio entre qualidade de vida humana e equilibrio ecológico. A hipótese de fundo supõe uma relação entre a sustentabilidade e uma consciência de interdependência socio-ambiental. Utilisando uma abordagem épidemiológica não anthropocêntrica, esta pesquisa contribui com o debate sobre a sustentabilidade urbana oferecendo um cadro téorico e um modelo sistémico para a construção de indicadores de durabilidade urbana, propondo e examinando alguns indicadores. Os resultados mostram uma classificação de sustentabilidade que diverge da estratificação socio-econômica evidenciadas pelo IDH. Esta classificação, verificada na escala dos bairros amostrados, Conjunto Residencial Inocente Villanova Junior e Zona 05, utilizando a análise estatística de correlação entre os indices de pegada ecológica, satisfação de renda, integração social, habitos de saúde e massa corporal identificam uma forte influência entre a renda e a pegada ecológica. Porém, 10% das famílias mostram que é possível reduzir a pegada ecológica a um valor sustentável mesmo obtendo renda familiar de até 3000 reais. Os resultados apontam a necessidade de outros dados para afinar o modelo proposto. / Les analyses spatiales et statistiques ont été réalisées avec les logiciels ArcView et SPSS

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation explores the integration of remote sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) in geospatial mapping, specifically through the development of knowledge-based mapping systems. Remote sensing has revolutionized Earth observation by providing data that far surpasses traditional in-situ measurements. Over the last decade, significant advancements in inferential capabilities have been achieved through the fusion of geospatial sciences and AI (GeoAI), particularly with the application of deep learning. Despite its benefits, the reliance on data-driven AI has introduced challenges, including unpredictable errors and biases due to imperfect labeling and the opaque nature of the processes involved.</p><p dir="ltr">The research highlights the limitations of solely using data-driven AI methods for geospatial mapping, which tend to produce spatially heterogeneous errors and lack transparency, thus compromising the trustworthiness of the outputs. In response, it proposes novel knowledge-based mapping systems that prioritize transparency and scalability. This research has developed comprehensive techniques to extract key Earth and urban features and has introduced a 3D urban land cover mapping system, including a 3D Landscape Clustering framework aimed at enhancing urban climate studies. The developed systems utilize universally applicable physical knowledge of targets, captured through remote sensing, to enhance mapping accuracy and reliability without the typical drawbacks of data-driven approaches.</p><p dir="ltr">The dissertation emphasizes the importance of moving beyond mere accuracy to consider the broader implications of error patterns in geospatial mappings. It demonstrates the value of integrating generalizable target knowledge, explicitly represented in remote sensing data, into geospatial mapping to address the trustworthiness challenges in AI mapping systems. By developing mapping systems that are open, transparent, and scalable, this work aims to mitigate the effects of spatially heterogeneous errors, thereby improving the trustworthiness of geospatial mapping and analysis across various fields. Additionally, the dissertation introduces methodologies to support urban pathway accessibility and flood management studies through dependable geospatial systems. These efforts aim to establish a robust foundation for informed urban planning, efficient resource allocation, and enriched environmental insights, contributing to the development of more sustainable, resilient, and smart cities.</p>

In dieser Dissertation werden vier Studien durchgeführt, um die acht Arten von Räumen in Mensch-Natur-Systemen für die Widerstandsfähigkeit von Städten vorzuschlagen, die Verbesserung von städtischen Grünflächen unter qualitativen und quantitativen Gesichtspunkten zu analysieren, die Beziehung zwischen UGSLandschaftsmerkmalen und menschlichen Emotionen zu bestimmen und das Konzept der selbstlernenden Stadt für die städtische Raumplanung zu veranschaulichen. (1). Unterschiedliche Strategien in den Acht-Typen-Räumen in Mensch-Natur-Systemen. (2). Verbesserung der städtischen Grünflächen mit natürlichem Angebot und menschlicher Nachfrage. (3). Das Konzept der selbstlernenden Stadt für urbane Nachhaltigkeit. (4) Für die städtische Nachhaltigkeit erfordert die Planung eine Neubewertung der Verbindungen zwischen den verschiedenen menschlichen und natürlichen Systemen mit den Wechselwirkungen zwischen Bedarf und Versorgung Städtische Räume sind komplex, weisen aber in verschiedenen Methoden und Konzepten Regelmäßigkeiten auf. Für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung in Städten sind kreative Denkansätze für die Umsetzung und Integration von sich überschneidenden Räumen, Elementen und Kulturen in städtischen Mensch-Natur-Systemen erforderlich. Um eine nachhaltige Stadt zu schaffen, sind urbane Räume unerlässlich. / This dissertation conducts four studies to propose the eight-type spaces in human-natural systems for city resilience, to analyze the improvement of urban green spaces from quality and quantity perspectives, to determine the relationship between UGS landscape characteristics and human emotions and to illustrate the concept of city self-learning for urban space planning. (1). Different strategies in the eight-type spaces across human-natural systems. (2). Improving urban green spaces with natural supply and human demand. (3). The concept of city self-learning for urban sustainability. (4) For urban sustainability, planning requires reevaluating the connections between different human-natural systems with the interactions of demands and supplies. Dissertation title: Exploring Urban Spaces across Human-Natural systems And the Potential to Enhance City Resilience Urban spaces are complex but have regularity in several methods and concepts. For sustainable development in cities, creative ways to think about implementations and integrations utilize crossing spaces, elements, and cultures in urban human-natural systems. To make a sustainable city, urban spaces are essential.