The phenomenon and increasing rate of urbanisation is causing many researchers to look deeper at life in cities. Increasingly recognised are the benefits of urban green space and their associated recreational parks and nature reserves. While there is a growing literature on the environmental services provided by these areas; so too is there a growing literature on the numerous social benefits that recreational green spaces in particular afford their users. Although imagined and generally designed as salubrious public spaces, many parks often fall short of this. In fact research has shown that a park's design, its surroundings, and its management can all combine to exclude certain types of people. In this study I conducted ethnographic research to participate in and observe the activities of visitors to False Bay Nature Reserve in Cape Town. False Bay Nature Reserve includes a series of nature reserves and the Cape Flats Waste Water Treatment Works, and is situated in the area of Cape Town known as the Cape Flats. Much of the Cape Flats is beset by poverty, unemployment, and violent drug - related crime carried out by notorious gangs. Despite the challenges of the surrounding areas, my study reveals that False Bay Nature Reserve provides relative safety to its users as well a range of enjoyable re creational activities. Some of the key recreational activities are separated distinctively between two key sites in the reserve. Furthermore the visitors of these sites differ markedly in race, ethnicity and income. The legacy of apartheid almost certainly accounts for much of this separation; however, the study indicates that the barriers of this legacy are eroding and can potentially be further dismantled with engaged and informed management strategies. Due to its surroundings, the reserve is vulnerable and recently experienced a period where crime was prevalent, vegetation was overgrown, and it was feared by many of its users, particularly women. The reserve had in many ways become what researchers call a landscape of fear, a not so uncommon description of parks around the world. However, management and the majority of visitors feel the reserve has recovered from this period. This is in large part due to upgrades that improved recreational facilities and security in the reserve. Accounts from visitors high light how important a sense of safety is for people frequenting this reserve, most of who live in nearby neighbourhoods. The reserve still faces some challenges today, but is a significant asset to the City of Cape Town and many of its more marginalised residents. This study challenges much of the literature on the benefits of urban green space and associated parks. It shows that particularly in cities of the Global South such as Cape Town, parks require specific management strategies that prioritise safety and in doing so promote and ensure inclusivity for all.

Although urban green infrastructure [UGI] is increasingly characterized as an asset because it simultaneously serves critical social and environmental functions, few planning tools or research approaches exist where multiple functions are integrated into a systemic spatial analysis. Accordingly, this report examines the utility of ergonomics as a methodological approach to integrate the natural and social sciences and forge a deeper understanding of UGI multifunctionality. Five administrative districts in Dresden [Germany] were selected as a study area to carry out this analysis. Mixed methods were used to categorize and measure various social and environmental functions of UGI cases, and outcomes analyzed for spatial clustering in GIS. Results from this study provide strong evidence that combining social and environmental variables can significantly inform the way UGI networks are perceived and valued. / text

In an increasingly urbanised world, addressing the need for access to urban green space has become a pertinent topic of interest. In Cape Town, South Africa, a city of immense biodiversity and unique spatial development, the issue of accessing urban green spaces is particularly important. Environmental and ecological advocates call for conservation of green space, to preserve the rare biodiversity of the region, while pressures for continued development to accommodate the City's growing population override land conservation policy aspirations. The legacy of post-apartheid development is still strongly entrenched in Cape Town, resulting in an inequitable and in efficient city form. Access to quality green space remains problematic in Cape Town. This research seeks to discover how accessible urban green spaces are in Cape Town, and, if barriers exist, whether they are physical, economic, or socially driven. The author has undertaken a case study method approach to conduct this research, focusing on eight nature reserves or conservation areas managed by the City of Cape Town in the southern and eastern suburbs of the City. Key informant interviews (n= 6) were conducted, as well as qualitative and quantitative surveys of park users and the general public. Park users (n= 672) were surveyed on site, at one of the eight green spaces, while the public (n= 317) were surveyed at the nearest commercial shopping area adjacent to the green space. Outcome measures included demographic information, suburb of residence, mode of transport, reasons for choosing mode of transport, frequency of green space visits, and reasons for visiting. Results show the majority of park users accessed the green space by personal vehicle, and very few park users took public transport (n= 3). The majority of users resided in suburbs within two kilometre s of the green space. Park users varied in age, yet young adults aged 16-19 and elderly over the age of 80 accounted for only 2.8% and 1.8% of those surveyed, respectively. The ethnic breakdown of those surveyed was not indicative of Cape Town's ethnic breakdown, according to the 2011 Census, with white South Africans and coloured South Africans accounting for 50% and 39%, respectively. Over a quarter of the public surveyed identified 'lack of information' or 'unaware of what park offers' as the reason for not visiting the green space. Safety and security was a common concern among both park users and the public; many expressed concern about visiting the green space alone, or traveling alone due to issues of security in the adjacent neighbourhoods. From the data gathered in this research, the author concludes that barriers exist in the access of quality green spaces within Cape Town, and include, but are not limited to, issues of proximity, public transport, safety and security, spatial development of the City, varied green space interests, and information barriers. These issues vastly alter how users engage in these eight different green spaces. Further research may be conducted in a more expansive study on Cape Town's green spaces, including small local green spaces in neighbourhoods throughout the City, which may yield interesting results on the access and barriers to access of urban green spaces.

The health benefits of nature are numerous, wide-ranging, and often overlooked. An ever-growing body of research has started to document, substantiate, and even in some cases quantify the significance of interacting with nature and its effect on human health and well-being. These directly measurable health benefits are also compounded in urban environments by environmental and social benefits. For example, the inclusion of green spaces in urban communities has been shown to reduce violence. Green spaces are important for overall health, but also specifically for healing. The benefits of natural spaces in hospitals has been explored in the literature and shown to benefit not only patients but also family and visitors, as well as staff, by creating a healing and restorative environment that helps to reduce stress and alleviate anxiety. Lack of green space in urban communities is creating and exacerbating health disparities. Urban hospitals are often limited in their ability to include extra space, and particularly green space, in their campus, yet it is their patients who need these healing benefits the most. Particularly urban communities of low socioeconomic status are often those with the least access to green spaces, or only have access to low-quality, poorly maintained, unsafe green spaces. Yet the residents of these communities are those who stand to benefit the most from access to nature and a greener environment. Improving the accessibility, quality, safety, and square footage of natural green spaces in urban environments will help improve health equity by mitigating negative effects of the urban built environment on health and well-being, increasing the agency of these communities to live healthier lives, and allow them to reap the physical, emotional, and social benefits of green spaces. / Urban Bioethics

In the UK, urban parks face a precarious future and, with projected cuts of over 65% to local authority discretionary funding (Local Government Association, 2012:2), it is ever more important to understand their value. This study interrogates the value of these resources from the perspective of the individual and, through a mixed method comparative case study of two community parks in Leeds, West Yorkshire, identifies four key challenges to existing framings of their significance. Drawing on primary observational, social survey and interview data, boundaries constructed between forms of value are, firstly, problematized with fluidity recognised between use and non-use aspects. Secondly, a range of previously-omitted past-related values are identified. Negative elements of significance are, then, thirdly, highlighted as heavily interwoven with positive accounts of importance and emphasised as key omissions in prior representations of value. Before, finally, value is stressed as spatially relative, with comparison with other leisure resources noted as an inherent facet of accounts. Taken together, these challenges demarcate an individual perspective of value as notably distinct from those levelled at other scales, such as the firm or community, as it emphasised that, from this perspective, the value of a resource must be rethought as a relational property created in the interaction between people and their environment, rather than an absolute property assigned to a space. Organisations, such as Nesta (Neal, 2013:21) have emphasised a need to ‘rethink' the funding and management of urban parks, moving towards “mixed funding models”, incorporating some level of community voluntarism. This assumed involvement is, however, premised on community engagement which is far from certain. As such, there is a pressing need to understand the value attached to urban parks to understand the scope for expectations of voluntarism to be truly fulfilled.

This thesis starts from the proposition that the ingrained perception of urban green space as being synonymous only with fairly well maintained amenity parkland is too narrow and generally overlooks the many environmental and social benefits that other types of green space and their natural habitats bestow on urban residents and wildlife. A critical review of the literature on the benefits which different kinds of green space confer on urban residents in environmental, social, health and well being and economic terms confirms the need for a more holistic approach to the study of green spaces in cities and also highlights the need to develop and realise a more comprehensive "ontology" of urban green space in tropical countries, a fundamental task which is a main concern of the present thesis. From reviewing the classification schemes or typologies used in different countries to formally recognise and to distinguish different types of green space, the author develops a new, expanded typology for urban green space adapted to Malaysian conditions, aiming to use this as far as possible as a framework to categorise the green spaces of Kuala Lumpur (KL). KL provides a particularly interesting case study as a rapidly growing city in a developing country with a tropical climate, a context where there has been relatively little research on urban green space, despite shade being particularly appreciated in very hot climates. Also KL has experienced much loss of green space in recent decades: on its periphery from urban expansion; and around the city centre from the drive, fuelled by economic growth, to use central land more intensively. The main empirical analysis in the thesis uses data obtained from remotely sensed satellite images of high resolution (from the IKONOS satellite) to try to identify all vegetated forms of land cover in KL and to discern their nature, primarily whether trees, shrubs or grass, regardless of their location, using object oriented software to process the IKONOS data. The degree to which the different types and functions of green space can be identified from IKONOS imagery using both semi-automated and manual methods of visual interpretation is then compared. The results show that, using high resolution IKONOS imagery, it is not possible to identify unambiguously all the types of green land use or green land cover that are found in the proposed, new typology of green space, either by using semi-automatic classification or by visual interpretation, although the latter enables more types of green space to be distinguished with confidence. A key result of the preceding analysis, nevertheless, is to produce maps of green space showing the foregoing 3 classes of vegetation (plus water, bare ground and built up areas) for the entire city in very fine detail using first a semi-automated classification followed by selective manual revision. This produces a more complete picture of the geography of these 3 basic types of green space across the whole city than the typical picture purely or mainly of public parks generated from the typologies used by city governments in developing countries, including KL, simply reflecting their traditional concerns being largely restricted to the latter kinds of green space. These finely detailed maps showing the complex mosaic of green space are, in some respects, the most important result of the thesis. These maps of green space produced from satellite data are linked in a geographic information system (GIS) with data on land use for small land parcels and, using dasymetric methods, with data on population from the census to produce a range of alternative, illuminating perspectives on the nature and extent of green space across the whole city, often at a very fine geographical scale, and including an analysis of the relative provision (or lack thereof) of green space over the whole city; this also yields insight into the role of particular green spaces in the wider urban system. Subsequently, the use of GIS operations enables officially recognised green spaces and the even more extensive and diverse areas of green space not officially recognised to be mapped and examined separately, possibly for the first time in KL. A social survey designed mainly for urban planners and landscape architects in KL was carried out mainly to learn and study their views on the nature, roles and benefits of urban green space, on the new expanded typology, on the problems of protecting urban green space in KL and on what attributes of green spaces they considered should be seen as most important when considering how much priority a particular green space should be given for preservation. From some 38 environmental and social criteria the 41 respondents considered very important, 31 criteria (13 environmental and 18 social) were chosen as attributes to use in evaluating 17 different green spaces of various types in different parts of the city through assessment on site by a small team of trained assessors. A smaller subset of 4 environmental and 3 "social" (actually all accessibility) criteria, selected from the foregoing 31 criteria, was identified which could be estimated "remotely" by "desk based" methods i.e. by using the satellite data and the population data held in our GIS, as well as by direct field survey. It was then possible to compare the 3 sets of evaluations for the 17 green areas in the form of overall rankings in turn on the environmental and then accessibility criteria: firstly the ranks of the sites on all 13 environmental criteria, then on the subset of 4 environmental criteria (both of the latter from field assessment) and finally on the same subset of 4 criteria estimated "remotely". The equivalent overall rankings for the 18 social amenity criteria, then the subset of 3 accessibility indicators from field observation and lastly the same subset of 3 but estimated remotely were then compared. The results showed clear similarities and strong correlations between the three sets of evaluations for the 4 environmental criteria measuring aspects of vegetative cover and "green connectivity" but less consistent similarity for the social and accessibility measures, with only weak correlations between rankings on the field and remote estimates for the 3 accessibility indices. The main conclusion is therefore that "remote" evaluation could potentially have a useful role, complementary to ground surveys, in monitoring and assessing green spaces as regards some key environmental criteria and, more debatably, may also be able to provide useful measures of accessibility, which are difficult to estimate from field visits. However, observation on site is necessary for assessment of nearly all the social criteria relevant to evaluating urban green spaces.

Cette thèse est sur l’historique et contemporain, social, politique et économique des forces, qui ont conduit à la (re) production et (re) construction d’injustice spatiale, de la consommation des espaces verts publics socialement valorisées urbaines à Nairobi. À l’aide d’un cadre de l’écologie politique urbaine (EPU), l’étude examine les forces structurant et les acteurs qui ont déterminé et continuent à la forme, les caractéristiques et les tendances, d’utilisation et accès, de la nature urbaine se réserve dans la ville. La question de recherche central de l’étude est, quels sont les processus sociaux, politiques et économiques passés et présents qui déterminent l’utilisation et l’accès des espaces verts urbains pour différents groupes sociaux à Nairobi? L’étude a été guidée par trois objectifs principaux : (1) d’enquêter sur le contexte historique, dynamique, sociale, politique et économique, impliqué dans les espaces verts urbains de création à Nairobi ; (2) afin d’étudier les politiques passées et présentes et des législations guidant l’utilisation, gestion et conservation de l’urbain protégé des zones, ainsi que les résultats des législations pour différents groupes sociaux et (3) d’examiner les résultats sociaux des interventions de l’acteur non étatique, dans la conservation et la gestion des aires protégées urbaines, sur l’utilisation et l’accès des espaces verts urbains publics, pour différents groupes sociaux. L’approche méthodologique utilisée était l’histoire de l’environnement et de la construction sociale de la nature. L’étude a recueilli des données qualitatives et analyse les informations à l’aide d’un style d’analyse critique du discours. Le premier argument que rend la thèse est que les inégalités sociales et spatiales dans l’utilisation et l’accès nos espaces verts urbains à Nairobi se fonde sur l’histoire urbaine de la ville coloniale, fondée par les impérialistes britanniques et mis au point à l’aide de la ségrégation raciale institutionnalisée, comme la principale stratégie de planification et de gestion urbaine. Basé sur un examen critique des résultats sociaux, des politiques et législations dans la période postcoloniale, je fais le deuxième argument que les gouvernements post indépendantes et moyens, a continué à reproduire injuste nos espaces verts urbains, en omettant de traiter l’oppression et l’autocratie, construit dans les forces structurantes et les institutions, hérités de l’administration coloniale. Par conséquent, pendant une longue période après l’indépendance, autre désenchantement des groupes sociaux vulnérables et marginalisés ont continué, limitant leur utilisation équitable et l’accès des ressources naturelles socialement valorisées. Le discours de l’époque est qu’ouverture aux acteurs non étatiques, augmentera les possibilités pour les groupes sociaux marginalisés et vulnérables, soient habilitées à prendre des décisions sur la gestion et l’utilisation durable des ressources. On croit que cela permettra aux collectivités de durablement pour utiliser et accéder aux ressources naturelles, réduire la pauvreté, améliorer les moyens de subsistance, prestation de services et améliorer la conservation et gestion. Ainsi, environ de la dernière décennie un, indépendant des gouvernements ont modifié leurs politiques, par l’ouverture à la participation du public dans la gestion et la conservation de la nature urbaine se réserve notamment dans la ville. Ces changements dans la politique font partie des déplacements plus loin le gouvernement de l’État centré, vers une autonomisation locale, conformément à la Constitution du Kenya a récemment promulgué (CoK) 2010. L’idée maîtresse de la thèse vient ici, où j’ai une question l’affirmation que la participation citoyenne permettra d’améliorer la justice sociale et spatiale. / This thesis is about the historical and contemporary social, political and economic forces, that have led to the (re)production and (re)construction of spatial injustice, in the consumption of socially valued public urban green spaces in Nairobi. Using an Urban Political Ecology (UPE) framework, the study investigates the structuring forces and actors that have determined and continue to shape, patterns and trends, of use and access, of urban nature reserves in the city. The central research question of the study is, what are the past and present social, political and economic processes that determine use and access of urban greenspaces for different social user groups in Nairobi? The study was guided by three main objectives: (1) To investigate the historical context, that is, social, political and economic dynamics, involved in the creation urban greenspaces in Nairobi; (2) To investigate the past and present, policies and legislations guiding the use, management and conservation of the urban protected areas, as well as the outcomes of the legislations for different social user groups and (3) To examine the social outcomes of non-state actor’s interventions, in the conservation and management of urban protected areas, on use and access of public urban green spaces, for different social user groups. The methodological approach used was environmental history and the social construction of nature. The study collected qualitative data and analysed the information using a critical discourse analysis style. The first argument the thesis makes is that social and spatial inequalities in use and access urban greenspaces in Nairobi is grounded on the city’s colonial urban history, as founded by the British imperialists and developed using institutionalised racial segregation, as the main strategy for urban planning and management. Based on a critical review of the social outcomes, of policies and legislations in the post-colonial period, I make the second argument that the early and middle post-independent governments, continued to reproduce unjust urban greenspaces, by failing to address the oppression and autocracy, built in the structuring forces and institutions, inherited from the colonial government. Therefore, for a long time after independence, further disenfranchisement of vulnerable and marginalised social groups continued, limiting their equitable use and access of socially valued natural resources. The contemporary discourse is that opening up to non-state actors, will increase opportunities for the marginalised and vulnerable social groups, to be empowered in making decisions on sustainable resource use and management. It is believed that this will enable communities to sustainably use and access natural resources, reduce poverty, improve livelihoods, service delivery and enhance conservation and management. Thus, approximately for the past one decade, the post-independent governments have changed their policies, by opening up to public participation in management and conservation of urban nature reserves including in the city. These changes in policy are part of the wider shifts away from the state centred government, towards local empowerment, in line with the recently promulgated Constitution of Kenya (CoK) 2010. The main thrust of the thesis comes here, where I question the assertion that citizen participation will enhance social and spatial justice. Therefore, a larger part of the thesis investigates the social outcomes of interventions by non-state actors in management and conservation of the urban nature reserves, on different social user groups.

The objective of this paper is to provide a robust understanding of the magnitude and direction of effect of urban green space on human health outcomes. This relationship has been studied using a variety of health and green space measures and multiple approaches to collect health data. Due to the various approaches used to study the relationship between green space and health, it is difficult to clearly understand the general relationship. In order to have a robust and clear understanding of the relationship between green space and human health, it is necessary to do a meta-analysis that considers all the approaches to assessing green space, health, and health data. Overall, the average estimated effect shows that surrounding urban green space improves human health by 1.14 fold (~u=0.13 (95% CI: (0.07-0.19)). The magnitude of effect increased when accounting for perceived health and when using greenness as the urban green space measure (~u=0.29 (95% CI: (-0.06-0.63)). In conclusion we can now objectively imply that health can be improved with increased surrounding green space. Further, that the magnitude depends on how studies assess green space and health measures, as well as how health data is collected.

A vegetação é de grande importância para a qualidade ambiental das cidades. As áreas verdes urbanas (parques, praças, jardins, arborização viária, áreas protegidas) contribuem para a melhoria do clima local, o equilíbrio do regime hídrico, a proteção de áreas de fragilidade ambiental, o conforto térmico das edificações, o embelezamento da paisagem, bem como para o bem-estar da população. As áreas verdes disponibilizam espaços para o lazer, esportes, recreação e contemplação e são significativas para a socialização e integração dos cidadãos. Com o crescimento do processo de urbanização, é fundamental que as cidades sejam um lugar saudável e acolhedor para os seus habitantes e, para tanto, cada vez mais o planejamento urbano passa a ser necessário e fundamental. No Brasil, tanto na esfera federal, como na municipal, não existem regras legais claras, nem políticas públicas continuadas para o planejamento de áreas verdes urbanas. O presente trabalho faz o levantamento e análise da legislação federal e municipal (das capitais de Estado), urbanística e ambiental, que estabelece normas para o planejamento e gestão de áreas verdes e de sistemas de áreas verdes urbanas O modelo de análise utilizado foi o de pesquisa aplicada, qualitativa, descritiva e documental. Tem o objetivo de trazer subsídios para a discussão de uma legislação federal que norteie os municípios a planejarem os seus sistemas de áreas verdes, de modo que alguns parâmetros básicos sejam aplicados em todas as cidades brasileiras. Conclui-se que não existem regras unificadas, que a União repassa grande parte da responsabilidade da normatização referente ao tema aos municípios e que, como consequência, ocorrem grandes variações nas legislações existentes nas capitais avaliadas. Pode-se concluir, ainda, que o planejamento da vegetação no espaço urbano efetivamente deve ser realizado na forma de sistema de áreas verdes, para que as funções socioambientais das mesmas sejam distribuídas pela cidade e integradas no tecido urbano de forma acessível e disponível para todos. Com base na análise das leis existentes sobre sistemas municipais de áreas verdes, o trabalho traz subsídios para a normatização do tema apresentando alguns parâmetros referentes à definição de área verde e sistema de área verde, objetivos e diretrizes do sistema, composição, função e classificação, bem como financiamento e gestão do sistema. / Vegetation has a great importance for the city environmental quality. Urban green areas (parks, squares, gardens and protected green areas) contributes to improve the local climate, equilibrate the water cycle, protect fragile areas, control buildings temperature, creates beautiful landscape, as well as improves welfare of population. Green areas disposes space for leisure, sports, recreation and contemplation and are very meaningful for socialization and integration of citizens. With the growing of the urbanization process, it is fundamental that cities become a healthy and welcoming place for its inhabitants and for that, urban planning becomes more necessary and fundamental. In Brazil, also in federal and municipal scale, there are no clear legal norms, neither continued public policies, for the planning of urban green areas. The present study makes the survey and analysis of federal and municipal (of the state capitals), urbanistic and environmental laws, that establishes norms for the planning and management of green areas and green areas systems. The applied research model was a qualitative, descriptive and documentary analysis. The study has the aim to contribute for the construction of a federal law that guides the municipality by the planning of its green areas systems, so that some basic parameters are used by all cities The study concludes that there are no unified rules, that the federal government passes to the municipality the responsibility of making the laws relating to the theme and that, as consequence, there are big variations in the existing legislations of the studied cities. The study also concludes that the planning of vegetation in urban space effectively must be done in form of green areas systems, so that the social and environmental functions of them can be distributed throughout the town and be integrated in accessible and available form with the urban tissue. Based on the research of existing laws, the study brings contributions for the construction of norms for urban green areas systems presenting some parameters about definitions of green areas and green areas systems, aims and policies, composition, functions and classification as well as financing and management of the system.

A vegetação é de grande importância para a qualidade ambiental das cidades. As áreas verdes urbanas (parques, praças, jardins, arborização viária, áreas protegidas) contribuem para a melhoria do clima local, o equilíbrio do regime hídrico, a proteção de áreas de fragilidade ambiental, o conforto térmico das edificações, o embelezamento da paisagem, bem como para o bem-estar da população. As áreas verdes disponibilizam espaços para o lazer, esportes, recreação e contemplação e são significativas para a socialização e integração dos cidadãos. Com o crescimento do processo de urbanização, é fundamental que as cidades sejam um lugar saudável e acolhedor para os seus habitantes e, para tanto, cada vez mais o planejamento urbano passa a ser necessário e fundamental. No Brasil, tanto na esfera federal, como na municipal, não existem regras legais claras, nem políticas públicas continuadas para o planejamento de áreas verdes urbanas. O presente trabalho faz o levantamento e análise da legislação federal e municipal (das capitais de Estado), urbanística e ambiental, que estabelece normas para o planejamento e gestão de áreas verdes e de sistemas de áreas verdes urbanas O modelo de análise utilizado foi o de pesquisa aplicada, qualitativa, descritiva e documental. Tem o objetivo de trazer subsídios para a discussão de uma legislação federal que norteie os municípios a planejarem os seus sistemas de áreas verdes, de modo que alguns parâmetros básicos sejam aplicados em todas as cidades brasileiras. Conclui-se que não existem regras unificadas, que a União repassa grande parte da responsabilidade da normatização referente ao tema aos municípios e que, como consequência, ocorrem grandes variações nas legislações existentes nas capitais avaliadas. Pode-se concluir, ainda, que o planejamento da vegetação no espaço urbano efetivamente deve ser realizado na forma de sistema de áreas verdes, para que as funções socioambientais das mesmas sejam distribuídas pela cidade e integradas no tecido urbano de forma acessível e disponível para todos. Com base na análise das leis existentes sobre sistemas municipais de áreas verdes, o trabalho traz subsídios para a normatização do tema apresentando alguns parâmetros referentes à definição de área verde e sistema de área verde, objetivos e diretrizes do sistema, composição, função e classificação, bem como financiamento e gestão do sistema. / Vegetation has a great importance for the city environmental quality. Urban green areas (parks, squares, gardens and protected green areas) contributes to improve the local climate, equilibrate the water cycle, protect fragile areas, control buildings temperature, creates beautiful landscape, as well as improves welfare of population. Green areas disposes space for leisure, sports, recreation and contemplation and are very meaningful for socialization and integration of citizens. With the growing of the urbanization process, it is fundamental that cities become a healthy and welcoming place for its inhabitants and for that, urban planning becomes more necessary and fundamental. In Brazil, also in federal and municipal scale, there are no clear legal norms, neither continued public policies, for the planning of urban green areas. The present study makes the survey and analysis of federal and municipal (of the state capitals), urbanistic and environmental laws, that establishes norms for the planning and management of green areas and green areas systems. The applied research model was a qualitative, descriptive and documentary analysis. The study has the aim to contribute for the construction of a federal law that guides the municipality by the planning of its green areas systems, so that some basic parameters are used by all cities The study concludes that there are no unified rules, that the federal government passes to the municipality the responsibility of making the laws relating to the theme and that, as consequence, there are big variations in the existing legislations of the studied cities. The study also concludes that the planning of vegetation in urban space effectively must be done in form of green areas systems, so that the social and environmental functions of them can be distributed throughout the town and be integrated in accessible and available form with the urban tissue. Based on the research of existing laws, the study brings contributions for the construction of norms for urban green areas systems presenting some parameters about definitions of green areas and green areas systems, aims and policies, composition, functions and classification as well as financing and management of the system.