Community attitudes towards urban green space
About This Project
Urban green space policy has come a long way since the 202020 Vision’s inception in 2013, however these aspirational policies aren’t necessarily translating into the implementation of green space. A key learning to arise from the last eighteen months of the 202020 Vision’s programmatic work is that a relatively indifferent community attitude (in relation to green space) is one of the main barriers to implementation. Constituents fail to see the benefits of trees and plants and actively discourage their presence. If there is a shift in these attitudes towards community support and demand for green space, it is more likely that it will be implemented, looked after and maintained.
Hort Innovation engaged Mosaic Insights and the Republic of Everyone to survey a representative sample of the Australian population to understand the attitudes, behaviours and language the community uses towards urban green space including parks, street trees and sports fields. The findings include:
- It is a vocal minority of residents who oppose green space whereas the silent majority supports it
- People respond better to non-technical language describing urban green space focused around aesthetics, relaxtion, and health and wellbeing
- Adopting language that communicates the benefits rather than the concept is better received by people
- People would prefer to be contacted by SMS or email
The information gathered will be used by Hort Innovation to create community engagement kits to aid local councils in talking to their communities.