Q: Is the basis for city park development to increase the green area per capita?
A: Different perspectives are also important, such as creating collaborative opportunities with the residents, effective use of the asset, and disaster prevention.
Fukuoka City's greenery policy emphasized creating and protecting, now another perspective, "utilizing and nurturing," has been added, and the parks and roadside trees are now treated as the assets of the city, enhancing the value of green assets with three principles; "collaboration with citizens," "improvement of income and expenditure," and "effective use of assets."
Greenery Policy of Fukuoka City
Fukuoka City faces the sea in front and is surrounded by a green belt of hills and mountains at the back, and this is one of an advantage of being in this city that people can be very close to nature and enjoy it. This green belt is also the life source of Fukuoka City residents, important as a source of water, and a carbon sink exhausted by the city to prevent global warming.
Fukuoka City has been implementing the greenery policy from the perspective of creating and protecting, but another perspective, "utilizing and nurturing," was added. Therefore, the parks and roadside trees are now treated as the assets of the city, and enhancing the value of green assets with three principles; "collaboration with citizens," "improvement of income and expenditure," and "effective use of assets."
To collaborate with the residents and companies, the city government took the initiative to start the "one person, one flower" campaign that aims to create a city with flowers. Most flower beds in the parks and roadsides in the city have been allocated to the volunteer groups of residents or companies, aiming to make the city full of flowers and to enrich connections between residents through flower nurturing.
In order to increase profits and reduce maintenance costs, the city also tries to develop a mechanism for collecting donations, sponsorship for events and facilities, such as benches by citizens and companies, as well as promoting Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for the installation of vending machines, naming rights, and posting of advertisements in the parks, and Private Finance Initiative (PFI), seen in Ships Garden Suijo Park in downtown Tenjin.
Some examples of effective use of the asset can be seen in Kego Park in downtown Tenjin serves as a park in the city center, that is, a people's gathering place and recreational facility, as well as a bicycle and car parking in the basement. In the case of a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, it is also expected to serve as a temporary evacuation shelter. Sanno Park's baseball field in Hakata Ward also serves as the stormwater reservoir in the case of heavy rain.
For Fukuoka City, aiming to be a leading city in Asia, greenery policy plays an important role, as parks are the face of the city to welcome visitors from all over the world, and also as the areas of relaxation for the residents and visitors. These solutions are expected to bring good outcomes in the future.
[Case ID: Urban Policy UP-11]
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