Urban green spaces : with reference to the city of Colombo

Abstract

Historical evidences show that green spaces were a part of every city in human civilisation whether it is in Mesopotamia, Indus valley or in the later developments in Europe. Sri Lanka also had a very prominent affiliation with green spaces in its cities in the early periods. • When Colombo became the capital of Sri Lanka under foreign rulers the city adapted many characteristics of those countries. The first prominent plan for the development of the city was brought forward by Sir Patrick Geddes. Later on there have been a series of proposals, the newest one being the Public Outdoor Recreation Spaces (PORS)Plan for Colombo, which goes into details of a nesting concept having a hierarchy of parks. The prevailing legal framework is also not effective as it does not directly address the issues in protecting the existing green spaces. With the pressures of population increase, urbanisation and industrialization several undesirable outcomes such as fragmentation of land, environmental pollution, urban microclimatic effects etc have surfaced. There are a number of green spaces in the city of Colombo, some being maintained well and some being neglected to the point of being lost as a green space. Urban green spaces have a number of benefits viz. ecological, environmental and social. Colombo is progressing slowly towards protecting and enhancing its green spaces. There are some examples positive and negative throughout the world that we can consider as a base in developing our own green space network. We have to speed up our work towards achieving a desirable amount of green spaces in the cities since the forces that destruct and destroy them are more powerful and have more speed in making even the available spaces dwindle during a little time span. As Martin Luther (1483-1546)expressed, "For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold or silver."