Green Space in Wellington’s Central City: Current provision, and design for future wellbeing Report for Wellington City Council October 2019 Authors: Paul Blaschke, Ralph Chapman, Elaine Gyde, Philippa Howden-Chapman, Jenny Ombler, Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Meredith Perry, Ed Randal. Key points summary • Green space is needed in central city areas to provide health and wellbeing benefits for current and future residents, commuters and visitors, and increased amenity, liveability and economic benefits. Green spaces also provide ecosystem and resilience benefits that will help mitigate and adapt the city to climate change and other environmental shocks. • We report here on a detailed study of the provision of public green space in central Wellington City in relation to current and projected future population levels. • The study focused on the three Census Area Units (CAU) of central Wellington City. These CAUs contain a total of 41.19 ha of public green space. More than half of the central city’s public green space is located not in City parks and gardens but in road reserves or in other non-council areas, and some is of relatively low quality and poorly accessible. • The amount of green space per capita in each CAU is highest at 41m2 in Thorndon-Tinakori Road CAU, 23m2 in Lambton CAU, and lowest at 6m2 in Willis St-Cambridge Terrace CAU. There is a very significant lack of greenspace within 300m of the population-weighted centre of the Willis St– Cambridge Terrace CAU. • Green space amount per capita in central Wellington City declines substantially - by half on average - when projected population growth to 2043 for the three CAUs is considered. • Increasing the total amount, accessibility and quality of green space in the central city will need to be achieved in order to accommodate future population growth and fulfil a vision of “central city green spaces that enhance community and ecosystem health”. • A central city green space policy that achieves the maximum possible protection and optimal use of current green space, augmented by purchase of additional land in population growth areas, is most likely to meet the needs of residents and visitors, now and in the future. Figure 1. Glover Park, Wellington (Wellington City Council) Green Space in Wellington’s Central City October 2019 Page 1 Contents Key points summary ................................................................................................................................ 1 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Current state of green space in central Wellington ............................................................................ 6 Future of central Wellington green space .......................................................................................... 8 Green space and other land uses........................................................................................................ 9 Recommendations summary ............................................................................................................ 10 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 10 1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Benefits of urban green space .................................................................................................... 12 1.1.1 Health and wellbeing ........................................................................................................... 12 1.2 Ecosystem services framework ................................................................................................... 14 1.2.1 Ecosystem services ............................................................................................................... 14 1.2.2 Ecosystem services and human wellbeing ........................................................................... 15 1.2.3 Ecosystem services and urban environments ...................................................................... 16 1.3 Amount and accessibility of green space for diverse populations ............................................. 17 1.3.1 Provision of green space in urban areas .............................................................................. 17 1.3.2 Green space accessibility and disability ............................................................................... 17 1.3.3 Green space accessibility and socio-economic status ......................................................... 18 1.4 Critical types of green space ....................................................................................................... 19 1.5 Background to this report ........................................................................................................... 20 1.6 Aims of study............................................................................................................................... 22 1.7 Methods ...................................................................................................................................... 23 2.0 Provision of Green Space ................................................................................................................ 24 2.1 The Central City area ................................................................................................................... 24 2.1.1 Thorndon-Tinakori Road CAU .............................................................................................. 24 2.1.2 Lambton CAU ....................................................................................................................... 24 2.1.3 Willis Street-Cambridge Terrace CAU .................................................................................. 26 2.2 Green space classification ........................................................................................................... 26 2.2.1 Parks and Gardens Zone ...................................................................................................... 30 2.2.2 Road Reserve Zone............................................................................................................... 30 Green Space in Wellington’s Central City October 2019 Page 2 2.2.3 Other Zoned Areas ............................................................................................................... 31 2.2.4 Land cover categories .......................................................................................................... 32 2.2.5 Green space area totals ....................................................................................................... 34 3.0 Current demographic and needs analysis ....................................................................................... 36 3.1 Overall population ...................................................................................................................... 36 3.2 Future population levels ............................................................................................................. 37 3.3 The counting of students in student accommodation ................................................................ 39 3.4 Commuters into the Central City ................................................................................................ 39 4.0 Supply and demand synthesis ......................................................................................................... 41 4.1 Current total and per capita amount of green space ................................................................. 41 4.2 Future green space amount ........................................................................................................ 41 4.3 Green Space amount and buffer analysis ................................................................................... 42 4.3.1 Overall Central City area ...................................................................................................... 42 4.3.2 Central City CAUs ................................................................................................................. 45 4.3.3 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 47 5.0 Constraints to maintaining/increasing green space provision ....................................................... 50 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 50 5.2 Optimising green space provision ............................................................................................... 50 5.2.1 Density and the costs of green space .................................................................................. 52 5.2.3 Transport and parking .......................................................................................................... 52 5.3 Technical constraints .................................................................................................................. 54 5.3.1 Vegetation maintenance .....................................................................................................