Sustainable Urban Development: Urban Green Spaces and Water Bodies in the City of Kazan, Russia

In recent years social, economic and environmental considerations have led to a reevaluation of the factors that contribute to sustainable urban environments. Increasingly, urban green space is seen as an integral part of cities providing a range of services to both the people and the wildlife living in urban areas. The use of urban green space, and especially increasing the use, has become a hot topic for many green space managers during the past few years as the assumed link between use of urban green space and sustainable urban development is becoming more visible. Up to this time, there is little systematic information about urban green space including natural water bodies in the City of Kazan, Russia, its use and the main factors that influence this use. As green spaces play a crucial role in supporting urban ecological and social systems, it is important to make investigations in the amount of provision, the distribution and characteristics of urban green space in the city. The main concern of this paper is to address the importance of urban nature for citizens’ well being and for the sustainability of the city they inhabit. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n24p356