Greening the City

Green spaces get greener

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From Rennes to Strasbourg and from Lille to Marseille France), green space managers have all become converts to ‘differentiated management’. “This expression means that management varies from one site to another within the same city, and also that, overall, management is more ecological,” explains Gaëlle Aggéri, head of the Paysage, espaces verts Unit at the French Centre national de la fonction publique territoriale (CNFPT), and author of a PhD thesis on the history of differentiated management.
"The term first appeared in 1993, at a conference organized by the city of Rennes, which was a pioneer in the subject, together with Paris, Orléans and Northern European cities, which were at the forefront of ecosystem management of urban green spaces. Until then, most green spaces were managed in the same intensive, ‘horticultural’ way, which was very interventionist and chemical-intensive. However, the environmental impact of these practices was beginning to worry both the scientific community and landscape architects. On top of that, town councils wanted to cut down on the costs of upkeep. Specifically, differentiated management consists, for instance, in promoting the use of a range of local plants that are adapted to the soil and climate, in making use of wild flowers by leaving certain spaces in a ‘natural’ state, and so on," Aggéri explains. The city of Montpellier (in the South of France), for example, has created ‘dry gardens’ planted with drought-resistant species, which means that there is no need for watering. The use of pesticides and fertilizers is also being questioned. In Versailles and Strasbourg (France), the goal of ‘zero pesticides’ has been attained, and municipal gardeners weed either by hand or with a thermal device. Although there are no common standards for the moment, there is huge enthusiasm for this novel method of management. “Three quarters of the 931 annual courses on green space management provided by CNFPT concern differentiated management,” Aggéri says.