How Can the Different Functions of Gardens in Suburban Areas be Evaluated? Towards a Framework for an Integrated Method of Evaluating Aesthetic, Ecological, Environmental and Economic Functions of Gardens in Suburban Areas

doi:10.4324/9781315250908-34

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How Can the Different Functions of Gardens in Suburban Areas be Evaluated? Towards a Framework for an Integrated Method of Evaluating Aesthetic, Ecological, Environmental and Economic Functions of Gardens in Suburban Areas

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ABSTRACT

Urbanization is a worldwide trend today (UNFPA 2006; UNDP 2000), not always connected with population growth (Robinson et al. 2005). This development can be quick and results in the fragmentation of former rural and/or agricultural landscapes (Armstrong 2004), causing land cover and land use changes (Marzluff and Ewing 2001; McKinney 2006), and creating ‘urbanized villages’, the so-called suburbs (Alston and Richardson 2006).