Residents' awareness of own/neighborhood greeneries and intention on keeping ownership of their own greeneries in the suburban residential district

In this study, we investigated the lot owners' awareness of their own and neighborhood greeneries, and examined factors influencing their awareness including personal attributions and life histories as well as surrounding physical urban green environment. We also associated these awareness with potential of continuous maintenance of these greeneries. We selected suburban residential district with considerable greeneries in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, central Japan as case study area, and carried out questionnaire survey to the residents. We also geographically verified distribution of the greeneries, and examined relationships between the above points. As the results, we found that many residents considered their own greeneries as important elements not only for themselves but also for their neighborhoods. However, the residents whose land parcels were less than approximately 200 square m put less value to their greeneries for the neighborhood. We also identified that there were no direct association between the maintenance cost and holding intentions of greeneries, and greenery owners tended to have intentions to hold it throughout their life in the district. These results suggested that parcel fragmentations and generation changes might accelerate loss of urban greeneries with good maintenance.