The Linkages Between Urban Green Spaces and Residents’ Wellbeing: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Sustainable development has been one of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced in recent decades. The term sustainable development is a dynamic process which brings together global and local concerns while linking social, economic, and environmental issues in order to resolve the needs of both current and future generations. It is therefore important to achieve sustainable development as urban residents' wellbeing, meaning their health, sense of security, freedom and social relations with others are heavily dependent upon it. In the modern era, sustainable development has become even more challenging because the nature of urban development which is often intertwined with urban issues such as urban sprawl, immigration, city planning. Similarly in Malaysia, the rapid urbanisation, transformation and expansion of urban cities has pushed the country towards the need for urban sustainability. Nonetheless, the destruction of natural green spaces, noise and overcrowding is one of the negative implications in compact cities that threatens urban residents’ wellbeing. This is worrisome because the urban green spaces are essential in promoting social interaction, health and wellbeing. Therefore, urban green spaces are among the most important sustainable urban development elements to integrate in residential development initiatives to achieve residents’ wellbeing. This paper provides insight into the function of spatial values of these urban green spaces in explaining residents' wellbeing. In this paper, there are three dimensions namely urban green spatial characteristics, urban green spatial value, and residents' wellbeing. This paper posits that favourable urban green spatial characteristics improves the perceptions of urban green spatial values, and consequently promotes residents' sense of wellbeing.