The relevance of urban parks to achieve sustainable development in metropolitan areas LAURA COSTA 1 and LUÍS LOURES 1,2 # University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro - ECAV *Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre - ESAE PORTUGAL, e-mail: lcloures@esaelvas.pt; lauracosta@utad.pt Abstract: Even though metropolitans’ sustainability and regeneration strategies focus mainly the man-made and built components of the urban environment, in the last years we have seen an increasing interest in the development of nature in cities. In fact, the growth of metropolitan areas all over the world poses several redevelopment challenges which the global community is recognising. In this scenario sustainable development have been recognized as widely accepted strategic framework considering city planning and the creation of urban parks play an important role in it. Nonetheless, it is argued, that urban parks and other open green spaces are important for the quality of life of an increasingly urbanized society. This paper approaches three different urban park projects of the Oporto metropolitan area. These case studies were examined and analysed with objective to study how does urban green spaces contribute to ecological, social and economic sustainability of metropolitan landscapes, addressing the importance of urban nature for citizens’ quality of life and sustainable city development. Keywords: urban parks, metropolitan green space, sustainability, city planning, Oporto. 1 Introduction Landscape is continuously changing [1, 2] as a result of complex and interacting natural processes coupled with planned and unplanned actions by man. However, this on-going “transformation of landscapes, worldwide (…), has raised global concerns” [3], as it is the need to rethink landscape while protecting the environment. Additionally, throughout the past century, the World’s population had been rapidly congregating in urban areas. Increasing population and urbanization is recognized as one of the most complex process at global scale. This massive urbanization begun in the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century and the decline of nature during the twentieth century increased public awareness to the necessity of introducing natural assets and components in urban contexts, what led to the creation and development of the urban park movement with the objective of increasing life quality in the modern city. Urban parks are an important part of the complex urban ecosystem network and provide significant ecosystem services. Still, even if the location, structure, form and typology of urban greenscapes is increasingly recognized as a significant asset that encompasses a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues [4, 5, 6], little have been done in order to improve the quality of these spaces in metropolitan areas. Urban parks are an important part of the complex urban ecosystem network and provide significant ecosystem services. They benefit urban communities environmentally, aesthetically, recreationally and economically. Nevertheless, urban parks and other greenscapes as we know them today is the result of a deep and long evolution started in England during the 19 th century (industrial revolution era). These urban greenscapes if developed at a larger scale and across multiple sites could contribute to restore natural processes and functions, create multifunctional landscapes and promote sustainable growth [7]. However, the complexity of these spaces, evident in the number of different ways in which they have been characterized, both in the literature and by designers and other specialists who worked and/or analysed them, make urban parks’ role in urban development, hard to explain and even more difficult to envision and design. It is a fact that urban parks, open space structure and related human health issues are a critical component of any state, regional and local infrastructure plan. They promote the core values at stake in building public infrastructure: providing children the simple joys of playing; improving health and recreation; equal access to public Recent Researches in Environmental Science and Landscaping ISBN: 978-1-61804-090-9 129