Kanai, J.M. orcid.org/0000-0002-4347-5175, Fabio, V. orcid.org/0000-0002-3211-8607, Mirás, M. et al. (1 more author) (2024) Making green heritage schools work: nature-based solutions and historical preservation when infrastructure fails. Sustainability, 16 (16). 6981. ISSN 2071-1050
Abstract
Schools provide strategic resources for urban sustainability. An international, interdisciplinary research agenda documents the social and ecological benefits of living in green or re-naturalised schoolyards, a hybrid format of urban nature-based solutions. Focussing on low- and middle-income countries, where implementation lags, this paper addresses the challenges of replicating and scaling successful pilots. A better understanding of capacity building challenges is crucial, considering that schools face several concurrent challenges, including historical preservation of heritage buildings, universal access provision, and infrastructure failure in ageing facilities. This study presents primary evidence from action research to build and promote living schoolyards in Argentina, structured as a comparative case study of attempts to co-develop yards with two schools in Buenos Aires. One was an older school with historical preservation status; the other was a more modern, larger school with relative heritage value. Findings show contrastive outcomes. Our programme advanced only in the former. Historical preservation regulations posed relatively manageable contingencies, whereas insurmountable obstacles came from poor general maintenance and governmental risk aversion. Concluding remarks make suggestions on how to co-design projects with communities to synergise heritage schemes, creatively fix infrastructure deficits, and stir a mindset shift for decision-makers to understand and value urban re-greening.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | living schoolyards; green fences; landscape architecture; sustainability planning; nature-based education; infrastructure failure; urban heritage; Latin America; urban ecology |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Geography and Planning |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number European Commission 867564 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2024 14:46 |
Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2024 14:46 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI AG |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/su16166981 |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:217004 |