Pop-up stores, restaurants, and theaters are an increasingly common sight in cities around the world, where they add to the diversity of commercial options available to city dwellers.
Pop-up stores, restaurants, and theaters are an increasingly common sight in cities around the world, where they add to the diversity of commercial options available to city dwellers. But while the pop-up phenomenon is normally associated with urban activities like shopping and dining, it has also caught the attention of city planners, ecologists, and conservation scientists striving to find new ways to integrate natural features into rapidly urbanizing areas.
Large city parks and other undeveloped areas, commonly referred to as “greenspaces,” are known to deliver numerous socioecological benefits to urban residents and wildlife. However, skyrocketing rates of urban growth are leaving little room for the inclusion of conventional greenspaces in urban landscapes worldwide. “Pop-up parks” (PUPs) – usually small greenspaces, although they vary greatly in both size and composition and can be permanent or temporary fixtures – represent one possible means to help meet the demands of urbanites for more opportunities to connect with nature in their neighborhoods. Moreover, PUPs serve important conservation functions by providing small-scale habitat refuges for a wide variety of threatened plants and animals in urban environments, and they deliver a suite of ecosystem services to urban residents and wildlife alike.
In a study published in the Ecological Society of America’s journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, lead author Luis Mata – ecologist with the People, Nature, Place research program at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University’s Centre for Urban Research – and colleagues combine a case study with a systematic literature review of PUP-related research to explore the socioecological potential of PUPs in greater depth. “Our goal was to provide empirical evidence of the capacity of PUPs to deliver positive biodiversity outcomes, and in reviewing the direct or implied evidence from the literature regarding the possible social benefits of PUPs,” explains Mata.
Read more at Ecological Society of America
Image: The "Grasslands" Pop-up Park outside the State Library of Victory increased spider biodiversity at the site over six weeks. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Stanto.)
