Blaschke, PPedersen Zari, MChapman, RRandal, EPerry, MHowden-Chapman, PGyde, E2024-08-192024-08-192024-07-08Land, ISSN: 2073-445X (Print); 2073-445X (Online), MDPI AG, 13(7), 1022-1022. doi: 10.3390/land130710222073-445X2073-445Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10292/17905Green space is needed in urban areas to increase resilience to climate change and other shocks, as well as for human health and wellbeing. Urban green space (UGS) is increasingly considered as green infrastructure and highly complementary to engineered urban infrastructure, such as water and transport networks. The needs for resilient, sustainable and equitable future wellbeing require strategic planning, designing and upgrading of UGS, especially in areas where it has been underprovided. We explore the implications of these needs for urban development through a detailed review of cited UGS analyses conducted on the larger cities in Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ). There are important differences in UGS availability (i.e., quantity), accessibility and quality within and between cities. Some of these differences stem from ad hoc patterns of development, as well as topography. They contribute to apparently growing inequities in the availability and accessibility of UGS. Broader health and wellbeing considerations, encompassing Indigenous and community values, should be at the heart of UGS design and decisionmaking. Most of AoNZ’s cities aim (at least to some extent) at densification and decarbonisation to accommodate a growing population without costly sprawl; however, to date, sprawl continues. Our findings indicate a clear need for the design and provision of high-quality, well-integrated UGS within and servicing areas of denser housing, which are typically areas in cities with a demonstrable UGS deficiency.© 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/).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/33 Built Environment and Design3301 Architecture3304 Urban and Regional PlanningClinical ResearchHealth Disparities3.2 Interventions to alter physical and biological environmental risks11 Sustainable Cities and Communities0502 Environmental Science and Management3301 Architecture3304 Urban and regional planning4104 Environmental managementJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3390/land13071022