Authors: Bhoomika Ghale, Kshama Gupta and Arijit Roy

Have you ever walked through a park on a hot day and felt the air suddenly cool? Or found peace under a tree while the rest of the city buzzed with traffic? That small moment of calm is more than a luxury – it’s the result of planning, policy, and science working quietly in the background.

As cities grow, the pressure on land increases. With high-rise buildings, flyovers, and highways popping up to accommodate our rising population, open spaces often become the first to disappear. But Urban Green Spaces (UGS), like public parks, gardens, wooded trails, and even tree-lined sidewalks, are not just leftover land. They are critical for public health, environmental cooling, and mental well-being.

Yet here’s the catch: it’s not just about how much green space a city has, it’s about how easily people can access it. A large park on the city’s edge may be beautiful, but it does little for someone seeking a quick breath of fresh air or a safe spot for children to play after school. That’s why cities need more than just greenery, they need a well-planned hierarchy of UGS that serves diverse daily needs. Toddlers need safe, familiar spaces near home to play, that’s where totlots, small green pockets within housing clusters, come in. ***s, meanwhile, turn to neighbourhood parks for a quick walk, a morning stretch, or a friendly chat. Community and district parks step in when families need space for cricket matches or school events, places you can reach within a 15-minute walk. And when a weekend recreation is needed, city-level parks provide a green escape from the urban rush.

Figure 1. Hierarchical Urban Green Spaces in Chandigarh, Dehradun, and Delhi

This isn’t just philosophy, it’s urban survival. In a time when cities are growing hotter, denser, and more unpredictable, green spaces have become essential infrastructure. They cool our neighborhoods, soak up stormwater, clean the air, and offer a place to breathe, play, and connect. But these benefits don’t happen by accident. They rely on thoughtful urban planning, the quiet architecture behind our everyday landscapes. It’s what transforms isolated patches of green into an interconnected green system that actually works for people. It’s what ensures a toddler has a totlot nearby, a walker has a shady path, and a city-dweller has a park to retreat to on a Sunday morning.

A new study conducted at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) explores just that. We compared three Indian cities, Chandigarh (a fully planned city), Delhi (semi-planned), and Dehradun (largely unplanned), to understand how urban planning influences people’s access to UGS. Using satellite data, geospatial tools, and network-based accessibility analysis, we simulated an average person’s walk, accounting for roads, traffic, and barriers like walls, to assess whether green spaces are truly reachable, usable, and inclusive.

Even a city with abundant greenery, like Dehradun, can fall short when its green spaces are hidden behind private boundaries, scattered without planning, or lack proper access. Despite its lush cover, much of Dehradun’s green space remains out of reach for the public. In contrast, a compact and concrete-heavy city like Chandigarh shows how thoughtful urban planning can bridge this gap. By integrating small but purposeful parks, totlots, and green belts into walkable neighborhoods, Chandigarh ensures its residents can actually use and enjoy the green around them. Delhi, meanwhile, represents a mixed scenario. While it has a blend of planned and unplanned areas with well-known parks, many of its green spaces are under institutional control—visible on the map but functionally out of reach for everyday users.

While geography shapes a city’s natural green endowment, it is urban planning that determines how equitably and effectively these spaces are accessed. A well-planned city ensures a balanced hierarchy of UGS, so that residents of all ages, incomes, and mobility levels have at least one accessible option within walking distance. Without such a structure, cities often end up with underutilized large parks or overcrowded smaller ones. In contrast, thoughtful planning creates an interconnected green network that supports daily routines, recreation, and community well-being.

So next time you sit beneath a tree in your neighborhood garden, remember: behind that calm lies a web of choices, about where parks go, who they serve, and how they connect. Urban planning shapes how green spaces function, who can reach them, and what they can do for the planet and its people. Because in the end, a greener city isn’t just one with more trees, it’s one where green is planned, shared, and accessible to all.

Video– Study of Urban Green Space in Chandigarh, Dehradun and Delhi

References:

• Ghale, B., Gupta, K., & Roy, A. (2025). Exploring the Impact of Urban Planning on Access to Hierarchical Green Spaces: A Comparative Study between Planned and Unplanned Cities. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 128913.
• Gupta, K., Roy, A., Luthra, K., & Maithani, S. (2016). GIS based analysis for assessing the accessibility at hierarchical levels of urban green spaces. Urban forestry & urban greening, 18, 198-211.