Does a Lack of Green Space in the Residential Area Trigger City Dwellers’ Moving Decisions?

Tetiana Dovbischuk , University of Hamburg
Stefanie A. Kley , University of Hamburg

Previous research suggests that a lack of direct access to green spaces, i.e. not having green in the window view, not having a common green yard and not having a garden or terrace while having children, trigger peoples’ willingness to relocate. However, the connection between the neighbouring public green spaces and moving intentions remains unclear. Few studies analysed for which groups public green spaces are relevant or which forms of public natural offerings are important by differentiating between e.g. parks, shores, fields or woods. We want to contribute to closing this gap drawing on data of a tailor-made survey in two German cities, Cologne and Hamburg (1st wave in 2020/21 with N = 1909 and 2nd wave currently in field). We aim at going beyond the stand of research by taking both into account, the specific usage of public green spaces and respondent’s nature relatedness, when analysing moving decisions prospectively. Based on two-wave panel data, we want to draw on the three-stage model of residential relocations (considering – planning – realizing relocation) to analyse the relevance of green spaces for city dweller’s moving decisions more comprehensively than previous studies.

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 Presented in Session 10. Internal Migration and Urbanization