organizations like Copenhagen Electrics, E.ON Denmark, Third, small parks, trees, and other recreation and green areas State of Green, and Copenhagen Capacity can collaborate were the focus of an action plan for developing access to green and with citizens to transform ideas into solutions that generate a blue areas. The city strategy aimed to ensure that every citizen has positive impact.” There were between three hundred and four space for outdoor physical activity, recreation, and meeting people. hundred electric vehicles (EV) registered in the city, and the For example, small or “pocket” parks were generally smaller city “has 255 of its own (85 percent of its fleet)” (Action Plan than five thousand square meters. As part of this plan, the City for Green Mobility, 2013; How Copenhagen is using e-mobility Council launched an ambitious project called Taking Root, through free itself from fossil fuels). In addition, public transport is very which over one hundred thousand new trees will be planted by popular; roughly 750,000 of Copenhagen’s residents use some 2025. Fourth, in Copenhagen, many volunteers play a vital role in form of it (Copenhagen Capacity). caring for the city’s green areas. Since 2011, the City Council has launched twenty-two projects, including a partnership with private 3. Activities and public sectors. In these cases, citizens have the opportunity to push the development of these projects and ambitious objectives. Copenhagen has an extensive and well-distributed system “24% of Copenhageners would consider doing volunteer work in of parks that act as venues for a wide array of events. One green areas, where the social community represents the main dimension of the official municipal policy stated in 2015 was motivating sector” (Eco-metropolis: Our vision for Copenhagen, that all citizens should be able to reach a park or beach on foot 2015). in under fifteen minutes from their housing, echoing ecodistrict and fifteen-minute city principles.6 3.1.1 Urban nature and greenery To monitor the evolution of green spaces within the city, the In 2014, the city won the prestigious European Green Capital City Council is focusing on two main indicators (CPH Climate Award and has the ambition to become the first carbon-neutral Plan 2025, 2019): capital by 2025. Within the municipal border, there are “about • Ensuring that 95 percent of users of natural spaces are 2,260 hectares of green areas with public access,” of which two satisfied with the quality of the city’s waterfront, parks, hundred hectares are lakes and aquatic areas. In addition, the cemeteries, and other natural areas by 2025; city has “around ninety-two kilometers of coastline and 14.7 • Ensuring that by 2025 nature maintenance projects are kilometers of open watercourses” (Cömertler, 2017: 6). undertaken in green municipal areas at least twice a year. 3.1 Plan and goals for green areas These two central points apply to all green areas owned by the city, which make up about 15 percent of the city’s total In recent decades, the City Council has set several ambitious area (Eco-metropolis: Our vision for Copenhagen, 2015). goals: continuously improving the city’s green infrastructure, These green spaces are the setting for countless recreational enhancing the overall quality of the city’s parks, and ensuring functions and organized outdoor activities, and so they enhance that they are all maintained. social and community life and strengthen social inclusion, as well as playing an essential role in the city’s climate- Back in 2007, the City Council adopted a vision for making adaptation strategy, particularly in the sense that they facilitate Copenhagen an “eco-metropolis.” This term was defined according management of rainstorms and heatwaves. to four overall themes. The first aim was making Copenhagen a “green” and “blue sea” capital and reducing average distances to A user-centric approach is continuously being applied to both green spaces and blue-sea areas. For example, a citizen’s understand how citizens use city parks. The latest data available panel survey dating from 2010 showed that “around 83% of shows that 78 percent of Copenhageners visit the city’s various citizens” were “satisfied or very satisfied with the distance to the types of green and blue areas (Eco-metropolis: Our vision for green area” (Eco-metropolis: Our vision for Copenhagen, 2015). Copenhagen, 2015). Second, the Park Policy (2004) stated a plan aiming to create a common framework for the city’s green areas, incorporating 3.1.2 Urban nature in urban development areas design, development, and maintenance activities in annual The City Council strategy for urban nature is subordinate to municipal planning for green spaces. For example, this policy the general urban goals established in the municipal plans. In ensured that there will be room for implementation of amenities terms of acreage, urban development areas account for about such as playgrounds and green path connections in natural areas. 6 percent of the city’s total area (CPH Climate Plan, 2025, 2019). (6) First promoted in the 1920s by the American urban planner Clarence Perry, who proposed the idea of the livable “neighborhood unit”. https://evstudio.com/the- neighborhood-unit-how-does-perrys-concept-apply-to-modern-day-planning/ (Accessed on 10 June 2021). 125 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021