2.4.2 Sustainability

Sustainable development is defined by the Brundland Commission as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. The city landscape helps urban sustainability by:

• Providing accessible park facilities and recreational resources close to the growing urban population.
• Providing carbon storage and other environmental services through maintaining the urban forest.
• Recognising opportunities for biodiversity lands for conservation into the future.
• Recycling resources, for example, the use of construction and demolition waste in parks construction, the composting of green waste and the avoidance of the use of peat in horticultural practices.
• Facilitating green transport such a walking and cycling through linked green urban spaces (e.g. greenways).

The principle of sustainability must continue to permeate through the planning, design, management and operation of Dublin’s parks and natural areas.