IUED's Practical Guidelines for Planning Urban Open Spaces

 

In 1997, IUED conducted a preliminary survey of open spaces in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv which revealed inconsistent application of the government-recommended standard (7 sq.meters at the neighborhood level) for defining and measuring public open spaces. In some cases, even asphalt parking lots, traffic islands and vacant plots were included in municipal calculations of 'public open spaces.'

 

IUED then devised its own Practical Guidelines for Planning Urban Open Spaces, Israel’s first-ever comprehensive set of recommendations for planning of urban open spaces based on a comparative sampling of cities in Israel, Europe and the United States. The IUED Guidelines highlight the need for well-maintained parks and playgrounds at the neighborhood level as key complements to city-wide parks, and recommend a minimum allocation of 14 sq.metres (double the government-recommended standard) at the neighborhood level, and 20 sq.metres at the city-wide level.