Urban green spaces are considered an essential component of urban life around the world for the role they play in environmental, social, physical and mental health fields. Like any other urban object, they are culturally defined: individual understanding, perceptions and expectations towards urban green spaces might be different, based on people’s experience of their environment, of nature and of a city.
Regardless, the presence of greenery – and water – is central. In Phnom Penh, the green and blue landscapes have drastically evolved over the past two decades, with the reintegration of the Cambodian capital to the globalized economy after the civil war. Today, the city has the ambition of going further: the new Techo International Airport, located in the south of the city and planned for inauguration in 2025, comes as a demonstration of the will to position Phnom Penh as a global city.
Hand-in-hand with the city’s exponential growth in the past two decades, challenges have emerged around livability, such as mobility, air and water pollution and public spaces. Especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, Phnom Penh residents' awareness on the importance of and demand for urban green spaces has been growing. However, despite the importance and increasing attention towards Urban Green Spaces in Phnom Penh, little data currently exists and only small-scale segmented projects are being implemented. Urban green spaces have not yet been the object of many academic studies in Cambodia, and the little research that has started exploring the topic has remained very segmented and specific1. During the implementation of the Krong Baitong project, only three other projects dealing with green and blue spaces accessible to all were identified.
As part of the Krong Baitong project, funded by I-NGO People in Need Innovation Fund and implemented by Urban Lab Cambodia, this research offers a comprehensive contextualization of urban green spaces in Phnom Penh while developing specific data and knowledge on Phnom Penh’s urban green spaces in order to support decision-making and efforts to improve urban green spaces in the Cambodian Capital. It attempts to better understand the quantity, quality, geographical distribution and accessibility of urban green spaces in Phnom Penh thanks to primary and secondary data, collected through extensive field observation, key stakeholder interviews, surveys with park users and satellite imagery analysis. This leads to the formulation of three programs, suggested to increase on short and middle-term green accessible spaces in the city. The main findings are the following.
