TOWARD A LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY OF CITIES - BEYOND BULDINGS, TREES AND URBAN PARKS IN PRISHTINA KOSOVO

Urban green space is defined as all publicly owned and publicly accessible open space with a high degree of cover by vegetation such as:parks, woodlands, nature areas and other green space. These spaces have different functions in cities, at several levels such as the environmental, ecological, social, economic, cultural and aesthetic, promoting the image and character of an urban area.The area of Prishtina (572 km2, about 600.000 inhabitant) represents one of the largest Kosovo metropolitan areas. The average amount of green spaces per capita is approximately 2.5 m2.In this study we use a socio-ecological model as framework when studying influences on the use of respondents nearest urban green space in the Prishtina city of Kosovo. Data were obtained from a survey for 1000 randomly selected adult residents within the central part of the Prishtina city. We tested the relative importance of different factors (area size, distance to the area,use of different ages) on the frequency of use of the nearest urban green space.According the respondents distance to green space is the most important factor related to its use(< 300-350m), while the favorite biggest green space was about (1-2 ha). Other important motivations to visit green space are:to reduce stress, relax (53.8%); to exercise, keep in shape (59.5%); for visit together with friends and family (55.4%). The results show that is visited open green space 1-3 times a week by (37.5%) of the respondents, 4-5 times a week (12.5), while (8.3%) visit open green space evry day, only (2.5 %) never visit green space.