Landscape as a veritable tool to environmental sustainability: introducing green practices

Landscaped open spaces are few and far between as found in many emerging cities of most developing countries and this has served as a deterrent to city development and the achievement of a healthy and sustainable environment. This paper focuses on the landscape quality of open spaces highlighting the peculiarities of Akure, a city in South-western Nigeria as it evaluates the significance of landscaped areas to the built environment in an urban setting. The poor quality of the city’s urban environment has been attributed partly to inadequate use and management of these urban open spaces and this has exerted a major strain on the physical outlook of the environment and an attendant negative effect on the welfare and productivity of the residents. The need to effectively address the issue of a sustainable built environment calls for the identification and analyses of the open spaces in a bid to assess their implications to landscape planning and the status of the city’s development. This study also discusses the concept of sustainability, looking into its principles and the indicators that impact sustainability of the built environment as well as the resultant problems. Case studies carried out assessed the land use and landscape status of the open spaces while the statistically analysed results revealed the inadequacies in the provision and management of the open spaces within the study areas. Recommendations of attainable policies and measures towards the introduction of green practices were proffered in a bid to enhance a sustainable living environment that will reduce the effects of the green house gases