Theoretical Insights into the Multifunctionality of Urban Green Spaces: A Review of Planning, Policy, and Practice

The Urban Green Spaces (UGS) are gradually becoming anticipated to fulfill various ecological, social, economic, and governance roles in fast-urbanizing cities, especially those of the Global South. Although the principle of multifunctionality has been more celebrated in the discourse of city planning and sustainability, the available literature, particularly in South Asia, is still divided, and ecosystem services, resilience, and environmental justice are discussed as independent aspects, instead of being theoretically interdependent. This paper is the first to fill this gap by ecologically explaining and theorising multifunctional city green spaces as socio-ecological governance systems and not as cumulative sets of concomitant functions. The proposed study is a theory-based hybrid review design that will synthesize the evidence provided by about 69 peer-reviewed publications (2015-2025) in the field of urban planning, environmental governance, political ecology, and ecosystem services research. Quantitative data, qualitative data and policy are re-contextualized analytically to look into the enabling, negotiation and constraint of multifunctionality by institutional arrangements, governance capacity and socio-spatial inequalities in South Asian cities. This analysis goes to develop a holistic theoretical framework that connects ecosystem services, resilience thinking, and environmental justice and shows that multifunctionality is a process mediated through governance with land tenure insecurity, institutional fragmentation, and political-economic priorities. Several examples provided by cities like Dhaka, Bangalore, Lahore and Colombo indicate that multifunctionality is not necessarily an inherent synergy but trade-off, where the economic valorization and aesthetic uplifting often consume equity and environmental goals. The chapter adds to theory by re-conceptualizing multifunctionality as an explanatory model that can help to explain the uneven outcomes, elite capture, and selective benefits distribution. The policy implications emphasize that there should be integrated metropolitan governing, participatory comanagement as well as enforceable equity based planning tools in order to transform the green spaces in urban areas into resilient and inclusive as well as socially just urban infrastructures.