UMass Amherst Sustainable Community Development alumna Olivia Horte '19 has published an article "Urban Greenways: A Systematic Review and Typology,” based on her senior honor’s thesis. Co-authored with her advisor, Associate Professor Theodore Eisenman, this study reports on a systematic assessment of 52 peer-reviewed articles using the term “urban greenway” or “urban greenways” in the title, abstract, or keywords, and covering seven research categories plus definitions.

The review finds that there has been an uptick in urban greenway scholarship over the past decade; that urban greenway scholarship and definitions reflect a strong orientation towards human needs and concerns; that many urban greenways adaptively reuse already developed lands; and that the materiality of urban greenways ranges from naturalistic to highly constructed. In urban areas, “green” coupled with “ways” may signify a sustainability and livability agenda that goes beyond vegetation per se. The paper also offers a definition of urban greenways and outlines an urban greenways typology that includes freeway-to-greenway, rail-to-trail, waterfront, active travel corridor, and nature trail. As a subset of greenways writ large, urban greenways reflect an evolving form of landscape planning and design, and an opportunity for associated scholarship and practice.

Check out the full article here.