Green Space in Macau: Comparative Analyses and Suggestions for New Reclamation Areas

Green space is one of the most important components within an urban city, especially for a high-density city like Macau. The green space area of Macau has been decreasing year after year due to multiple reasons. To encourage the value of urban space in Macau, the present dissertation starts from investigating into some deficiencies in the Management of Macau green space and to focus on ways to improve and increase Macau’s green space, e.g. by reviewing audit reports of the last 10 years, checking the situation on-site, gaining new insights be comparatively analyzing differences of green space policies and managements between Macau and Hong Kong, collecting data from a sample questionnaire to understand better the requirements of the type of Therapeutic Garden (Healing Garden). The results are: Macau can increase the green space rate by more skyrise greening, using the marine area for mangroves and using idle land areas for more Temporary Greening Space. In order to improve the quality and resilience of Macau’s Green space, the management of green work can be improved by modifying and triaging green work services according to different priorities. Also, the suggestion is made to initiate and host at higher education institutions of Macau programs related to green management. Also, the existing professional training center needs to develop and offer more courses in view of improving the level of green management in this industry. The legislation standards should be upgraded in view of better protecting and managing green space in Macau. Finally, the publicity of the relevance of green space should be enhanced by using both governmental means and resources and non-government organizations. In order to maximize the value of urban greening, the aspect of horticultural therapy and should be seen and applied for treatment purposes. As for the difficulty of modifying and reserving more green space in the city proper, some suggestions are made especially in view of new urban zones including the introduction of therapeutic (healing) gardens for reducing stress and enhancing the life quality of citizens.