Low-carbon ability of neighbourhood public open space (POS) governance: explanation from social-ecological system and new institutional economics

Abstract

Even though a raft of literature stresses the significance of public open space (POS) conservation which is vital in shaping a greener and low-carbon environment, particularly for the government-owned POS, issues of underinvestment (poor landscaping) and overexploitation (misuse and illegal conversion) result in negative externalities are persisting. By highlighting the implications of institutional design on common resources and establishing the complex interrelationship among the property-rights structure and distribution of transaction costs with neighbourhood POS governance and its externalities, theories and concepts of social-ecological system (SES) and new institutional economics (NIE) are employed to justify why such POS issues rampantly recur which adversely affect its low-carbon ability. A conceptual framework was synthesised. Findings suggest that the institutional design and change of property-rights structure associated with transaction costs distribution are crucial in determining the neighbourhood commons governance and quality. Various property rights issues are discovered in contributing to high enforcement costs and perverse incentives in POS governance; the incentivised opportunistic behaviour of stakeholders and POS commons dilemmas consequently stymies the advancement towards low carbon direction. This synthesis renders policy and management insights by advocating the importance of institutional-social-ecological position to the public officials so that they may consider re-aligning the POS property-rights system for a greener and more low- carbon environment.