The quality of greenways planning in northwest Indiana: a focus on sustainability principles

Although the development of greenways is an increasingly popular trend, little research has focused on evaluating plans to determine how well they address sustainability principles. For this study, the authors completed a qualitative analysis of 32 plans, and a quantitative analysis of 27 plans from jurisdictions in northwest Indiana that address greenways and open space. Evaluations were based upon an established system to evaluate sustainability that the researchers modified for greenways. Plans are ranked based upon their quality and a qualitative analysis and description of each ranking are provided. Results from an ordered logit model show that the most significant determinants of plan-rank in relation to greenways are the population size of the planning jurisdiction, ratio of the population that is white, and population residing in the same house for five or more years. A spatial analysis of plan-rank reveals that there is no clustering of highly ranked plans.