Allotment gardens have played a significant role in Czech and Slovak society for decades, building upon a rich history of gardening. This article elaborates on Czech and Slovak allotments in the European context and identifies their core functions, services, and benefits. We provide a thorough historical review of allotments in this region, reaching back to the eighteenth century to trace significant periods and historic events that shaped society in general and urban gardening in particular. We analyze the development of allotments until and after 1989 and illustrate key aspects of their present situation using case studies and examples. The article provides a complex historical narrative as a good basis for discussions on contemporary trends, challenges, and visions for the future of urban allotment gardening in both countries.

The current state of knowledge in landscape architecture of urban green spaces in Slovakia significantly falls behind advancements in urban planning and architecture. This gap underscores the growing need for well-planned, designed, and integrated green spaces in creating sustainable and livable urban environments. Urban green spaces serve as an essential component of residential areas. They provide important ecosystem services and significant environmental benefits, such as reducing the urban heat island effect, enhancing air quality, promoting biodiversity, and managing stormwater. These natural processes are vital in mitigating the impacts of climate change and improving the resilience of urban areas. Through a review of the green space and housing estate relationship, this article emphasizes the need for integrated green spaces strategies in the planning and designing of housing estates. By analyzing the mutual relationship between green spaces and housing estates, the article highlights how green spaces enhance the physical environment and play a crucial role in the social and economic attributes of residential areas and the well-being of urban residents.

Planning and designing sustainable, resilient, and healthy landscapes, cities and communities is anchored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015. Current European strategies, such as the EU Green Infrastructure Strategy, the European Green Deal, the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and other related policy and strategic documents all recognise green infrastructure and nature-based solutions as important planning approaches, as well as design and implementation tools in urban areas and landscapes. This issue of Acta Horticulturae et Regiotecturae is dedicated to landscape architecture, landscape planning and green infrastructure at various scales and in diverse landscape settings. It provides original research findings from Chinese, Croatian, Latvian, Nigerian, Polish, Slovak, and Ukrainian cities and metropolitan regions. The issue deals with regional landscape specificities and qualities and shows examples of urban green infrastructure planning and design both at holistic and site-specific scales. At the local scale, it is highly important to involve and engage the public from the very beginning of the planning and design process. This issue introduces various experiences and empirical findings generated by local participatory and co-design actions. The articles show a wide range of ecosystem services provided by green infrastructure and its elements, while also mentioning some of possible ecosystem disservices.

The environment of a city is influenced by global and local climate changes, pollution load from transport, industry and local heat sources. Green spaces as part of the urban green infrastructure fulfil multiple ecosystem services and improve the environmental and residential quality of a city. The level of positive effects of green spaces depends on their area, distribution within the city and the proportion of trees. The aim of the paper was to evaluate land cover structure in a selected segment of the housing estate Klokočina in Nitra, Slovakia. The evaluation focused on the share of biologically active and inactive surfaces, as well as the parameters of woody plant structure in green spaces. Green areas account for 58.70%, while built-up areas, parking lots and roads cover in total 41.30%. Biologically inactive anthropogenic horizontal and of building envelope areas represent 67.30%. Biologically active green areas represent 32.70%. The share of areas with tree crown overlap on horizontal areas is 20.82%, other areas are paved surfaces or grassland. We calculated the indices of the quality of green spaces from the individual categories of areas: proportional green area index (PGAI), effective green area index (EGAI) and tree shade index (TSI). The tree species composition consists of 36 deciduous and 11 coniferous tree species, and 20 shrub species. We evaluated the biometric traits of trees as the tree height, crown width, stem girth and tree vitality class (TVC). The correlations between tree traits were statistically tested with a significant result. In the group of biologically active areas of greenery, we propose to increase the proportion of trees, to establish more natural lawns and xerophyte flower beds. In the category of inactive areas, we propose the reconstruction of parking lots to grass paved surfaces.