GROWING URBAN GREEN MOVEMENT: EVALUATE THE REINFORCEMENT OF COMMUNITY GARDEN FOR RENEWAL COMMUNITY

As per the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) “Sustainable cities & Communities” is vital for the healthy planet by 2030. Because nontackle population growth at city level causing to deforestation and it is outstripping for unsustainable cities as such for better livability. Since, 1990s, the decrement of non-built-up areas due to rapid urbanization directly cause for interrupting socio- ecological interaction & social ties among community in Sri Lanka. Recently, there is an emerging tendency on continuing community based agricultural sites as a social space for community gathering and interacting with variety of active physical activities as well to increase the urban fabric. The aim of the research is to investigate reinforcement of community garden for renewal community by studying diverse social and physical factors, evaluating functioning community garden in Colombo. The methodology of the study was comprised with onsite observations and in-depth interview and the data were qualitatively analyzed by using NVvio software. Accordingly derived 15 different social and 9 different physical factors from the community perceptions. Particularly, respondents having a desire to create a village and sense of place within the urban setting as SDGs rely.