Abstract
This study focuses on the Green Flag Awards (GFA), finding about their current utilization of this awarding system in urban parks in Greater London. The purpose of this research is providing suggestions on means to improve the quality of the management for urban parks by clarifying the significance and role of GFA. The results of this research is firstly, GFA provides specific details of a “well maintained park” that local authorities can understand, and they focus on providing specific advice continuously to local authorities on achieving the standard of park management set by the UK government. Secondly, we found that the GFA is used as a communication tool for stakeholders of parks and is effective in guaranteeing the quality of the work of contractors. Lastly, we found that GFA can be an incentive for local authorities to improve the quality of their parks, by being included in the political promises and marketing goals or rewarded with funding. However the issue with GFA is, it could be difficult use in small parks. Therefore, GFA can be a good example to have an awarding system to improve urban parks but criteria's needs to be reformed to be introduced.
