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Since the XIX century, the role of green space in French urban policies underwent significant changes. Regarding the objectives of planning, we can identify three periods in which new management practices and many novel typologies of green spaces appeared : functionalist urban planning, sustainable urban planning and ecological urban planning. Therefore, the evolution of urban green spaces was based on “naturalness gradient” : from private garden with a high aesthetic level to multipurpose urban greenways. Nowadays, studies that focus on “nature” in the city are based on tow principles : (i) the evaluation of ecosystem services and (ii) the connectivity of particular habitats. The aim of this paper is to trace the historic evolution of the role of green areas in cities with reference to the diverse theories and practices of urban planning.