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result(s) for
"Parks, Recreational"
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Upgrading protected areas to conserve wild biodiversity
International agreements mandate the expansion of Earth's protected-area network as a bulwark against the continued extinction of wild populations, species, and ecosystems. Yet many protected areas are underfunded, poorly managed, and ecologically damaged; the conundrum is how to increase their coverage and effectiveness simultaneously. Innovative restoration and rewilding programmes in Costa Rica's Área de Conservación Guanacaste and Mozambique's Parque Nacional da Gorongosa highlight how degraded ecosystems can be rehabilitated, expanded, and woven into the cultural fabric of human societies. Worldwide, enormous potential for biodiversity conservation can be realized by upgrading existing nature reserves while harmonizing them with the needs and aspirations of their constituencies.
Journal Article
The provision of urban green space and its accessibility: Spatial data effects in Brussels
Urban green space (UGS) has many environmental and social benefits. UGS provision and access are increasingly considered in urban policies and must rely on data and indicators that can capture variations in the distribution of UGS within cities. There is no consensus about how UGS, and their provision and access, must be defined from different land use data types. Here we identify four spatial dimensions of UGS and critically examine how different data sources affect these dimensions and our understanding of their variation within a city region (Brussels). We compare UGS indicators measured from an imagery source (NDVI from Landsat), an official cadastre-based map, and the voluntary geographical information provided by OpenStreetMap (OSM). We compare aggregate values of provision and access to UGS as well as their spatial distribution along a centrality gradient and at neighbourhood scale. We find that there are strong differences in the value of indicators when using the different datasets, especially due to their ability to capture private and public green space. However we find that the interpretation of intra-urban spatial variations is not affected by changes in data source. Centrality in particular is a strong determinant of the relative values of UGS availability, fragmentation and accessibility, irrespective of datasets.
Journal Article
Ecological space management and control zoning of Giant Panda National Park from the perspective of ecosystem services and land use
Since China proposed building a national park system in 2017, the establishment of a planning system for nature reserves, with national parks as the main body, is being actively promoted around the country. Among them, scientific ecological space management and control zoning (ESMCZ) is an important link in maintaining the ecological stability of national parks. How to zone national parks and how to improve the precision of zoning has become a new task for national parks. Therefore, this study takes the Giant Panda National Park as the study area, takes ecosystem services and land use/cover change as the research perspective, integrates the InVEST model, PLUS model and bayes belief network (BBN) model, and builds a set of ecological space management and control zoning (ESMCZ) spatial zoning framework based on raster scale, dividing the study area into strictly protected zone, ecological buffer zone, ecological control zone and controlled development zone. The results showed that: (1) The study area showed an increasing trend in water conservation, soil conservation and carbon storage from 2005 to 2020, and the habitat quality index was generally high. The spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem services in the study area was significant, and the effect of a single factor on ecosystem services was most pronounced. (2) Large variation in area for different land uses under natural development scenarios and ecological protection scenarios. In both scenarios, the area of cultivated land, the area of grassland and the area of unused land decrease relative to 2020, and the area of forested land, the area of water and the area of constructed land increase relative to 2020. (3) The Giant Panda National Park is divided into strictly protected zone, ecological buffer zone, ecological control zone and control development zone, of which the strictly protected zone have the largest area and the best ecosystem background condition, and the control development zone have the smallest area and the worst ecosystem background condition. (4) The ecological space management and control zoning (ESMCZ) framework provides a more refined method for the secondary zoning of nature reserves such as the Giant Panda National Park, which is valuable for the implementation of zoning and categorization management for ecological conservation in the Giant Panda National Park.
Journal Article
The Influence of Urban Park Attributes on User Preferences: Evaluation of Virtual Parks in an Online Stated-Choice Experiment
Urban green areas, such as parks, are becoming increasingly important in densifying cities. Urban parks encourage physical and social activity, recreation and relaxation, and thus eventually promote people’s well-being. The aim of the current study is to examine which urban park attributes influence the preferences of park users, in order to offer recommendations regarding how urban parks of quality can be designed. To elicit the preferences of park visitors we designed an online stated-choice experiment. Seven park attributes, in particular the number and composition of trees and the presence of benches, side paths, a playground, litter, and flowers, were manipulated in a virtual park. In an online stated-choice task, videos of these park alternatives were presented and the preferences of 697 participants were measured. It is found that especially the number of trees and the presence of flowerbeds, particularly with a diversity of flowers, influenced participants’ preferences. The presence of many benches and a playground were valued as well, but to a lesser extent. The presence of litter was found to be less troublesome than expected. Alternatives with all trees placed in one cluster were disliked. Moreover, significant standard deviations were found for the presence of side paths, a playground, and the absence of litter, which indicates that preference heterogeneity for these attributes exist. In a latent class analysis, two groups were identified, namely a Nature-loving group, who mainly valued the trees and the flowers, and an Amenity-appreciating group, who valued almost all attributes. It can be concluded that natural elements and a variety of flower species are important in an urban park, while facilities are evaluated differently by different groups of people. These findings may support park designers and policymakers in decision-making. Moreover, it illustrates the usefulness of creating a virtual park in environmental preference research.
Journal Article
Socioeconomic and race/ethnic disparities in observed park quality
Background
Though park presence and access disparities are well studied for their associations with physical activity (PA), disparities in the availability and quality of amenities and facilities within parks have been infrequently examined.
Methods
Five hundred forty-three parks from 472 block groups in the Seattle, WA and Baltimore, MD regions were audited using the Environmental Assessment of Public Recreation Spaces (EAPRS) to assess presence and quality (e.g., condition, cleanliness) of amenities (e.g., restrooms, seating) and facilities (e.g., fields, courts). General linear model regressions investigated Census 2000-derived neighborhood race/ethnicity and income main effect and interactive relationships with 7 park quality summary scores: 1) trails, 2) open space, 3) sports facilities, 4) PA facilities count, 5) PA facilities quality, 6) aesthetics, and 7) overall amenities, controlling for park size. The regions were analyzed separately due to differing race/ethnicity distributions.
Results
In the Seattle region, neighborhood income was significantly negatively associated with sports quality score (
p
< .043), PA facilities total count (
p
< .015) and the overall amenities quality score (
p
< .004) (unexpected direction). In the Baltimore region, neighborhood race/ethnicity (percent White/non-Hispanic) was significantly positively related to the open spaces quality score (
p
< .011) (expected direction). A significant income-by-race/ethnicity interaction was found for PA facilities quality (
p
= .014), with high-percent minority neighborhoods having higher quality parks in high- vs. low-income neighborhoods, yet was opposite in mostly White/non-Hispanic neighborhoods. The other income-by-race/ethnicity interaction was for overall amenities quality score (
p
= .043), where scores in high-percent minority neighborhoods were best in high- vs. low-income neighborhoods. There was little difference in scores within mostly White or mixed neighborhoods by income.
Conclusions
Patterns of association of neighborhood race/ethnicity and income with park qualities differed between regions. In the Seattle region, “equitable differences” were found, where lower income neighborhoods had better park quality on average. In the Baltimore region, park quality was more consistently negatively associated with income and race/ethnic diversity, and complex interactions of race/ethnicity by income were detected. These findings emphasize the need to explore other factors that may explain variations in park quality, like local policy, citizen involvement in park decision-making, park funding and allocation, sources of funding and park priorities.
Journal Article
Improved Street Walkability, Incivilities, and Esthetics Are Associated with Greater Park Use in Two Low-Income Neighborhoods
Parks may provide opportunities for people to increase their physical activity and improve health. Yet, parks are generally less plentiful and underutilized in low-income urban neighborhoods compared with more advantaged neighborhoods. Renovations within and around parks may improve park utilization but the empirical evidence supporting this relationship is scarce. This study assessed the impact of greenspace, housing, and commercial investments on street characteristics (walkability, amenities, incivilities/poor esthetics) and park use by examining park use over time in two low-income neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA (n = 17 parks), before and after neighborhood-based renovations that were primarily centered in one neighborhood. We used systematic observation of parks, park use, and street blocks surrounding parks to examine the impact of neighborhood changes on park use. We used difference-in-differences to test whether park use and street characteristics surrounding the parks improved more in the intervention neighborhood than in the comparison neighborhood. We also used zero-inflated negative binomial regression with interactions by time to test whether changes in street characteristics were associated with changes in park use over time. We found that improved walkability, incivilities, and esthetics surrounding parks in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods were associated with greater park use and may help increase visits to underutilized parks.
Journal Article
Equity to Urban Parks for Elderly Residents: Perspectives of Balance between Supply and Demand
As population ages, ensuring that the elderly get their due rights has become a common concern of scholars in many fields. However, as an important public service facility in daily life of elderly, the research on the equity of urban parks is mostly based on the evaluation of accessibility. The equity of the elderly's access to urban parks services has been rarely discussed from the perspective of supply and demand balance. In the context of the concept of spatial equity, we used urban parks in the main city of Harbin as a case study, the actual travel mode of the elderly was considered in the evaluation, adopted an Integrated Spatial Equity Evaluation (ISEE) framework, quantitative evaluation of the equity of different levels of urban park under multiple traffic modes. In this study, the results showed that under the three modes of travel, the degree of spatial equity was higher for non-motorized trips than for the other two modes. In terms of urban parks hierarchy, the spatial equity of urban parks at district level were much higher than those at the neighborhood level and street level. The inequity between supply and demand for urban park for elderly people was significant and varies between administrative districts. The empirical evidence in this research may provide references and suggestions for urban parks planning and decision-making. In cities where the scale of land use is basically stable, such as Harbin, we can start from the spatial configuration of park green space system and public transportation system to improve the efficiency of urban parks provision. Thereby promoting the construction and development of an “old age-friendly” society.
Journal Article