An integrated system of monitoring the availability, accessibility and attractiveness of urban parks and green squares

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to propose a set of 20 indicators that represent barriers which prevent urban green space (UGS) provision on three levels – availability, accessibility, and attractiveness. These barriers include new investments, such as residential areas and roads; a lack of local zoning plans; fences and entrance fees; a lack of amenities, facilities and entrances; noise; particulates. To test our set of indicators, we investigated 115 parks and green squares in Lodz (Łódź), the third-largest city in Poland. We focused on parks as key examples of UGS, as they are the best explored and most recognizable spaces in most cities. We derived data for our analysis from thematic, publicly available maps and databases, and additional data were provided by managers of UGS. Moreover, we present the procedure of data processing and creating indicators by using the QGIS 2.18 software. Our analysis shows that very small parks in the city center are mostly fenced, lack park infrastructure, leisure facilities, and blue infrastructure, and people are exposed to different nuisances (noise, air pollution). In turn, parks with the lowest number of barriers are typically large and not in the city center. If compared with the spatial distribution of different groups of inhabitants and their socio-economic status, our results would show the actual availability, accessibility, and attractiveness. Our set of indicators is meant to facilitate further discussions with the different stakeholders, planners in particular, in order to remove barriers (at least partly) and increase the overall availability, accessibility, and attractiveness of UGS. Other indicators (based on those used in our article) can be constructed for the needs of other cities, but researchers should take into account data availability, the local context, institutional conditions, and UGS specificities. Besides, each case requires proper interpretation and individual consideration.