Characteristics of urban parks and their relation to user well-being

Abstract

Urban green spaces have been associated with the well-being of urban citizens. However, there is limited evidence documenting those characteristics that green spaces must have to provide real benefits. We evaluated perceived characteristics of green spaces and environmental components of urban parks as public urban green spaces, relating them to the well-being of their visitors. We surveyed users of nine parks in México City looking for usage patterns and their effect on citizen well-being. Results show a close relationship between patterns of visitor use and urban parks components such as distance, tree abundance, safeness, playground qualities and cleanliness. Variables explaining the well-being provided by the park to the visitors are trustworthy neighbors, trustworthy visitors and share it with well-known people. This implies that the perception of the park affects their use and provides different attributes on the users' well-being. Therefore, to increase visitor well-being, it is important to enhance characteristics that favor social interaction. These results can be useful for strategies in urban parks management.