Future Park Research Articles

Comparison of Green Space Usage During COVID-19

The main aim of this paper is to evaluate park usage and accessibility in the northern part of Nicosia, Cyprus, and to compare the usage and accessibility before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides insights into how park usage changed due to the pandemic and lockdown measures, offering valuable information for urban developers on improving park safety and health standards during pandemic conditions. A total of 500 housing units were selected from among the Nicosia neighborhoods to assess changes in behavior and park usage pre- and post-pandemic. These data were analyzed using SPSS descriptive statistics, and field studies were conducted to identify key parks in Nicosia. The results indicate that parks offer a pleasant environment, with higher usage observed in the summer and spring seasons. However, a decline in park usage was noted during the pandemic, highlighting areas for enhancing safety and accessibility. Recommendations are made to assist urban developers in making informed decisions for future park improvements, as well as for further studies on this topic. This research aims to contribute to creating safer, more accessible parks for the residents of Nicosia.

Manajemen Kebutuhan Ruang Parkir Sepeda Motor Sebagai Alternatif Penanganan Fasilitas Parkir Sepeda Motor di Kampus Universitas Muhammadiyah Magelang

The need for adequate parking space is one of the main challenges for the Muhammadiyah University Magelang Campus along with the increasing number of student and staff vehicles. The current parking facilities are not able to accommodate the volume of vehicles, especially on days with high campus activity. This condition demands an effective parking management solution to optimize the use of available land and meet future parking needs. This research aims to analyze the management of parking space requirements on the Muhammadiyah University Magelang Campus as an alternative in handling parking facilities. This study uses systematic research methods, starting from reviewing previous research, problem identification, surveys, data collection from written references, to data processing and drawing conclusions. The analysis results show that the need for vehicle parking spaces on campus is greatest on Wednesdays, with a total requirement of 1,293 SRP, while the currently available parking capacity is only 839 SRP. This indicates that the existing parking capacity is not sufficient for the needs of vehicles parked on campus. Projections for the next five years show the need for parking spaces of 1,600 SRP in 2025, 1,468 SRP in 2026, 1,462 SRP in 2027, 1,383 SRP in 2028, and 1,348 SRP in 2029. Based on these data, it can be concluded that this will happen parking shortage on campus in the next five years. As a solution, this research recommends increasing parking capacity through the construction of new parking lots by increasing the number of parking floors on campus. In particular, it is planned to build a multi-storey parking building for motorbikes and additional parking spaces for cars with a more effective and efficient 60° angle parking pattern.

Reimagining National Parks for the Twenty-First Century: Lessons from Yosemite’s Past

Many critics of the global rise in conservation displacements have traced the origins of this trend to nineteenth-century California and the establishment of Yosemite National Park. This historical narrative is often labeled the Yosemite model, which is characterized by the violent eviction of Indigenous peoples to create unoccupied wilderness. I propose that the Yosemite model historical narrative overgeneralizes events and neglects the larger geo-historical context. Through a close reading of archival records, I recover countering voices and alternative versions that complicate the Yosemite model narrative. The central goal of this article is to locate evidence from Yosemite’s past that can aid in imagining a future parks model more inclusive of Indigenous heritage claims and rights. Throughout, I give close attention to decades of changing geo-historical context, which allows a clearer perspective on conservation enclosures while providing hope for a more inclusive future national park model.

Urban parks in developing countries: Challenges and opportunities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The scarcity of well-functioning green spaces in the rapidly growing urban centers of developing countries poses significant challenges, hindering the well-being and quality of life for urban populations. Urban parks, often referred to as the "lungs of the city," have the potential to alleviate these challenges, yet their benefits are not always evident. This study explores the challenges and opportunities faced by urban parks in developing countries through a comparative analysis of Janmeda Park and Entoto Park in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The research assesses key dimensions, including accessibility, sociability, comfort, image projection, and management/maintenance. These elements are vital for understanding how well urban parks serve their communities and contribute to urban development. While Janmeda Park, despite its historical importance, struggles with physical and operational challenges, Entoto Park’s well-designed amenities, management, and safety provide a model for future park developments. The study offers recommendations to improve urban parks, such as enhancing accessibility, fostering sociability, ensuring user comfort and safety, strengthening image projection, integrating cultural and historical elements, and improving management and maintenance. It also highlights the importance of monitoring and evaluating park performance. These recommendations aim to guide urban planners and policymakers in enhancing urban parks, thereby supporting community well-being and promoting effective urban development. The insights provided are intended to inform better practices for urban park planning and management, contributing to more vibrant and functional green spaces in developing cities.

Something for the young and old: A natural experiment to evaluate the impact of park improvements

Given the significant time and financial investment required to improve parks, evaluations of the effectiveness of park improvements are crucial to inform future investment and design to benefit people of all ages. This natural experiment study examined the impact of park improvements on park visitation and park-based physical activity (PA) in two suburban parks (Park A and Park B) compared to a control park with no improvements. Park A underwent substantial improvements with wide range of facilities, including an all-abilities large adventure-style playground, outdoor fitness area designed for older adults, walking paths and other amenities. Park B received relatively minor improvements that included a playground for young children, outdoor fitness equipment for older adults, and a picnic area. Direct observations were conducted using the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities at three timepoints; before (T1–2020) and after (T2–2021, and T3–2022) the improvements. At Park A, there was a significant increase in the total number of park visitors at both timepoints, and those engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from T1 to T3, relative to the control park. There were also significant increases in active park visits among children, adults, and older adults. At Park B, there were no significant changes in the total number of park visitors or those engaged in MVPA at either timepoint relative to the control park. These findings suggest the extent of improvements and the diversity of facilities included can influence the success of the intervention. The study highlights that including challenging and diverse play equipment suitable for various age groups and abilities, as well as other recreational features such as walking paths and outdoor fitness equipment can increase park visitation and physical activity across different age groups. The findings can inform future park management and planning decisions.

Designing Pocket Park at Dense Building Area with Micro Climate Approach

Pocket parks can create new public spaces without needing large-scale redevelopment, usually smaller than one hectare and created in densely developed urban areas. This research aims to improve the community's standard of living, creating a more comfortable environment for humans and the environment. This research focuses on the design of pocket parks in dense building areas with the concept of microclimate. Data is collected from field observations. The design results are expected to provide an understanding of the role of pocket parks in dense neighborhoods and guide future park planning and management.

An assessment of urban park accessibility using multi‐source data in Hefei, China: A social equity perspective

AbstractUrban parks are vital to enhance human well‐being and encourage sustainable urban development. However, the supply–demand match between the layout of urban parks and various social groups needs to be addressed. Therefore, this study quantitatively evaluates urban park accessibility using house‐level data from the social equity perspective in Hefei, China. A real‐time navigation route measurement based on the Amap application programming interface was taken advantage of to calculate green space travel time costs‐accessibility, and a combination of the Gaussian‐based two‐step floating catchment area method and measurement model to analyze supply–demand accessibility. On the other hand, housing price was used to indicate dwellers' socioeconomic status. The Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, and bivariate correlation were adopted to explore the inequality of green space accessibility among residential communities. The results reveal a spatial inequality of green space between communities in the central portion of the Hefei and those in peri‐urban areas. We further found a spatial mismatch between green space resources and population distribution. At the same time, there is a significant correlation between green space accessibility and housing prices, which means the disadvantaged urban strata with low economic income face a supply shortage, while wealthier communities benefit more from green space accessibility. Hence, based on the evaluation results, the author proposes feasible optimization strategies for constructing urban parks in Hefei and can inform policy decisions regarding future park construction.

Rethinking urban park accessibility in the context of demographic change: A population structure perspective

Rapid demographic change has reshaped the demand for and use of urban parks, profoundly affecting park accessibility inequities. In response to the need for park equity planning under demographic change, we have rethought the gaps in existing park accessibility research. In this study, we revisited and modified the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, re-naming this method as the floatable supply and demand improved 2SFCA (FSD-2SFCA) method. The FSD-2SFCA method considers gaps in environmental preferences and travel abilities among population subgroups to better meet the needs of urban park planning based on demographic changes. Overall, the FSD-2SFCA method is robust, sensitive, flexible, and scalable. The method measured park accessibility in Higashiosaka City under existing and projected population dynamics (2020–2060). The results showed that spatial differences and inequalities in park accessibility exist in Higashiosaka City and that park accessibility inequities among age groups showed different trends as the population changed. In addition, park accessibility is generally the lowest and most inequitable for older adults. Our study highlights that in addressing demographic change, policymakers must consider present equitable distribution of parks and future park accessibility based on population projections to ensure equity-oriented, sustainable urban park planning.

Analisis Fungsi Tanaman Pada Hutan Kota Taman Beringin Sebagai Ruang Terbuka Hijau Di Kota Medan

The urban forest park is a government effort to form green open spaces. Various benefits for the community are derived from empowering green open spaces through urban forest parks. This research aims to determine the extent of the functions and suitability of plants in public parks as green open spaces in Medan, with the research location in the City Forest of Taman Beringin Medan. The focus of this research discusses efforts to improve park management to maximize the various functions of plants. Data were collected from field observations. Plant functions include climate amelioration, environmental engineering, aesthetics, and architectural aspects. Architecturally, they are divided into shading, space division, road direction, noise reduction, windbreak, view barrier, and fencing functions. The research results are expected to provide an understanding of the role of urban forest parks and guide future park planning and management.

Two-Stage Allocation Model for Parking Robot Systems Using Cellular Automaton Simulation

With increasing vehicle ownership and utilization in urban areas, parking robot systems have become a promising tool to cope with both the parking difficulties and hazards in parking lots. With assistance of the parking robot systems, vehicles are not human-operated in parking lots but fetched by a parking robot to the target places. This study starts by depicting the parking robot allocations and movements consisting of empty-loaded and loaded trips as well as picking-up and setting-down operations. Then, with multi-stage processes aiming to minimize the empty-loaded and loaded travel time, respectively, a two-stage allocation model was proposed to assign parking robots to vehicles and allocate the vehicles with target places. Furthermore, a cellular automaton (CA) simulation was introduced and extended with additional priority rules to solve potential travel conflicts occurring in parking lots. Basing on a campus parking lot in Shanghai, China, the flowchart of the CA simulation was proposed to implement and validate the proposed allocation model. The results demonstrate that, compared with the one-stage allocation model, the proposed allocation model has the potential to decrease queue length and waiting time both at parking lot entrances and parking spaces, which may assist in design and operation of future parking lots.

Delivering sustainable, resilient and liveable cities via transformed governance

In the context of steadily declining Natural Capital and universal recognition of the imperative to reverse this trend before we get to the point that nature is not able to restore itself, cities have a crucial role to play. The UK Government commissioned a comprehensive study into the value of biodiversity, and by extension nature, reinforcing “why we should change our ways”—yet what is missing is the “how?”. This paper uniquely describes both the “how?” and a conclusive demonstration of the remarkable benefits of implementing it in a city. Critical to this process, it took a UK Parliamentary Inquiry to reveal that nature has become invisible within the economy, yet the ecological ecosystem services nature provides have enormous benefits to both people and the economy. Therefore integration—or seamless weaving—of urban greenspace and nature into people's lives and the places where they live, work, and spend their leisure time is vital. Moreover, what nature does not provide must be provided by engineered systems, and these have an economic cost; put another way, there are enormous cost savings to be made by taking advantage of what nature provides. In addressing these issues, this paper is the definitive paper from a 20-year portfolio of research on how to bring about transformative change in the complex system-of-systems that make up our cities, providing as it does the crucial in-depth research into the many diverse strands of governance—the last link in a chain of the creation, testing and proof of efficacy of methodologies underpinning a theory and practice of change for infrastructure and cities. The impact of this portfolio of research on Birmingham is two-fold: the Star Framework that placed natural environment considerations at the heart of all decision-making in the city, and the successful bid for the largest of the UK Future Parks Accelerator awards. While both are transformative in their different ways, yet mutually supportive, the latter enabled the design of a suite of system interventions from which the value of Birmingham's greenspaces is estimated to rise from £11.0 billion to £14.4 billion—a remarkable return on investment from the research's conceptualization of Birmingham's urban greenspace as a “business” (with its associated business models). In achieving this, the necessary enablers of thinking and practicing systemically, seamlessly working across disciplinary boundaries, an unusually strong focus on both the aspirations of all stakeholders and the context in question to define “the problem,” and the testing of proposed system intervention(s) both now and in the future have been iteratively combined. However, it is the critical enabling steps of identifying the complete range of value-generating opportunities that the interventions offer, formulating them into alternative business models to underpin the case for change and ensuring that they are synergistic with all the dimensions of governance that yielded the profound outcomes sought.

Change of urban park usage as a response to the COVID-19 global pandemic

Urban parks became critical for maintaining the well-being of urban residents during the COVID-19 global pandemic. To examine the impact of COVID-19 on urban park usage, we selected New York City (NYC) and used SafeGraph mobility data, which was collected from a large sample of mobile phone users, to assess the change in park visits and travel distance to a park based on 1) park type, 2) the income level of the visitor census block group (visitor CBG) and 3) that of the park census block group (park CBG). All analyses were adjusted for the impact of temperature on park visitation, and we focused primarily on visits made by NYC residents. Overall, for the eight most popular park types in NYC, visits dropped by 49.2% from 2019 to 2020. The peak reduction in visits occurred in April 2020. Visits to all park types, excluding Nature Areas, decreased from March to December 2020 as compared to 2019. Parks located in higher-income CBGs tended to have lower reductions in visits, with this pattern being primarily driven by large parks, including Flagship Parks, Community Parks and Nature Areas. All types of parks saw significant decreases in distance traveled to visit them, with the exception of the Jointly Operated Playground, Playground, and Nature Area park types. Visitors originating from lower-income CBGs traveled shorter distances to parks and had less reduction in travel distances compared to those from higher-income CBGs. Furthermore, both before and during the pandemic, people tended to travel a greater distance to parks located in high-income CBGs compared to those in low-income CBGs. Finally, multiple types of parks proved crucial destinations for NYC residents during the pandemic. This included Nature Areas to which the visits remained stable, along with Recreation Field/Courts which had relatively small decreases in visits, especially for lower-income communities. Results from this study can support future park planning by shedding light on the different uses of certain park types before and during a global crisis, when access to these facilities can help alleviate the human well-being consequences of “lockdown” policies.

How Much Did Urban Park Use Change under the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Comparative Study of Summertime Park Use in 2019 and 2020 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The importance of urban parks was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when a number of restrictions on social gatherings were in place and people's movements were often restricted to their local neighbourhood. This study examined the changes in patterns of park use before and during COVID-19 to understand how the pandemic influenced such use. The methods involved behaviour observation and mapping, to offer a comparison of the use of parks in Edinburgh, Scotland, before and in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show an overall increase in use of urban parks during COVID-19, as expected, with significantly higher use in social areas, sports and fitness areas, and playground areas. However, while there was an overall increase in people visiting parks with others during COVID, in woodland areas there was an increase in lone visitors. This study shows the importance of parks for socialisation, exercise and children's play, but also for spending time alone in natural areas during COVID-19. The value of urban parks at a time of social disruption, such as the pandemic, is highlighted, and their role in supporting a variety of urban dwellers' needs points to priorities for future park planning, design and management.

Assessment of future parking systems with autonomous vehicles through agent-based simulation: A case study of Hangzhou, China

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to transform urban parking. AVs may not require dedicated parking spaces near their destination. Instead, AVs can drive to the optimal parking lot, cruise, or return to the origin after the passenger gets off. Previous research on AV parking strategies has largely overlooked actual trip patterns and road network conditions that can affect the effectiveness and feasibility of these strategies. In this paper, we construct an agent-based simulation model to assess the potential impacts of AVs on urban parking, focusing on new AV parking strategies. Using the real traffic network and trip data of Hangzhou, we assess the impacts on overall network efficiency, personal trip, and parking demand under different AV penetration rates. Results show that AVs could decrease the total parking cost from 23 to 6 RMB and increase parking convenience for both AVs and human-driven vehicles (HDVs). 21% of AVs will still choose to park, while 70% will return to the origin. On average, each trip with AV will generate an additional zero-occupant distance of 8.8 km, exacerbating the congestion. The findings indicate the benefits and challenges of new AV parking strategies, providing valuable insights for future urban parking planning and policy making.

The Net Zero Emissions Decision Model of the Sustainable Path of Chinese Business Parks

Business parks account for 30% of China’s total carbon emissions. Exploring emissions reduction approaches for business parks is crucial to achieve a net-zero emissions target, as well as for achieving a representative example for all types of emissions entities. Business parks mainly adopt two types of emissions reduction approaches: energy-saving renovations and purchasing carbon reduction products. However, there are limited studies focusing on the optimal combinations of the two approaches for reaching net-zero emissions and evaluating the cost effectiveness. To find a feasible and quantified way to build net-zero business park, a comprehensive path decision model is proposed. The problem is broken down into two parts: the optimal carbon reduction portfolio and the optimal electricity saving were researched. For the optimal product portfolio, the Markowitz theory is employed to balance the risk of carbon reduction products with the expected cost. In the part of optimal electricity saving, considering a ten-year life cycle, the total cost includes renovation investment, carbon reduction products cost, and cost saving of electricity consumption reduction. Based on the energy consumption, technical, and price data, the combination of energy-saving renovations and carbon reduction products is optimized. The model suggests a business park can save 24% of energy consumption through renovation investment and purchase CCER as 66% of the carbon reduction product portfolio. Taking only purchasing carbon reduction products as a benchmark to assess economic efficiency, implementing an optimized level of energy-saving renovation is found to save 16% of the comprehensive cost for the life cycle required to achieve zero carbon emissions. This model provides a new comprehensive optimization idea that will help future parks make decisions to achieve zero-carbon emission targets.

Exploring the Relationship between Urban Park Greenery at Different Levels and Physical Activity: A Study Using the Hierarchical Linear Model

Urban parks play a pivotal role in shaping physical activity (PA), yet our comprehension of the specific influence of park greenery remains limited. In this study, we focused on three Shanghai urban parks, conducting a comprehensive year-long on-site observation to delve into greenery’s impact on PA. By employing the hierarchical linear model analysis, we uncovered a robust correlation between internal and surrounding park greenery and PA density and diversity. Within a 400 m radius, indicators such as normalized difference vegetation index, green view ratio, Shannon’s diversity index, and color-leaf plant ratio demonstrated a negative relationship with PA density. Conversely, the green coverage ratio and green view ratio within the 400 m radius exhibited a positive link with PA density. In terms of PA diversity, factors such as green visibility rate, color-leaf plants, and green coverage ratio displayed negative associations, while the 400 m green view ratio showcased a positive impact. Notably, our study revealed a dual interplay between internal and surrounding greenery, manifesting as both collaborative and competitive dynamics that collectively shape PA. Additionally, we subjected greenery indicators to seasonal assessments, yielding insights that illuminate how urban park greenery shapes PA. These findings offer valuable guidance for future park planning and fostering environments conducive to PA.

Autonomous valet parking optimization with two-step reservation and pricing strategy

With the development of autonomous vehicle, the autonomous valet parking has been attracting extensive attention, by relieving users’ inconvenience from parking. Compared with shortrange autonomous valet parking, long-range autonomous valet parking extends parking features with bridge of long-range travelling and parking in a user-friendly cycle. However, due to the uncertainty of trip routes, the performance of single reservation mechanism on parking lot status prediction is limited. Besides, unified parking pricing intensifies parking competition and causes local congestion. Therefore, we propose a long-range autonomous valet parking framework based on Two-step Reservation Mechanism. The proposed scheme provides the first reservation service before arriving at Drop-off spots (regular step), so as to anticipate parking demand of parking lot. Then, it provides the second reservation service when arriving at Drop-off spots (extra step) for updating the optimality of parking decision. The future parking lot status can be predicted with the impact of concurrent requests and reservation execution probability. Meanwhile, we propose a heterogeneous pricing strategy, in which the parking lots with higher parking demands would be adjusted with higher prices. Simulation results show that our scheme outperforms literature works on reducing parking cost and balancing parking demand.

Valuing carbon saving potential of urban parks in thermal mitigation: Linking accumulative and accessibility perspectives

The greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are closely linked, as are climate change effects on public health. Urban parks are regarded as sustainable and affordable cooling intervention to climate warming, though carbon saving potential of urban parks in thermal mitigation are hard to value especially from accumulative and accessibility perspectives. This study valued both outdoor and indoor carbon saving potential of 65 urban parks in thermal mitigation using an accumulative outdoor carbon saving model based on park's surface temperature cooling curve and network analysis for spatial accessibility to parks cooling area in Greater Xi'an. We found that the carbon saving potential of urban parks could offset 3.6% of the metropolis' fossil fuel carbon emissions. The outdoor carbon saving was related to background climate, which was 734.3 t CO2/day in hot extremes, higher than normal summer days in 2019. The indoor carbon saving was 814.9 t CO2/day in hot extremes. To maximize the outdoor carbon saving potential, large ecological parks coupled with both blue and green infrastructures should be built in areas with sufficient land resources. And cooling networks are suggested with efficient small parks in densely populated areas. As all urban residents have higher requirements for thermal comfort in hot summers especially in hot extremes, the future park planning should be emphasized on both accumulative cooling effect and equitable accessibility. Though urban parks have substantial carbon saving potential, such potential is limited and only a decrease in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning would make the carbon neutrality goal achievable.

A user-feedback indicator framework to understand cultural ecosystem services of urban green space

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are intangible benefits humans derive from the ecosystem, closely related to residents' spiritual enrichment, perceptual development, entertainment, and aesthetics. Despite the growing recognition of CES, there remains a need for a public understanding of CES performance in terms of indicators content, change and occurrence. This study developed a three-level indicator framework for evaluating urban green spaces CES at the design level. We integrated seven categories of CES indicators as primary indicators of the framework. Based on text comments in social media data, a bottom-up approach was adopted to collect CES-related words as the secondary indicators and elements. We evaluated the CES performance in union square park using the established framework. The results indicate that interactive activities are the most popular CES in the park, while the sense of place, social relationship and educational functions fail to receive a wide response, which should be given strong attention. The leading indicators within the park exhibit consistent trends in seasonal and demographic changes. In addition, there are co-occurrences between CES indicators, mainly manifested in interactive activities, aesthetic values, and health benefits, and the degree of co-occurrence varies. The CES framework proposed in this study measures the CES perception within urban green spaces, provides a detailed explanation of CES indicators, and forms an effective theoretical basis for future park management and development.

Creation of the National Nature Park “Skhidnyi Steppe” as a means of preserving natural ecosystems in Northeastern Ukraine

The remnants of natural steppes in Northeastern Ukraine are represented in small areas, interconnected by riverbeds or large, extensive ravines and gullies. The presence of a large number of plant and animal species listed in the Red Book of Ukraine is the basis for granting of national protection status to these territories. The total territory of the prospective National Nature Park (NNP) “Skhidnyi Steppe” includes three clusters: Vovchanskyi, Burlutskyi and Kupyansko-Shevchenkivskyi, its total area is 22272.0 hectares. The future park covers the existing reserves "Vovchansky" and "Siverskodonetsky", the regional landscape park "Velykoburluk Steppe" (4 segments), and several reserves of a small area. In addition to the steppe areas, it is planned to include forests and meadow areas. The flora and fauna of the territory to be protected are of high conservation value: 25 species of vascular plants are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine; 63 species are listed in the Red List of Kharkiv region; 17 species of chalk outcrops and chalk steppes are relics; 49 animal species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine; 100 animal species are listed in Annexes 2 and 3 of the Berne Convention, 27 bird species are included in the lists of Bonn Convention; 33 animal species are in the List of rare species and species requiring protection in the Kharkiv Region. In addition, the proposed park hosts groups of 11 formations included in the Green Book of Ukraine and 16 habitats in need of protection under the Berne Convention. The purpose of the establishment of the National Nature Park “Skhidnyi Steppe” is the protection of unique natural areas in Northeastern Ukraine, namely, the last remnants of steppe and meadow ecosystems and forests in steppe gullies, which are an integral part of the gully steppe macrocomplex. The primary task of the future national park is to protect the grasslands. The next step is the restoration of pasture ecosystems as habitats for rare and endangered steppe species. This paper describes the planned NNP as of early 2022; it does not reflect changes caused by the hostilities that began in February 2022 and continue in the northern part to date.