Park Safety Research Articles

LANDSCAPE ATTRACTIVENESS AND PLACE IDENTITY: CONSIDERING THE ROLE OF URBAN PARKS

Urban parks, vital public spaces for community health and well-being, also face challenges related to safety and security. Balancing the need for recreational spaces with ensuring safety is paramount for urban stability. However, existing research on the nexus between landscape attractiveness and perceived safety often overlooks the influence of factors such as park usage patterns, place identity, and park typologies. To address this research gap, we conducted a survey among 411 urban park users and employed SmartPLS and SPSS for data analysis. Our findings reveal a robust correlation between landscape attractiveness and perceived safety. Furthermore, we uncover that the combined influence of place identity and time spent in the park can serve as positive mediators in this relationship. Surprisingly, our analysis indicates that time spent in the park alone does not exert a significant mediating effect. Notably, our results highlight nuanced variations: the association between landscape attractiveness and place identity is particularly pronounced in parks with lower landscape attractiveness, while the mediating role of place identity on the relationship between park usage time and perceived safety is more pronounced in parks with higher landscape attractiveness. These findings contribute to our understanding of how urban park landscapes relate to perceived safety and provide new insights for improving the safety of urban parks, offering valuable insights for urban planners and public health policymakers in designing healthier urban environments.

Evaluating the safety and aesthetic of a city park (Case study: Saee Park in Tehran)

Proximity to green spaces, waterside, and various cultural or recreational objects increase the quality of life. Nevertheless, the neighborhood with the urban park also has adverse effects on the quality of life. The purpose of this research is to investigate the state of aesthetics and safety in urban parks. Aesthetic service is considered as cultural services and safety service is considered as regulatory services in the park. District 6 of Tehran was selected as a case study. The aesthetic model was used to evaluate the aesthetic quality of Saee Park and the Fuzzy DEMATEL model was used to evaluate the safety of the park. The results of the aesthetic quality assessment of this research indicate that due to the presence of Saee Park in the northeast of this region, the aesthetic quality of this region is maximum in this part and the aesthetic quality of the southwest part of this region is minimum. The results of the safety evaluation in the park also show that the guards are the most influential and the paths through the parks are the most affectability. The management of the park has the most interaction with other factors of the safety system in the park. Finally, it is concluded that the management of the park is suitable for maintaining the safety of the citizens, and in combination with other factors affecting the safety of the park, it can provide a safe environment for the citizens.

Engaging Spanish-Speaking Latinos with Urban Parks in Salt Lake City

This study seeks to deepen our understanding of how Spanish-speaking Latinos interact with and view public lands and parks to shape policies that meet their needs. Employing Salt Lake City as a case study, a focus group was used to gather insights on community experiences with an emphasis on the importance of the proximity, maintenance, and safety of parks. The study supports findings found in existing literature regarding the significance of diversity, accessibility, inclusivity, livability, and cultural vibrancy in parks. However, it also brings attention to challenges that Spanish-speaking Latino communities encounter, such as lower usage rates, less diversity of people, and the necessity for parks to serve as substitutes for limited private outdoor areas. Furthermore, Spanish-speaking Latinos expressed concerns about losing parks to new developments in their community because of gentrification. The study emphasizes that addressing these issues is crucial for public lands and parks that promote stewardship, inclusivity, equity, and community welfare.

Knowledge and practice of food safety of processors at some collective kitchens in Viet Yen industrial park district, Bac Giang province in 2022

Food safety in industrial park at collective kitchens depends greatly on the knowledge and practices of food processors. This study describes the knowledge and practices of food safety of processors at some collective kitchens in Viet Yen industrial park district, Bac Giang province in 2022. The results show that the general knowledge pass rate is 82.7%; including 100% knowledge about when to wash hands; Wear a mask, keep physical distance, infectious diseases are not allowed to participate in food processing. The overall practice pass rate is 82.7%; the highest scores were in working attire, hygienic practices in preparing and dividing food, compliance with using cutlery and cutting boards for separately cooked raw foods, and compliance with epidemic prevention measures at collective kitchens. Food safety knowledge and practices of processors at some collective kitchens industrial zones in Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province all passed a rate of over 80%. It is necessary to strengthen the organization of training, dissemination, and full updates of the State's regulations on food safety for people directly processing in industrial park at collective kitchens.

Why Do Park Visitors Engage With Social Media for Peer-to-Peer Information?

Park visitors are increasingly gravitating toward peer-to-peer sources of information on social media to prepare for their visit to nature parks. This has significant implications for park safety and management. The current study utilizes the Theory of Consumer Values and Crompton’s Push and Pull Theory as the theoretical lens. This research presents a thematic analysis of 19 interviews with participants who visited a nature park in Western Australia and engaged with social media communities to seek park-related information in the past 12 months. Six themes were identified related to the motivators and barriers for park visitors to seek park-related information from social media communities. They are: (1) destination planning and activities information; (2) access to real-time information; (3) source credibility; (4) social interactions and influences; (5) entertainment; (6) novelty. The findings provide significant managerial insights for park agencies and managers to optimize their social media communication of park-related information.

Informing inclusive park planning: Neighborhood park visitation modeling based on smartphone big data in Austin, Texas

This research uses smartphone-based big data to explore how socioeconomic, built environment characteristics, and spatiotemporal factors influence neighborhood park use, with a specific focus on minority groups’ park visitation patterns. Panel data are collected through SafeGraph, and combined with GIS and American Community Survey data. We analyze 12,227 visitations from 1121 block groups to 30 neighborhood parks from September 2019 to August 2020 in Austin, Texas. Time-fixed-effect nested regression models are employed to control for unobserved time-related effects. Findings indicate a substantial increase in overall park use during the pandemic, with visiting frequencies up by 22 % and dwell time by 56 %. In contrast, minority groups, including seniors, children, blacks, unemployed, living alone, and recent movers, exhibited a decline in park visits. It also highlights visitors’ risk-averse behaviors during the pandemic, such as avoiding visiting parks during holiday weeks and avoiding using swimming pools. Before the pandemic, proximity held the utmost significance for park use; during the pandemic, park quality and facilities emerged as the primary factors influencing park utilization. This study suggests that park planning needs to improve neighborhood parks’ proximity, park facilities, and park safety to boost park use and foster inclusive park planning.

Local Community Distribution and Participation in Biodiversity Conservation in National Parks: A Case of Gashaka Gumti National Park Safety

In this article, we investigate how the distribution of community participation impacts biodiversity conservation in national parks. This study analyzes factors that influence the distribution of community participation in biodiversity conservation. We hypothesize that employment in tourism increases the likelihood of community participation in biodiversity conservation. Additionally, we hypothesize that financial benefits derived by local people uniquely influence their likelihood of engaging in conservation activities. Furthermore, we hypothesize that infrastructure development affects household likelihood to engage in biodiversity conservation. Data were collected from households using questionnaires. Using logistic regression analysis, we find support for our hypotheses. The results suggest that local community participation in biodiversity conservation is significant. This study contributes to the growing empirical evidence on the effects of local community participation on biodiversity conservation in national parks and its implications for park managers and policymakers. Our study makes significant contributions to the existing literature and has practical implications for park management and policy formulation.

Fire Risk Mitigation Strategies for Electric and Hydrogen Vehicle Car Parks

As the use of eco-friendly vehicles, such as electric and hydrogen vehicles, is rapidly increasing, the related infrastructure is also expanding, and they have become common in parking areas. The fire safety design of a car park is based on the existing data of internal combustion engine vehicles; therefore, the characteristics of eco-friendly vehicles must be reflected. This study investigated the heat release rate of internal combustion engine vehicles, electric vehicles, and hydrogen vehicles using real-scale fire test data and analyzed the effects of curb weight and battery capacity. The fire growth rate and maximum heat release rate of electric and hydrogen vehicles were similar to those of internal combustion engine vehicles, except for the batteries and hydrogen gas, which are the energy sources of electric and hydrogen vehicles, respectively. When ignited from the battery of an electric vehicle, the fire grew rapidly. When the thermally activated pressure relief device was activated in the storage vessel of a hydrogen vehicle, the heat release rate instantaneously increased to 14.5 MW. To improve fire safety in car parks, the curb weight and fire resistance structure must be designed to reflect the increase in plastic interior materials and battery capacity of vehicles, and firefighting facilities must be installed based on vehicles with greater fire severity.

Determinants, Motivators and Barriers for Utilitarian Cycling in Starter Cities: Case of Battaramulla, Sri Lanka

In the 1960s, a counter-cultural movement promoting utilitarian bicycle usage emerged in Europe and North America, challenging the dominance of cars, and advocating for sustainable urban mobility. despite the emergence of this movement, many developing cities have low cycling modal share and encounter obstacles in promoting utilitarian cycling. This study delves into workers attitudes toward using bicycles as an alternative mode of transportation. Employing a Binary logistic regression model and incorporating the Relative Importance Index (RII), the research identifies key determinants of utilitarian cycling. The findings highlight significant community willingness (71%) to bike to work, despite perceived barriers. Safety concerns (RII - 0.88) and environmental factors (RII = 0.60), such as rain and heat, emerge as prominent deterrents. Societal perceptions linking cycling to lower social status (vanity) (RII = 0.35), bicycle affordability (RII = 0.35), and work-related factors (RII = 0.48), such as non-cycle-friendly work attire and insufficient office parking safety, play relatively minor roles in discouraging bicycle use. Using the logistic regression model, the study predicts factors influencing the willingness to use bicycles for utilitarian transportation, revealing negative impacts from the absence of cycling infrastructure, motor traffic, rainy weather, and a lack of a cycling community.

Statistical Machine Learning Model for Distributed Energy Planning in Industrial Park

With the advancement of industrial modernization, industrial parks have become the main body of new energy production and consumption. However, due to the large demand for energy in industrial agglomeration, the way of energy utilization is changing to sustainable. The direct connection of distributed energy resources in industrial parks, including photovoltaic power generation systems, has an important impact on its planning and operation. Furthermore, weather scenarios can have an impact on distributed photovoltaic generation, and the uncertainty in photovoltaic power output will, in turn, affect the uncertainty in industrial park planning. Therefore, this paper aims to address the issues of inaccurate prediction of distributed electricity generation during the planning period and the non-uniform distribution of energy resources such as electricity, heating, and cooling. This is achieved through the application of statistical machine learning. The paper intends to incorporate the ideas of statistical machine learning into the model for industrial park distributed energy random opportunity-constrained planning, aiming to resolve the problems of non-uniform distribution of distributed energy sources within the park, along with uncertainty in their outputs and high overall investment costs. The model takes the planning, construction and operating costs of the industrial park as the objective function, uses the lost load cost to ensure the safety of the industrial park, and uses the Chebyshev inequality probability to limit the output characteristics of distributed energy equipment. In terms of operation, the planning period is subdivided into heating period, cooling period and transition period, and the balance of electricity, heat and cold is considered. Finally, an actual example of an industrial park is used to verify the effectiveness of this method. Experimental validation shows that this approach can ensure safety requirements in industrial parks during the heating season, cooling season, and transitional periods by flexibly adjusting the confidence threshold. Simultaneously, it delivers significant economic benefits.

Research on the decision-making of work safety investment in industrial park enterprises: evidence from behavioral experiments.

Due to the clustering of risk factors, industrial park safety accidents can easily trigger a domino effect. Work safety investment is the foundation of enterprise work safety in industrial parks. Therefore, increasing the work safety investment of enterprises in industrial parks is the key condition to prevent accidents. However, due to the typical negative externalities of industrial park work safety accidents, the decision-making process of work safety in park enterprises is influenced by other enterprises within the park, including imitation behaviors. This makes the decision-making of work safety in park enterprises very specific. In order to clarify the influencing factors and effects of work safety investment in industrial park enterprises, this study uses a behavioral experiment method and conducts decision-making experiments using the experimental platform O-Tree. The study recruits 76 participants who play the role of decision-makers in park enterprises. This study uses a lottery price experiment and a dictator experiment to measure the risk preference and altruism preference of the participants, respectively. The study introduces the real background of work safety investment in industrial park enterprises and collects data on work safety investment by the participants in different experimental scenarios. The research results show that the safety attitudes of decision-makers, altruism preference, accident experience, government work safety supervision, park management measures, and safety benefits positively influence work safety investment in park enterprises. The risk preference of decision-makers and the resource capability of work safety negatively influence work safety investment in park enterprises. Work safety investment in park enterprises is influenced by the work safety investment of other enterprises within the park.

Application of atmospheric multi-parameter lidar in safety, environmental protection and carbon dioxide monitoring in chemical industrial parks

Application of atmospheric multi-parameter lidar in safety, environmental protection and carbon dioxide monitoring in chemical industrial parks

Current status, challenges, and future pathways of chemical industrial park safety in China

China is currently the largest producer of chemicals in the world, through its chemical industrial parks (CIPs) scattered across the country. In recent years, the Chinese government has issued a series of laws, regulations, standards, and guidelines, highlighting its commitment to improving CIP safety. However, the increasing number of severe and higher-level chemical accidents (SHLCAs) occurring in China's CIPs has become a major problem for CIP safety. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the current challenges and future needs of CIP safety in China by systematically investigating its current status. This paper first analyzes the origin, evolution, and current status of CIPs in China. Second, based on the collected investigation reports of SHLCAs that occurred in Chinese CIPs in 2011–2022, the characteristics and causes of 90 SHLCAs are analyzed in detail. Third, the national laws, regulations, standards, and guidelines closely related to CIP safety in China since 2011 are also analyzed. Finally, a safety assessment of 100 representative CIPs is conducted to identify the common problems faced by the current safety improvement of China's CIPs. Based on the research findings, the challenges CIP safety faces in China are systematically analyzed, and possible future pathways to improve CIP safety are discussed based on the following resilience capabilities: absorption (including resistance and mitigation), adaptation, restoration, and learning capability. This study provides not only basic data and information for future studies on CIP safety, but also presents valuable insights for the improvement of CIP safety in other countries.

Crime and Safety Concerns to Safe and Vibrant Parks and Open

This paper delves into the crucial relationship between safety, public parks, and crime prevention, exploring the various factors that contribute to a safe and vibrant park environment. It examines the impact of urban and built environments, crime statistics, safety audits, design, conditions, and other elements on overall park safety, with a focus on Koramangala's social morphology. The paper emphasizes the significance of safety in public parks, highlights the purpose and importance of safety audits, discusses the intricate connection between crime and safety, and underscores the role of user perceptions in shaping park safety. Additionally, it explores how park redesign can enhance safety, the reliability of crime statistics, the value of user experiences, strategies for public education, and the importance of maintenance in ensuring the safety and vibrancy of public parks. Key Words: crime, park, safety, green, public, socialize, neighbourhood

Women and Girls’ Safety in Parks: Lessons from Research and Practice

Women and Girls’ Safety in Parks: Lessons from Research and Practice

Evaluation of sense of safety and privacy in parks in relation to the topography, the presence of dense vegetation and other people in the area

The presence of dense vegetation in a park, its topography and the presence of people are elements of Appleton’s prospect-refuge theory and can affect the level of safety and privacy felt by park visitors in various ways. Here we attempt to identify the nature of the relationship between the height of the observation point in relation to the surroundings (flat, higher or lower ground), the location of dense vegetation (near or far away), the presence (or absence) of other people in the vicinity, and the sense of privacy and safety. We analysed the differences in respondents’ assessments for 12 experimental scenarios taking into account the variability of the above factors. The method was based on factorial designs. The respondents rated the variables from a set of visualisations that differed systematically in terms of the independent variables. The study involved 150 people who evaluated computer visualisations of park landscape in terms of privacy and safety. We compared the respondents’ mean scores for the experimental scenarios by performing three-way analyses of variance for dependent samples. The respondents considered flat or lower ground without the presence of another person in the vicinity to be the safest. In terms of privacy, landscapes higher up, surrounded by dense vegetation and without the presence of other people in the vicinity, were rated the highest. The results yielded some practical conclusions. Privacy without compromising safety will be offered by places located away from people who might attack (safety) or monitor us (privacy). Flat ground seems to be optimal from the point of view of safety and privacy at the same time – this level is the safest, and privacy may be enhanced by nearby dense vegetation.

A Study on the Safety of Gwanggyo Lake Park Based on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) Theory -Focusing on Woncheon Reservoir-

A Study on the Safety of Gwanggyo Lake Park Based on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) Theory -Focusing on Woncheon Reservoir-

Optimizing the Dissemination of Nature-Based Park Safety Information: A Customer Journey Mapping in Western Australia

There is little research that has examined how and why visitors engage in park safety information prior to, during, and after their visits. The current research presents a case study that uses semi-structured interviews to map out the visitor journey of 23 park visitors in Western Australia (11 frequent and 12 infrequent visitors). The results show that both frequent and infrequent park visitors engaged in varying degrees of research toward safety information. Beyond conventional sources of park and park safety information such as (1) traditional printed media including brochures and magazines and (2) official government and destination websites, the visitor journey mapping approach identified a number of other touchpoints including (3) local residents; (4) other travelers; (5) on-site staff and operators; (6) mobile phone applications; and (7) social media community. The findings provide significant insights into the management of park safety communication.

Exploring the use and perceptions of inner-city small urban parks: A case study of Budapest, Hungary

Globally, accelerating urbanization has led to a severe shortage of urban green spaces. This scarcity is particularly acute in inner cities with high population densities and ratios of built-up areas. To explore park visitors’ usage and perceptions, we present the results of a survey of 681 individuals from different socioeconomic groups conducted in four small urban parks in Budapest, Hungary’s capital. The survey results found that people living near the block parks were their primary users, but many people from distant areas also visited the parks due to their good accessibility. In addition, findings show that the green components of the parks were generally more satisfactory to users than other amenities, indicating higher quality expectations for cultural ecosystem services in small urban green spaces. However, perceptions of park safety varied across socioeconomic groups, suggesting that views of safety did not necessarily reflect actual park security. Finally, while most respondents stated they would not want to contribute to park maintenance, young people, particularly neighborhood newcomers, showed greater willingness to volunteer for such work.

Understand, track and develop enterprise workplace safety, and sustainability in the industrial park

Industrial parks make great contributions to the local economy, society, and culture, but they have also encountered many problems, such as limited resources, the longevity of ecological restoration, and the contagion of safety accidents. As a socioeconomic and ecological composite system formed by the interaction of multiple stakeholders, the solutions to succeed in workplace sustainability in industrial parks are still not known. The purpose of this study is to explore how to integrate existing resources to achieve a win-win situation in industrial park safety and environmental protection issues. According to Actor-network Theory and a systematic search, this study identifies the relevant subjects from selected 24 studies and clarifies the interactions made by these subjects. In sum, this study concludes two main modes of developing workplace sustainability in the park from multiple actors’ perspectives: self-regulation of inner park subjects and the driving force of exterior park subjects.