Park Safety Research Articles

Effects of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on park crime in London, England: An interrupted time series analysis

IntroductionPark crimes may have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of lockdowns that limited the number of capable guardians in public spaces. Despite this, the impacts of the lockdowns on park crimes remain unknown. To help us understand the societal impacts of policies implemented during this period, we assessed how the onset of the COVID-19 restrictions impacted urban park crime levels in London, England. MethodsWe identified crimes that occurred in publicly accessible parks and gardens in the Greater London Authority (England, UK) between March 1, 2019 and February 28, 2021 by overlaying open-access crime data with greenspace data supplied by the Greater Information for Greater London service. Using interrupted time series analyses, we estimated seasonality-adjusted associations between the onset of COVID-19 restrictions and park crimes. ResultsOverall (1565.7, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1021.9 to 2109.5) and antisocial behaviour crimes (1772.7, 95% CI 823.6–2721.7) increased in London parks during the first full month of COVID-19 restrictions (April 2020). There were no notable trends in park crimes in London prior to the onset of restrictions, but overall and antisocial behaviour crimes decreased after the onset of restrictions at a rate of 156.4 (95% CI −220.25 to −92.51) and 164.7 (95% CI −280.68 to −48.74) crimes/months, respectively. ConclusionsOverall park crimes increased during the first full month of the COVID-19 restrictions, largely driven by an increase in antisocial behaviours. Additional research is needed to identify the specific misdemeanours that accounted for this rise in antisocial behaviours and to investigate their downstream impacts (e.g. increases in policing costs or decreases in perceived park safety).

Research on Minimum Non-Collision Distance and Protection Strategy for Normal Train to Avoid Rear-End Accidents With Braking-Fault Train

Generally, a train adopts the method of emergency stop to avoid risks if there is any fault in the railway system. However, for braking system faults in a train, the relevant documents and specifications don’t provide a theoretical basis or solutions to ensure the parking safety of the breaking-fault train. For the tracking scenario, when a braking-fault train tracks the normal train running ahead, a calculation model of the tracking operation between trains with a failure coefficient is proposed. By detecting the braking-fault train information and the operation parameters of the train ahead, the model can calculate the minimum non-collision distance or predict the collision speed and position of these two trains. Considering the Yumen station of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railway as an example, a series of experimental analyses are conducted under multiple fault scenarios, and the operation schemes that can avoid collision accidents are investigated. The experimental results show that the actual distance between the faulty and the front trains and the maximum acceleration that the front train could achieve are the two most critical factors. Finally, based on the information obtained from the above model results, the process of calculating the anti-collision scheme of the front train is summarized, and a protection strategy is designed, which provides the calculation basis and overall execution framework for the dispatching system to ensure the safety of these two trains.

단기 임시종사자의 안전사고 원인 인식에 대한 요인구조 연구

Theme parks in South Korea are classified as amusement facility businesses and correspond to the service industry along with wholesale, retail, and lodging industries. Theme park has a labor-intensive structure with many temporary workers working, leading to various accidents including minor accidents. Company A, a large theme park in Gyeonggi Province, has more than 4.8 million guests annually, and the number of temporary workers exceeds about 2,000 per day during the peak season from April to October. Therefore, this study aims to find an effective approach to prevent safety accidents at work for the temporary workers in the theme park. In this study, the cause of safety accidents was composed of the contents of a survey through interviews with 17 department heads belonging to large theme parks A and review of previous studies. A survey was conducted on 370 temporary workers belonging to Company A from December 1st to December 20th, and statistical analysis was conducted using the SPSS program for the collected data. As a result of the study, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items were found to be good, and 26 questionnaire items were composed of five factor structures: facilities, education, communication, psychology, and regulation/policy. It was confirmed that temporary workers have the highest awareness of regulatory/policy factors among the five factor structures. Next, education, communication, psychology, and facilities were in order. The results of this study are meaningful in confirming the hypothetical factor structure of the cause of safety accidents of temporary workers and confirming that there are relative differences in the recognition of importance by factor. It is believed that establishing a safety management system by focusing on factors that temporary workers perceive as important will be effective in preventing theme park safety accidents. Future research is expected to help prevent theme park industrial accidents if we investigate how the perception of the cause of safety accidents derived through this study differs from regular workers.

The importance of designing the spatial distribution and density of vegetation in urban parks for increased experience of safety

This study presents an investigation of how different arrangements of vegetation, regarding spatial containment and density, affect the experience of safety in urban parks. A discrete choice experiment was used to obtain replies from a sample of 300 visitors to urban parks in Mashhad, Iran. Face-to-face surveys were conducted. Visitors randomly selected a block and evaluated six pairs of designed images of different urban park scenarios based on seven attributes (Physical accessibility, Spatial arrangement, Spatial volume, Lateral visibility, Complexity, Coherence, and Visual accessibility) and their levels. Each visitor chose their preferred option in relation to perceived safety. The results suggested that the perception of safety is strongly dependent on visual and physical accessibility, the degree of spatial enclosure, complexity and cohesion created by vegetation. This can help architects when designing urban parks; for example, the results showed that a combination of complex elements of five plant species with open lateral visibility, scattered cohesion with open lateral visibility, scattered cohesion with a two-sided spatial arrangement, and cluster cohesion with a four-sided spatial arrangement were most preferred regarding perceived safety. The findings also indicated that age, gender, and marital status affect some of the levels of the relevant variables. When designing and managing urban parks, aiming to improve users' perceived safety, these factors can be decisive.

Low Income and Mental Health: Can urban parks be the solution for better health?

This study investigates park elements influencing the park visit frequency of low-income communities in an urban area, Kuala Lumpur. A set of survey questionnaires was distributed to identify participants' health history, the frequency of park visits and the park elements that pleasure low-income users during visits to Rimba Bukit Kerinchi Park in Pantai Dalam. The findings show the low-income community was unsatisfied with the park's safety. As a recommendation, additional planning guidance to planners and professional designers assists in accommodating a low-income-friendly park that supports healthy lifestyles. Keywords: Urban park; low-income community; mental health; preliminary study eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA CE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i21.3720

O3-3 Active commuting and healthy behavior among adolescents in neighborhoods with varying socioeconomic status

The World Health Organization recommends active commuting to and from school as a source of physical activity. Worldwide, active commuting, i.e. walking or biking, is determined by various factors including gender, socioeconomic status of families and neighborhoods, the built envormnet, distance to schools, perceived neighborhood safety, life styles, and availability of walkways, biking paths and parks. Previous studies from Swedish indicate that the proportion of youth being active commuters descres with age, but has also decresed over time. This study aimed at assessing health and environmental factors associated with modes of transportation to and from school among 333 adolescents aged 16-19 living in a middle-sized city in Sweden.The present city has 380 kilometer of walking and biking paths that cover the whole city, of which parts are heated in the winter to avoid snow and ice. Still, only 32% of the adolescents were active commuters to and from school. Active commuting was linked to other healthy behaviours including more frequenct daily consumption of fruits and vegetables and less frequent consumption of junk food. Morover, the presence of well illuminated walking and biking paths was strongly associated with active commuting, as compared to not having access to less illuminated paths. However, the relation between active commuting and socioeconomic status of the neighborhood was complex and needs to be explored in future larger studies.The results will be used to increase awareness of the health and enviromental benfits of active commuting among adolencnets, schools, and local policy makers.

Explaining the safety of children's parks based on the physical components of the space (case study: parks in region 1 of Mashhad)

Attention to the safety of children and adolescents as an effective stratum of society is inevitable. The stratum which the future of every city and country is in their hands. Nowadays, children in addition to nutrition, clean air and a shelter, need a safe and healthy open space to play and communicate with the environment. Flaws of urban spaces do not allow children to experiment and bring them to digital devices and solitaire games. The result is nothing but the growing individualist kids with a spirit of isolationism, a topic that can be called a threat to the health of the community. The present study is a small step towards recognizing the issues of the sense of security of children in the parks of Mashhad. In this research, the physical characteristics and space design, which include pass way quality indicators, lighting, urban furniture, and ultimately the security of space in parks of region 1 of Mashhad municipality will be analyzed. In this study, the research method is descriptive-analytical and with the understanding of effective physical indices on security through field, documentary and library studies, and comparing the contribution of these indices to other physical indices in similar samples, we explain the importance of these indices. Based on the data the most important physical factors affecting the improvement of security of children’s urban parks are the attention to the lighting index of all parks at nights, and also the reduction of out-of-sight locations and inducing fear in the design of the parks.

Gender as a factor differentiating the perceptions of safety in urban parks

The objective of this study was to investigate how gender differentiates the perception of safety in urban parks. Gender was recognized in relation to selected, most important factors providing a sense of security classified into 6 groups: visibility, technical condition, cleanliness, external protection, other park users, and mobility facilities, in order to identify those of them which are significant for women as a group considered to be more insecure in public spaces than men. Survey questionnaires were administrated to a sample of randomly selected park users in Poland (N = 394; men and women) asked to indicate the importance of particular factors in the context of perceived safety. The results showed statistically significant differences in the perception of safety between groups of male and female respondents in the case of more than a half of the factors. This knowledge is crucial for designing more inclusive urban parks, so that they can meet the needs and expectations of both male and female users.

Neck Loads During Head-First Entries into Trampoline Dismount Foam Pits: Considerations for Trampoline Park Safety

Serious cervical spine injuries have been documented from falls into foam pits at trampoline parks. To address the lack of evidence on how foam pits should be designed for mitigating neck injury risk, this study aimed to quantify neck loads during head-first entry into varying foam pit designs. An instrumented Hybrid III anthropomorphic test device was dropped head-first from a height of up to 1.5 m into three differently constructed foam pits, each using a different mechanism to prevent direct contact between the falling person and the floor (foam slab, trampoline or net bed). Measured neck loads were compared to published injury reference values. In the simplest, foam-only pit design, increasing foam depth tended to reduce peak compressive force. At least one injury assessment reference metric was exceeded in all pit conditions tested for 1.5 m falls, most commonly the time-dependent neck compression criterion. The results highlight the importance of adequate foam depth in combination with appropriate pit design in minimizing injury risk. The risk of cervical spine injury may not be reduced sufficiently with current foam pit designs.

Research on Multi-Objective Compound Energy Management Strategy Based on Fuzzy Control for FCHEV

A compound energy management strategy is proposed to improve the fuel cell’s durability and the economy of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEV). A control strategy that combines fuzzy control and switching control is proposed, taking into account factors that affect the fuel cell’s durability and the supercapacitor park’s safety. To smooth the output power of fuel cells under frequent variable load conditions, a moving average filtering algorithm has been added. Finally, co-simulation using Advisor and Matlab/Simulink under the World Light Vehicle Test Cycle (WLTC) compares the proposed strategy with fuzzy control and power following strategies. The experimental results show that the proposed strategy ensures the safety of the supercapacitor park and improves the durability of the fuel cell while improving the economy of the whole vehicle.

Study on disaster prevention system in key areas of urban forest park with multi-factor coupling-- Chengdu Longquan Mountain as an example

Urban forest parks are major ecological sites in the suburban areas of large cities with good forest vegetation and forest ecological environment, providing people with recreation, tourism, fitness and other suburban activities, and are an important component of the urban landscape system. The spatial density and development intensity of people, facilities and places in the park are higher than those in general forest areas, and the risk of forest disasters is high. To effectively prevent the occurrence of forest disasters and ensure the safety of touring, this paper takes Chengdu Longquan Mountain Forest Park as an example, and divides the key areas of the forest park into high risk areas, medium risk areas and low risk areas through coupled analysis of forest fire risk factors, forest pest risk factors and geological disaster risk factors, and builds a system of prevention, prevention, resistance and rescue for different risk levels. The system is a combination of prevention, resistance and rescue, with points leading to lines, and lines leading to surfaces, forming a disaster prevention system that combines “points, lines and surfaces”, with human, physical, technical and institutional prevention complementing each other, providing a model for reducing the risk of disasters and ensuring the health and safety of forest parks.

Park and neighbourhood environmental characteristics associated with park-based physical activity among children in a high-density city

Constructing and renovating urban parks is an effective strategy for high-density cities to satisfy residents’ needs for recreation in nature. Using Hong Kong as an example of a high-density city, the purpose of this study was to examine the associations of park and neighbourhood environments with park-based physical activity (PA) among children and examine the moderating effect of neighbourhood income in their relationships. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 32 urban parks in Hong Kong. Park-based PA and the park and neighbourhood environments were measured using systematic observation tools and the geographic information system. Neighbourhood income was extracted from the 2011 Hong Kong Population Census data on median household income. A total of 7,753 children were observed using urban parks for PA during the study. Children’s park-based PA was positively associated with the quality of supporting amenities, park safety, neighbourhood walkability, and neighbourhood quality, while the associations of park-based PA with the diversity of active facilities and park size were not significant. In addition, neighbourhood income moderated the associations of park-based PA with the diversity of active facilities, the quality of supporting amenities, neighbourhood walkability, and neighbourhood quality. These findings provide empirical evidence on the moderating role of neighbourhood socioeconomic status on the associations between park and neighbourhood environments and children’s park-based PA in a high-density city. With children’s needs for using parks for PA, our findings are beneficial for urban planners to renovate existing urban parks to enhance their utility for children living in high-density cities.

Role of esthetic judgment on perceived safety of urban parks’ users

Role of esthetic judgment on perceived safety of urban parks’ users

Evaluation of the Visually Impaired Experience of the Sound Environment in Urban Spaces

Visually impaired people have unique perceptions of and usage requirements for various urban spaces. Therefore, understanding these perceptions can help create reasonable layouts and construct urban infrastructure. This study recruited 26 visually impaired volunteers to evaluate 24 sound environments regarding clarity, comfort, safety, vitality, and depression. This data was collected in seven different types of urban spaces. An independent sample non-parametric test was used to determine the significance of the differences between environmental evaluation results for each evaluation dimension and to summarize the compositions of sound and space elements in the positive and negative influence spaces. The results suggested that visually impaired people (1) feel comfort, safety, and clarity in parks, residential communities, and shopping streets; (2) have negative perceptions of vegetable markets, bus stops, hospitals, and urban departments; (3) feel anxious when traffic sounds, horn sounds, manhole cover sounds, and construction sounds occur; and (4) prefer spaces away from traffic, with fewer and slower vehicles, with a suitable space scale, and moderate crowd density. These results provide a reference for the future design of activity venues (i.e., residential communities, vegetable markets, bus stops, parks, shopping streets, hospitals, and urban functional departments) and the planning of accessibility systems for visually impaired urban residents.

Caring safety of national parks, sharing benefit to the public: A book review on <i>National Park Green Construction of Facilities</i>

Caring safety of national parks, sharing benefit to the public: A book review on <i>National Park Green Construction of Facilities</i>

The Associations Between Visitation, Social Media Use, and Search and Rescue in United States National Parks.

Search and rescue (SAR) is vital for visitor safety in US national parks, which are popular destinations for tourists. Previous studies have described SAR and seasonal visitation patterns, but not in the context of overall visitation. In addition, studies on the association between SAR and developed park areas remain limited. Concurrently, social media can be valuable for sharing information about conservation awareness and the joy of being outdoors. However, social media can potentially be an avenue for users to share risky and dangerous behaviors performed during attempts to obtain photos and videos. The associations between SAR and social media have not been discussed in existing literature. Variables included recreational visits, developed site stay visits, backcountry visits, SAR incidents, and tweets. Data from 2017 were obtained from National Park Service visitor use statistics, the SAR incident dashboard, and the University of California, Irvine, Cloudberry application. Correlation analysis was performed using nonparametric Kendall rank correlation coefficients. Recreational visits were correlated with SAR incidents (rτ=0.415, P<0.001). Developed site stays were similarly correlated with SAR incidents (rτ=0.447, P<0.001), as were backcountry visits (rτ=0.428, P<0.001). Backcountry visits had a stronger correlation with fatalities (rτ=0.380, P<0.001) compared to developed site stays (rτ=0.304, P<0.001). Tweets were correlated with SAR incidents (rτ=0.468, P<0.001), recreational visits (rτ=0.403, P<0.001), and fatalities (rτ=0.367, P<0.001). Our findings demonstrate associations between national park visitation, SAR incidents, fatalities, and Twitter use and provides a concept framework for future prospective studies to further investigate the relationships between visitation, SAR, and social media.

Background and development of Park Manager for park safety in Berlin – A case study

Background and development of Park Manager for park safety in Berlin – A case study

Ensuring the sustainable development of the city park-estate “Ostankino” in Moscow

Introduction. Providing the natural frame of the city as a sustainable system of landscaping and water areas in the urban environment is one of the tasks aimed at preserving the natural frame of the urban environment. The article focuses on the influence of the recreational load on the natural-anthropogenic territorial complex (PATC) located in the North-Eastern administrative region of Moscow. To ensure sustainable development of natural areas, the ability of the components of the natural environment to self-heal under conditions of anthropogenic impact is of particular importance. Taking into account the increase in residential and industrial areas located in close proximity to natural zones, the anthropogenic impact on natural complexes is increasing. First of all, this affects the recreational areas of park zones, where the potential recreational load begins to exceed the stan­dardized and causes degradation of green spaces and disruption of the urban ecosystem. Recreational load affects the state of the natural complex of the city, and its value is determined by the planning structure of urban development. While ensuring the safety of city parks, it becomes necessary to work with complete and reliable information, which can only be obtained through research. The practical aspect of scientific research, considered in the article, includes the results of the analysis of the impact of anthropogenic load on the natural-anthropogenic territorial complex of the park - the estate “Ostankino”.&#x0D; Materials and methods. The paper uses various attributive information collected from open sources and based on the results of field work by the authors, legal documents, and various cartographic materials. The calculation of potential visitors was carried out by a simple calculation method, followed by the use of the Microsoft Office Excel software product to compile the time dependencies of the visit.&#x0D; Results. On the basis of the conducted research, the excess of the normative value of the recreational load of the territory of the Ostankino estate park in Moscow was revealed and graphs of the dependence of the visit on the time intervals were constructed.&#x0D; Conclusions. The increased rate of population inflow and environmental pollution leads to the transformation of the ecological framework of the city.

Terrain park participants’ perceptions of contributing factors in injury events and risk management suggestions

Abstract Snowsport injury research has been dominated by epidemiology and engineering, with little insight from behavioural sciences that may help explain why injuries occur. Terrain parks present a challenge to snowsport resort managers who look to design an appealing terrain park, but minimizing the injury risk for a cohort that is often, younger, male and snowboarders. Using a mixed-methods design informed by a human factors approach, this research explored terrain park users’ perception of the contributing factors to injuries and recommendations for terrain park safety. Data was collected via two focus groups of teenaged terrain park participants and a survey of 78 adult terrain park users which was analyzed via a Principal Component Analysis. A key insight was the interplay between people, equipment and environment (both built and natural) as contributing factors to injury events in terrain parks as well as the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic, modifiable factors. Respondents’ recommended risk management strategies were dominated by three themes: controlling terrain park access, terrain park design and information/education. The latter highlighting the importance of effective and relevant communication strategies for this cohort. Ongoing research and monitoring are needed to understand the complex system and the interplay of people, equipment and environment in terrain parks as part of an iterative process to gain the best terrain park experience design to minimize injury risk and maximize continuing participation.

Hubungan antara Persepsi terhadap Kualitas dan Pemanfaatan Ruang Terbuka Hijau dengan Kesejahteraan Psikologis Anak

Gresik Regency has been trying to implement a green open space policy in the form of a child-friendly park. It is very substantial for Gresik Regency to have a park that can be both as outdoor space for children and also air pollution filter. This study aims to identify the relationship between perceptions of the quality and utilization of green open space with child psychological well-being. Data was collected using Perception of the Quality and Utilization of Green Open Space scale and Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire that obtained from parent’s assessment. The results suggested that there was a relationship between the perception of the quality and utilization of green open space with the child’s psychological well-being in the dimension of strength, specifically in developing prosocial behavior. However, there was no relationship in the dimension of difficulties. The results also obtained that the perception of the quality and utilization of green space in Gresik was good. Even so, the community still perceived the lack of park safety factors. They also infrequently visit the park. These results can be used as an evaluation for the Local Regional Government to improve the safety and comfort factor of the park.