Park availability,accessibility, and attractiveness in relation to the least and most vulnerable inhabitants |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Davis College, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA;2. Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories, 13768 Hamilton Rd., Charlotte, NC, USA;3. InnoRenew CoE, Izola, Slovenia and University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia;4. North Elementary School, Morgantown, WV, USA;1. Department of Systems Engineering, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6-Suchdol, Czech Republic;2. Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, Kaplanova 1931/1, 148 00 Prague 11-Chodov, Czech Republic;1. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China;2. Univeristy of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;3. Forestry College, Beihua University, Jilin 132103, China;4. Environment and Resources College, Dalian Nationalities University, Dalian 116600, China;5. Department of Human Resources Management, School of Business and Management, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China;1. College of Resources and Environment, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China;2. Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department / Tropical Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Homestead, FL 33031, USA;3. General Education Department, Taishan College of Science and Technology, Tai’an 271000, China;4. Dezhou Natural Resources Bureau & Forestry Bureau, Dezhou 25300, China;1. Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia;2. Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, C. Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent, Belgium;3. Movement and Nutrition for Health and Performance Research Group, Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium |
| |
| Abstract: | With this paper, we enrich the environmental justice debate by investigating differences in the provision of parks in Lodz, Poland, at three levels: availability, accessibility, and attractiveness. A park is ‘available’ when it exists within a suitable distance from where we live; it is ‘accessible’ when we feel that we are welcome there, and we can freely reach and safely use this park; it is ‘attractive’ when we willingly want to use it and spend time there. Our research hypothesis is that the most vulnerable groups of inhabitants concentrate around parks whose provision is affected by the largest number of barriers at each of the three levels, while the least vulnerable benefit from the vicinity of parks that are the least affected. Apart from the statistical analysis – the correlation between the indicators that represent the three levels of park provision and those that represent the most and least economically vulnerable using Pearson’s coefficient – we scrutinize three case study parks. The results confirm that there are inequalities at the level of attractiveness for the most vulnerable groups; meanwhile, no statistically significant results were recorded for the least vulnerable groups. The differences would probably be more explicit had socioeconomic segregation been higher in Lodz. The results may also be influenced by the unique postsocialist and postindustrial legacy of our city. The ongoing revitalization of the city center and the increased activity of developers may exclude the most vulnerable inhabitants and deepen segregation. |
| |
| Keywords: | Urban parks Barriers Socioeconomic segregation Environmental justice Quality of life |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
