Journal
LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING
Volume 107, Issue 3, Pages 272-282Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.06.003
Keywords
Parks; Urbanization; Green space; Gender; Safety; Inequalities
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [0966410, 0851910]
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Engineering Education and Centers [0851910] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office Of Internatl Science &Engineering
- Office Of The Director [0966410] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Green spaces are one important indicator of urban quality of life. Yet urban green space research is often carried out in industrialized nations, with relatively little known about green space use and preferences in rapidly urbanizing cities in developing countries. With high levels of urbanization and widening inequalities in many Latin American cities, it is necessary to evaluate green space situated within cultural and geographical contexts. In this study, green space usability was explored by examining preferences, perceptions, and access barriers of parks and urban green space using on-site individual semi-structured interviews and systematic observations of behavior among a purposive sample of urban residents. We sought to determine whether certain sectors of the urban population have access to green space in close proximity of their homes and localized patterns of use in (municipal) urban parks and neighborhood parks. The revitalization and construction of urban parks in the last decade in Santa Cruz, Bolivia was found to reduce access barriers for residents by providing more desirable and safer public spaces for leisure and recreation. However, gender disparities were found in terms of usage and we document unequal distribution of larger and more desirable green spaces throughout sectors of the city, so that not all urban residents are experiencing such benefits. Results highlight the potential importance of designing green spaces to serve as equalizers in urban areas characterized by social and spatial inequalities. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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