Improving Opportunities to Access Nature in City Parks

Our ongoing research reveals where there are disparities in who is served by urban park systems, based on maps of current park use and demand for various types of outdoor experiences.  Regional and cultural differences in people’s preferences for different types of parks, amenities, activities and programming have traditionally hampered planning.  Using mixed methods that incorporate data from on-site surveys, social media, and citizen scientists, we measure local and regional variability in people’s preference for various natural environments and built attributes of parks.  These methods help us to identify where local and regional gaps in the availability of different types of outdoor opportunities could be filled to create more equitable networks of urban parks.