Place-Keeping for Health? Charting the Challenges for Urban Park Management in Practice

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the health and well-being benefits of urban green spaces. There is less evidence on the effect of the management of such spaces on our health and well-being. This paper attempts to address this gap in knowledge by calling on empirical evidence collected in the United Kingdom (UK) city of Sheffield. Interviews conducted with professionals and community groups involved in the management of six district parks are analysed using the place-keeping analytical framework. The results highlight the overriding importance of local and national policy regarding how they inform the availability of funding, which is increasingly dependent on partnerships, and governance arrangements to contribute to a park's maintenance, which is monitored through evaluation. The findings show how policies without funding can jeopardise the effective management of parks and how the concept of making park management a statutory service might have more traction if we consider its contribution to people's health.

Urban Development and Population Pressure: The Case of Młynówka Królewska Park in Krakow, Poland

“…The residents could be more willing to undertake longer journeys to an attractive green area. Previous studies confirm that more attractive, easy to access and well-equipped green spaces are visited more often than others [40,42,43]. Accordingly, the analysis of cycling preferences performed by Campos-Sánchez et al provides evidence, that green areas, together with other environmental conditions (e.g., proximity of university buildings, which occurs in this case) can play an attractive role in route choices [82].…”

“…Insofar as all components that form green infrastructure are essential to sustainable development of cities and societies, urban parks are one of the most valuable and attractive [39]. Parks fulfil a broad range of roles: those of urban recreational areas serve as places of physical activity of varying degrees of intensity, such as walking, dog walking, jogging, cycling, hiking or even outdoor fitness [40], as well as allow people to come into direct contact with natural elements of the environment [41]. They occupy an important place in the network of public spaces and induce social contact among visitors.…”

A Study on an Understanding of Migrant Women’s Empowerment and Their Perceptions Toward Participation in Park Management and Its Correlation

“…In other words, as parks and green spaces help recover mental health and are closely related to the quality of life (Park and Miyazaki, 2008), there could be relevance of improving the quality of life through environmental adaptation pursued by empowerment. Furthermore, the issue of long-term management is raised with the recent increase of qualitative interest in parks and green spaces (Nam and Oh, 2021;Sim and Zoh, 2016;Nam and Dempsey, 2019a). Their studies argue that long-term management of parks and green spaces guarantee the maintenance of quality, and parks and green spaces have a positive effect on mental health.…”

Criteria for Sustainable Landscape Maintenance: Addressing Cost Implication

“…In addition, according to Bahriny & Bell (2020), park supervision, quality, and effective maintenance and access control in urban parks also contribute significantly to the feeling of safety, comfort, and satisfaction among users. Nam & Dempsey (2019) iterated that any wellused parks fulfil a certain level of users' satisfaction; thus, they require appropriately scheduled and effective maintenance to maintain the high level of users' satisfaction and safety. Definition of Key Components.…”

“…The upkeeping works to prevent or resist deterioration of a park's initial planning and design is vital to ensure its longevity and achieve its objectives (Liu & Xiao, 2021;Nam & Dempsey, 2019). It is challenging to keep the parks as most of their elements are living things that are constantly changing and evolving (Easton, 2009;Cao, 2021).…”