Assessing Parks Deficiency in an Urban Environment

David Drescher

Paulette Franco-Wills

Assessing Parks Deficiency in an Urban Environment

Abstract: Parks deficiency assessment is the evaluation of characteristics that are lacking within a park or those characteristics a park is lacking relative to its surrounding area. As land is consumed for residential and commercial development it is important to identify parks deficient areas to maintain a balance between multiple land-use objectives. A spatial model based on accessibility and connectivity cost surfaces is used to determine suitability of land for use as wildlife corridors, passive parks, and active parks. This paper provides a definition for parks deficiency and demonstrates how GIS can be used to determine parks deficient areas. The methods described can be used as a model to empower park planners and decision makers in parks deficiency assessment. Combining the power of workstation ArcInfo and ArcView, a desktop mapping package, a spatial decision support system can help persons interested in making informed land use planning decisions that affect their community.

Introduction

The challenge to maintaining a healthy community lies in providing the right mix of housing, employment, and open space as land is consumed for residential and commercial development. Bringing together a definition of parks deficiency and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can help determine where to reserve or restore land for recreation and wildlife. Of course, defining parks deficiency is not an easy task. Many organizations and agencies, public and private, within one geographical region may have different goals, methods, and criteria.

There are two purposes of this study:

to develop a definition of parks deficiency
to develop a parks deficiency model in a Geographic Information System

A well-developed definition of parks deficiency will aid urban planners and park managers in making better management decisions and create a standard upon which planners from different jurisdictions within a metropolitan area can base their decisions. The GIS model can apply the definition criteria in an objective manner and perform analysis not possible by any other means.

A parks deficiency definition can vary geographically as well as jurisdictionally. Park planners from different regions may use different parks deficiency models and criteria. Many park planners, such as Mitchell-Lacoss Land Solutions (1996) assess parks deficiency by determining needs assessment. Needs assessment refers to what a community's needs are at a specific time and place. This paper discusses parks deficiency from a variety of perspectives and proposes methodology to assess parks deficiency using GIS.

Search Methods

Research for this study was compiled using three methods:

Library research
World-wide-web research
Letter writing and personal communication

Several libraries were utilized, including, but not limited to:

Portland State University
Multnomah County
University of Washington, Seattle

Significance

The importance of parks deficiency assessment and parks planning has been recognized by urban planners since the beginning of park planning in the United States. Frederick Law Olmsted understood the importance of preserving natural habitat adjacent to or within urban boundaries as he described nature as "...part of our inherent indispensable biological need" (Dramstad et al. 1996:11).

Part of the value of natural habitat preservation within urban areas requires that wildlife be viewed as a valuable resource. The Nature Conservancy Council (1987), a British government agency, discusses ten benefits of wildlife preservation in an urban environment (Table 1). Many of the benefits of wildlife habitat preservation can also apply to recreation-focused or active parks. Active parks are traditionally seen as city parks and include such features as playgrounds, baseball diamonds, and picnic areas. Natural areas and wildlife habitat are known as passive parks.

Table 1. Benefits of Wildlife Preservation in Urban Areas
Benefit	Explanation
Pleasure	Urban residents enjoy retreating form the anonymous and hectic city lifestyle. Individual benefits, such as viewing plants and animals, are largely unquantifiable yet personally very valuable.
Well-being	Psychological and emotional well-being are improved by contact with nature. Natural areas allow people to relax and reduce the feeling of being trapped in a city.
Recreation	Recreational activities tend to be enjoyed more when in a natural setting.
Social	Parks and natural areas can be meeting places.
Education	Wildlife areas serve as field laboratories for biologists, geographers, and environmental scientists. Children particularly benefit from learning about nature while experiencing it.
Historical Value	Natural areas can have historical value when they represent links to the past, such as old abandoned railways, canals, and relict woodlands.
Image	An urban area with an emphasis on parks and natural areas can attract employers and investors.
Environmental Health	Wildlife habitat and natural areas in an urban environment can mitigate flood hazards, reduce erosion, filter pollutants, reduce noise, and mask obtrusive views.
Economic Value	The economic value of an area can increase if the public perception of it is held in high regard. When the social, recreational and other benefits are accounted for, the economic value of an area increases.
Scientific Value	Natural areas can support rare species by serving as the last refuges for formerly prolific plants and animals. Plants and animals living in urban areas can act as indicators of water, air, and soil pollution.
Adapted from the Nature Conservancy Council (1987)

At one time parks and recreation areas were viewed as distinctly different (Rutledge 1971) and were managed by separate governmental departments. Parks were seen as natural areas that served as passive retreats and recreation areas were focused on athletics and active facilities (Rutledge 1971). Likewise, parks deficiency assessment can be approached from an ecological perspective, recreational perspective, or a combination of both.

Defining Parks and Parks Deficiency

How a park is defined may depend upon the perspective of the person defining it. A park can be defined by its relationship to humans or by its relationship to nature. Monty I. Christiansen views a park as a "...miniature community, with all a community's characteristic complexities" (Christiansen 1977:1). He defines a park by who uses it and how it is used.

Ian L. McHarg presents another perspective on urban parks when he discusses how people "need nature as much in the city as in the countryside" (McHarg 1969:5). When Olmsted designed Central Park in New York his intention was to bring a taste of nature into the city. Similarly, books such as Nature in Cities (Laurie 1979) and Green Cities (Gordon 1990) advocate the inclusion of natural features and processes in the urban landscape. Michael Hough supports the combination of urbanism and nature in order to achieve cities that are "...healthy, civilizing, and enriching places in which to live" (Gordon 1990:15).

Although community and ecological needs vary geographically, a standard set of criteria is useful to determine where and how a region is parks deficient. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) suggests park standards to determine the size, relative location to population center, size of population and type of parks in a region. They classify all parks into six categories based on descriptive characteristics and recommend a minimum amount of acreage relative to population size for each category (Table 2).

Table 2. National Recreation and Park Association Park Standards
Type	Acres/1,000 people	Size	Population Served	Service Area
Mini- Neighborhood Park	N/A	2,500 square feet-2 acres	500-2,500	Sub- neighborhood
Neighborhood Park	2.5	5-20 acres	2,000-10,000	.25-.50 miles
Community Park	2.5	20-100 acres	10,000-50,000	.50-3.0 miles
Metropolitan Park	5.0	Variable	Variable	Within 30 minutes driving time
Regional Park	20.0	250+ acres	Serves entire population in small cities	Within 1 hour driving time
Special Areas and Facilities	No standard is applicable for this category. Includes parkways, beaches, flood plains, downtown malls, small parks, etc.
Adapted from the National Recreation and Park Association (1983).

Many local jurisdictions have adopted these standards or a modified form of them. For example, the Elmhurst Park District, Illinois, altered the National Recreation and Park Association Standards to suit their needs. They oversee twenty-nine parks encompassing 430 acres classified into four categories: mini-parks, neighborhood parks, community parks, and special use/linear parks (Table 3). Currently, 9.5 acres of park land exist per 1,000 people residing within Elmhurst, only one-half acre per 1,000 people below the National Recreation and Park Association Park Standards.

Elmhurst's modified standards consider fewer park classes and emphasize proximity to public schools. Two of the four park classes promote the utilization of public schools that are adjacent to parks. This adaptation of the NRPA standards suits Elmhurst's needs well, but may not suit the needs of park districts in other areas. Although the age group of the target population and the facilities criteria are not part of the NRPA standards, they serve the needs of the City of the Elmhurst.

Table 3. Elmhurst Park District Classification System
Type	Size	Age Group	Population Served	Facilities
Mini-Park	Up to 2.5 acres	Elementary and junior high children	Within safe walking distance of residents	Recreational facilities such as sand boxes, wading pools, court games, and play structures
Neighborhood Park	3-12 acres	Broad range	One neighborhood	Provides indoor and outdoor recreation facilities if adjacent to elementary schools
Community Park	12-60 acres	Teenagers and adults	Several neighborhoods	Should be adjacent to junior or senior high school to provide facilities for teenagers and adults
Special-use/ Linear Park	Special-use parks are areas or facilities that serve one function. Linear parks connect two or more areas.
Adapted from Elmhurst Park District (1996).

Another method for assessing parks deficiency is to use a buffering technique. A one-quarter or one-half mile buffer is placed around a park boundary. The number of people residing within that buffer relative to a particular park is calculated and compared with the National Recreation and Park Association's recommendation of one acre of park per 1,000 people. Those areas that do not meet the recommended standard are designated as parks deficient. Although this method is widely discussed among park planners and GIS specialists, specific examples are not often published. The buffering method does answer some questions about parks deficiency in an urban environment, but does not address such issues as deficiency based on park type (e.g. active or passive), and ecological needs.

A comparison of community needs with existing park and recreational facilities is another method of parks deficiency assessment, as is done by Mitchell-Lacoss Land Solutions, a park and recreation planning private corporation (Mitchell-Lacoss Land Solutions 1996). Mitchell-Lacoss Land Solutions approaches park planning in four phases:

An inventory of existing parks and recreational facilities is conducted.
Public needs and parks resources are assessed.
Recommendations are made based on discrepancies between public needs and existing resources.
A plan is implemented that attempts to eliminate existing deficiencies.

Mitchell-Lacoss Land Solutions assesses public needs through phone surveys and statistical analysis. This approach is primarily focused on public perception of active parks and does not consider ecological needs and long-term planning.

Christiansen (1977) and Rutledge (1971) approach park ecosystem characteristics as limitations to recreational activities. They look at the physical features of individual parks rather than the park system as a whole. Christiansen's list of natural resource characteristics is based on assessment of land, surface water, vegetation, meteorology, and wildlife (Table 4).

Table 4. Christiansen's Natural Resource Characteristics
Land Descriptors	Physiographic features Pedologic features Hydrologic features
Surface Water Descriptors	Biologic features Chemical features Utilization features Physiographic features (flow water) Physiographic features (still water)
Vegetation Descriptors	Woody vegetation Herbaceous vegetation Utilization features
Meteorological Descriptors	Precipitation Wind Temperature Light
Wildlife Descriptors	Fauna Management practices
Adapted from Christiansen (1977).

Rutledge (1971) examines soil features in parks to determine recreation limitations. Soil type is directly correlated with such features as bedrock depth, drainage, erosion, flooding, permeability, rockiness, slope, surface texture, water table, and fertility. The constraint that the soil represents is described as a slight, moderate, severe, or very severe limitation. For example, an Alvin fine sandy loam with 2-4% slope gradients represents a slight limitation for a picnic area and a moderate limitation for an intensive play area. An Ashkum silty clay loam with 0-3% slope gradients represents a severe limitation for both picnic areas and intensive play areas (Rutledge 1971).

Like Rutledge and Christiansen's techniques, many of the methodologies discussed in this paper focus primarily on active parks. Parks deficiency assessment for passive parks is focused more on ecological and wildlife needs, and preliminary research reveals that similar techniques used to assess parks deficiency for active parks can also be applied to passive parks analysis.

Crafting An Acceptable Definition and Applying the Criteria

The second part of this paper examines existing definitions and analyses of parks deficiency in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area (Figure 1). Portland is an area of diverse geography and is rich in natural resources. Starting at the Pacific ocean and moving east, the land surrounding the coastal estuaries rises quickly to form a temperate rain forest, the Coast Range, then drops into broad fertile valleys. The land rises again as the Cascade Mountains reach heights over 14,000 feet then drops quickly to become dry high desert country. Portland is situated in the north end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, with the Coast Range to the west and the Cascades to the east.

Figure 1

The Portland metropolitan area population is currently at 1.3 million and is expected to grow by about 500,000 in the next twenty years. In Oregon, laws protect farm and forest land from being lost to development. The majority of the population lives in cities within urban growth boundaries (UGB), represented by lines drawn on maps. A UGB is intended to control urban sprawl and protect valuable farm and forest land while providing for efficient development of infrastructure, i.e. water, power, sewer, etc.

Metro, a regional government, oversees the management of the Portland area UGB by coordinating planning activities with the 24 cities and 3 counties in the region. Metro coordinates growth management, transportation planning, and land-use planning for the region's rapidly growing population. One component of the planing process, the Metro Regional Parks and Open Spaces Program, operates existing park facilities and ensures there will be areas with active and passive recreation facilities in the future. Along with active and passive facilities, there is also a need to establish green corridors and connect existing natural areas for wildlife movement, enhanced water quality, and aesthetically pleasing greenways.

In order to achieve the goal of providing sufficient parks and open space for the region, a thorough, consensus-based definition of parks deficiency is necessary. The Metropolitan Greenspaces Master Plan (Metro 1992) is the foundation that addresses a number of objectives, such as the protection of a regional open space system that supports native wildlife and plant populations while providing access to recreation. Resources are defined in the master plan using ecological and human criteria considering short-term, medium-term, and long-term factors. The goals include:

Create a cooperative regional system of natural areas
Protect and manage significant natural areas
Preserve the diversity of plant and animal life
Establish a system of interconnected trails, greenways, and wildlife corridors
Restore green and open spaces in neighborhoods
Encourage environmental awareness by fostering stewardship

The City Club of Portland took the next step by initiating a study focusing more on active recreation (City Club of Portland 1994). The study used the NRPA guidelines, but expanded the study to include the following issues:

Patterns of changing park use
Objective standards of adequacy
Subjective standards of adequacy
Adequacy based on user demand

Combining elements of the Metropolitan Greenspaces Master Plan and the City Club study will provide a framework for a comprehensive parks deficiency definition. Input from local community parks providers will further strengthen the definition so that geographically specific goals and values will be incorporated into the process. At this time, accessibility and connectivity are two elements that are central to many definitions of parks deficiency, but are difficult to analyze without the use of a GIS.

GIS gives us the capability to address accessibility and connectivity, such as identifying where a steep slope provides access versus flat land and how rivers and freeways act as barriers to wildlife movement. The configuration of the road system can also impact access to parks. Combining accessibility and connectivity can help determine not only where parks deficiency exists, but also identify areas best suited for inclusion into a regional greenspace system in an urban environment.

Conclusion

This paper attempts to define parks deficiency in an urban environment. There is one caveat to consider when assessing parks deficiency: one definition does not apply universally. The characteristics that define parks deficiency vary geographically as well as with community needs. Community needs not only vary from place to place but can change over time. A thorough assessment of parks deficiency in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area is not complete. At this time, a comprehensive parks deficiency GIS model for Portland is in the initial stages of development. Implementation of the model will begin in Summer 1997.

References

Christiansen, M.I. 1977. Park Planning Handbook. New York, New York: John Wiley and Sons.

City Club of Portland. 1994. Portland Metropolitan Area Parks City Club of Portland Bulletin: 76(17):93-152.

Dramstad, W.E., Olson, J.D., and Forman, R.T. 1996. Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning. Washington, D.C.: Island Press

Elmhurst Park District 1996. Parks and Recreation. Elmhurst, Illinois: http://www.elmhurst.org/Pwcode/commun.html.

Gordon, D. 1990. Green Cities. Montreal, Canada: Black Rose Books.

Laurie, I.C. 1979. Nature in Cities. Chichester, Great Britain: John Wiley and Sons.

Metro 1992. Metropolitan Greenspaces Master Plan. Portland, Oregon: Metro.

Mitchell-Lacoss Land Solutions 1996. Qualifications: Park and Recreation Planning and Design, needs assessment and master planning. Lake Forest, California: Mitchell-Lacoss Land Solutions.

National Recreation and Park Association 1983. Recreation, Park and Open Space Standards and Guidelines.. Ed. R. Lancaster. ?

Nature Conservancy Council 1987. Planning for wildlife in metropolitan areas. Peterborough, Great Britain: Nature Conservancy Council.

Rutledge, A.J. 1971. Anatomy of a Park: The Essentials of Recreation Area Planning and Design. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Author Information

David Drescher
GIS Analyst
Metro Data Resource Center
600 NE Grand Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97232
(503) 797-1586
drescher@metro.dst.or.us

Paulette Franco-Wills
Master of Science Candidate
Portland State University
Department of Geography
P.O. Box 751
Portland, Oregon 97207
apwills@teleport.com