Abstract
Urban green space is under pressure as cities grow and expand. Research has shown that urban green space is positively associated with people’s health and well-being. One of the underlying mechanisms is that urban green space plays a role in stimulating physical activity (Hartig et al. 2014). In order to take these insights into consideration, a more function-oriented approach of urban green space is necessary (Ekkel and De Vries, 2017): what is activity-stimulating green space, how does it look like, what are its’ characteristics. Moreover, if one wants to study the activity-stimulating effects of new urban green space developed to do so, present activity data of people living in the city are necessary to start with. Such an approach will contribute to a more evidence based design of healthy urban green landscapes (Brown and Corry, 2011). The objective of this research is to study present activity levels of people living in the neighbourhood Spoorwijk, The Hague, The Netherlands. This study is part of a broader programme that aims to develop design criteria for healthy, activity-stimulating green space at the neighbourhood level. People’s behaviour was observed according to scientific behavioural standards (scan sampling and focal sampling) within the neighbourhood Spoorwijk in the autumn of 2018. Four different green spaces (parks, playfields) were included in the study. Results show that, for all green spaces and all scans, 74% of the time green spaces were not used at all. Minor differences were found when different periods (morning, afternoon) were compared. Children and adults were overrepresented, youth and elder people (55+) were underrepresented. Predominant behaviours were walking, using telephone, walking with the dog, talking and using the play sets or playing football. The results of the study will be used by the city of The Hague do determine in how the green spaces in the neighbourhood of Spoorwijk have to be improved in order to increase the activity of people in public urban spaces. Hartig,T., Mitchell, R., S. de Vries, and H. Frumkin. 2014,. Nature and Health. Annual Review of Public Health. 35:207–228. Brown, R.D. and Corry, B.R., 2011. Evidence-based landscape architecture: The maturing of a profession. Landscape and Urban Planning. 4:327-329 Ekkel, E.D. and De Vries, S. 2017. Nearby green space and human health: Evaluating accessibility metrics. Landscape and Urban Planning. 157: 214-220.
