Evaluation of the quality of parks ( P.Grahn, Sweden).

Grahne, Patrick (Resume by Klaus Wagner)

Text of paper to the COST C 11 "Green structures and urban planning" 6th Management Committee Meeting and Working Group Meetings

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Patrik Grahn (department of landscape planning of the Agricultural University of Lund) gives a report about his long term study about evaluations of the quality of parks in an interdisciplinary work with landscape architects, environmental psychologists, physicians and therapists. One of the new major diseases in Sweden is the burn out syndrome, too much stress. Therefore at first has to be the definition of health and the question, what makes the people feel good to aim at a "sustainable society". Horticultural therapies have to get a new role in Kindergartens and schools. Not really the distance but the time to reach green areas is an important factor of the use of green places. Today 6 minutes walk are accepted (average) to use a green space e.g. after work. In the 50's this indicator was 15 minutes. There has to be made a difference between the age groups. As a compromise a distance of ~300 meters could work as an index. One interesting result of the studies was that people with own yards use public green spaces significantly more often than the others. People use green spaces because of the feeling of fresh air, smelling soil… , because of walking and moving around, detecting animals etc.. Women are not using green spaces in most cases because of a lack of the feeling of safety (especially younger and elder women) or they do'nt want to meet people they don't want to talk to. Men don't use green spaces because of noise and too many &endash; or too few people, safety is not first rated. A comparison of three cities (Lund, Vasteras and Uppsala) says that people use more green spaces the more they are supplied with green spaces and that it differs between the cities, which size of parks is preferred. Since ever garden and green was connected with a good feeling and stone and grey canyons (like inner city streets) with a bad mood…. 8 basic characteristics of green spaces:

Wild

Lush

Serene

Specious

Common

Imagination

Festive

Essence (culture)

Only a few parks can provide all the 8 characteristics and theses are the most attractive parks for visitors and are showing the most activities. The value of the park differs also with the supply of parks and the number activities is dependent on the size, also the shape of the park effects the activities. He distance to the next park effects the number of visits (300m &endash; 2,7 visits / week). People with own yards visit the parks 4times often than others. The state of health is significant if people have access to green spaces. This can especially be observed on children Kindergartens of different designs of open or green spaces or on the convalescence of ill people in hospitals with different qualities of green spaces.