How far do people travel to use urban green space? A comparison of three European cities

European cities; Green space use; Multilevel model; Trip distance; Urban green space; Forestry; Geography, Planning and Development; Environmental Science (all); Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management; General Environmental Science

Abstract :

[en] Urban green space (UGS) provision across cities is often assessed from per capita quantities. However these aggregate measures say little about the actual use of UGS because they ignore the relative location of UGS and citizens. Spatial accessibility approaches consider this relative location but mostly assume that benefits happen within close proximity of residences. We challenge this assumption for three European cities comparatively, based on similarly acquired survey data. We study which factors influence how far people travel to their most used UGS, as defined by users themselves. We find that travelled distances (1.4–1.9 km) and inter-city differences are surprisingly high compared to the few hundred meters set in policy targets and accessibility analyses. We identify socio-demographic effects and a role for perceived rather than objective quality of local UGS. More than a spatial interaction trade-off between proximity and size, our results suggest that UGS visits are part of a more complex set of activities, further away from residences and with a diversity of sizes and proximities. Our results call for a re-evaluation of UGS analytical practices and provision policies beyond aggregate and accessibility perspectives, towards multi-scalar and spatially varying measures.

Disciplines :

Human geography & demography

Author, co-author :

SCHINDLER, Mirjam ; University of Luxembourg ; School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Le Texier, Marion ; LAGAM | Laboratory for Geography and Territorial Planning in Montpellier, University Paul Valéry, Montpellier 3, France

CARUSO, Geoffrey ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Geography and Spatial Planning (DGEO) > Geography and Spatial Planning

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

How far do people travel to use urban green space? A comparison of three European cities

Publication date :

April 2022

Journal title :

Applied Geography

ISSN :

0143-6228

eISSN :

1873-7730

Publisher :

Elsevier Ltd

Volume :

141

Pages :

102673

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0143622822000443?httpAccept=text/xml

Funding text :

The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Luxembourg through its competitive research scheme and the project SOSBUGS - Spatial Optima and the Social Benefits of Urban Green Space.

Available on ORBilu :

since 06 December 2023

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