Engineering Sustainable Public Parks In Residential Areas Of Cities In South Africa

Abstract

Public parks (PP) in urban residential areas are essential for a balanced urban lifestyle. The literature gives evidence that public parks have a positive influence on the wellbeing of persons who have access to, and regularly spend time, in public parks. A fair number of public parks in the residential areas of South African cities, are found to be well-spaced and developed according to urban planning guidelines and regulations established by urban planners. Nevertheless, many of them are not functional or effectively utilised by the residents living in their vicinity. Only a few of the residents seem to visit the public parks in their area. Many factors, for instance, attractiveness, accessibility, comfortability, and social concerns such as the incidence of crime, or the fear of being exposed to crime, lifestyle, and time constraints are frequently given as the reasons for the non-utilisation of public parks. This phenomenon has been identified as a public park lacking in vibrancy. The vibrancy of public parks are determined by four key elements namely, the degree of sociability, the availability and practicality of infrastructure that encourage a variety of activities, comfort levels and image, and the conditions influencing the accessibility of a public park. The degree of influence from these four key elements towards the vibrancy of public parks in residential areas has not yet been investigated. Also, the major independent factors making up the four key elements have not yet been analysed and modelled. Consequently, an investigation into the determinants influencing vibrancy of public parks and how the degree of vibrancy of the public parks in the residential areas of South African cities can be improved, was conducted. This was done by means of a case study of the public parks in some of the residential areas of Bloemfontein, a mid-sized city in central South Africa, where many of the public parks in the city are under-utilized and far from vibrant. An applied systems analysis methodology, survey researching, the use of GIS and development of linear and multilinear regression models were followed in this investigation. Data was collected through household-, physical park-, and park use surveys. The surveys were performed in five of the suburbs, as a representation of all of the suburbs in the city. The suburbs representing the city was Universitas (on the south-western side of Bloemfontein), Langenhoven Park (on the western side of the city), Batho (east of Bloemfontein, Lourier Park (on the southern end of the city), and Dan Pienaar (on the northern side of Bloemfontein). The suburbs were selected according to a set of criteria such as the geographic location, the population density, the social demographic circumstances in the area, the number, size and type of public parks available, and the types of access, for example, road- and sidewalk-networks. The suburban residential areas selected differ from each other in terms of its demographics, size, location, and accessibility via road networks. A household survey with a sample size of 400, was completed by using a systematic stratified random sampling process through a semi-structured interview method. The physical- and park use surveys were carried out through uninterrupted digital photography and videography. Eighteen public parks located in the five selected residential areas were identified for the physical- and park use surveys. To this purpose, a camera which filmed the parks, non-stop, for a period of up to one month, was set up in each of the identified public parks. The purpose of the filming was to determine the extent of park use and to identify the factors responsible for the low degree of vibrancy of the public parks. GIS was employed to extract the spatial- and location attributes of public parks. In order to identify the determinants with the most influence on the vibrancy of public parks as well as establish the relationships between the use of public parks and the major control determinants, the data collected were analysed statistically. On the grounds of Applied Systems Analysis paradigms, theoretical multilinear regression models were developed. These models established the relationships between the use of public parks (measured in terms of the average number of users per year) as the dependent variable and the most influential independent variables. The models are then used to examine the extent of the use of public parks under varied simulated scenarios. The simulated results were used to develop several policy scenarios intended to improve the use of the public parks in the residential areas of South African cities. The findings of the surveys suggest that there are 18 key determinants, which most commonly influence the vibrancy of the public parks in the city. The variables include the availability of volunteer caretakers, the average number of organized events hosted in the public parks per year, the percentage of the adjacent land being used for residential purposes, the number of trees in the park, the presence of a water feature, the availability and numbers of playground apparatus, the availability of seating, the number of tables available, the availability and number of sports fields and other sports facilities, the percentage of grass covering, the residents’ perception of safety in the service areas of the public parks, the extent of cleanness, the attractiveness of a park, the greenness of a park, the number of streets accessing the public park, the public park environment, the extent of illumination in the public park, and the road-network to sidewalk-network ratio. Of these 18 key determinants, however, only four variables namely, the road-network to sidewalk-network ratio, the average number of organized events hosted in the public parks per year, the presence of a water feature, and the perception of safety in the public park service area are the control variables, which significantly influence the vibrancy of the parks independently, and in combination. The major infrastructural-, social-, and environmental challenges were examined against the creation of sustainable and vibrant public parks in the study area and the factors acting as obstacles against it were analysed. A delineation of the major control influential engineering infrastructure, social- and environmental attributes that will contribute to the creating of successful public parks in the study area were established. The simulated scenarios revealed that in a composite scenario with an increase in the perception of safety, setting the road-network to sidewalk-network ratio on an optimal level, having an increased number of organized events per year, and the inclusion of a water feature, will improve the utilization of the parks extensively. The sensitivity analysis shows, however, that the combination of the physical design elements contributing to accessibility, comfort, usability and image, and the number of organized events hosted in the public parks per year, is the most important consideration for making public parks vibrant. All of these elements, individually, or in combination, can be augmented to improve the vibrancy of public parks in the cities of South Africa. The novelty and contribution of this study lies in the development of models that can forecast the number of annual public park users and measure the vibrancy of public parks in suburban areas of South Africa. This can be used for developing and analysing different scenarios under different simulated scenarios to evolve policy interventions or strategies leading to public parks becoming more vibrant.