Parks and Recreation Management

P ublic parks are designed to provide aesthetically pleasing green spaces where communities can gather for recreation, rest and leisure. Given that communities are not homogenous, user conflict between groups might seem inevitable. The growing concern with homelessness in parks serves as a strong and timely example of these conflicts. Park managers are tasked not only with mitigating social conflicts between traditionally housed park users and those facing homelessness, but also a variety of safety, health, experiential and environmental concerns related to homelessness in parks.

A B S T R A C T Urban park managers in densely-populated metropolises such as Hong Kong have to cope with dynamic user expectations, the impacts of recreation, and the shortage of resources over time, and the goal to improve park management strategies is ongoing. Indicators are potentially effective yardsticks for measuring park conditions and explaining the implications of various conditions on sustainable park management. This study solicits an indicator set through a two-tiered process of indicator selection, screening and rating, and a tripartite engagement by 20 park managers, 9 local scholars, and 743 park users in Hong Kong. The findings from the user-perceived level of importance of each indicator suggest that users pay close attention to landscaping, and that users consider the environmental quality of parks to be important management aspects. User-associated components of urban park management are identified, which reveal gradual changes in park features over the years.

The health of any city is measured by the number of parks and green spaces in it. In any metropolitan city, urban parks are a great source of recreation and public activities. With the passage of time, many urban parks have evolved with the rich landscape and design principles that make them even more useable and attractive for people. However, this case is normally observed in the newly established urban or city parks but is very rare in the historical parks that are of great significance. This causes an alarming situation for the authorities and stakeholders to look into the parameters of historical urban parks to check for their management and resolve any obsolete system that is causing the progressive management.
This is the main theme of this study to check for the management systems of urban parks from different angles of landscape, design, and planning. For this, various international case studies were discussed briefly and the model study area i.e., Lawrence Garden in Lahore was studied in detail to know the maintenance and management system of these urban parks. Some surveys were made to gather information from various authoritative bodies and from the users of the park.
According to the findings, users of the park are very much concerned about the bulging security issues and their chances of occurrence in the park. The authority does not have any advanced system of management and they do not comply with the indigenous landscape planning which is causing acute water usage and increased heat problems. The design of the park does not correspond to the people with mobility issues and lacks proper crowd management. The study is purely qualitative in nature and various landscape design interventions and planning policies were suggested to cater to the problems of poor management of Lawrence Garden.

Abstrak
Peningkatan jumlah orang kurang upaya (OKU) dalam kalangan warganegara Malaysia telah mewujudkan permintaan untuk penyediaan fasiliti khas untuk orang kurang upaya di tamantaman rekreasi awam seluruh negara. Setakat Disember 2018 terdapat 513519 OKU telah berdaftar dengan Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat dan angka ini adalah 1.58% dalam kalangan keseluruhan OKU di Malaysia dengan populasi lebih kurang seramai 32.4 juta, dianggarkan 4.86 juta daripadanya adalah dalam kalangan OKU mengikut anggaran data yng dikeluarkan oleh Pertubuhan Kesihatan Sedunia (WHO). Akan tetapi, terdapat beberapa fasiliti yang disediakan di taman-taman rekreasi pada masa kini dilihat agak kurang mesra OKU. Kebanyakan suasana persekitaran alam bina semulajadi dan binaan manusia tidak sesuai untuk digunakan oleh orang kurang upaya tanpa bantuan daripada orang lain. Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah analisis dokumen Garis Panduan dan Piawaian Perancangan Kemudahan Golongan Kurang Upaya di Kawasan Taman dan Rekreasi, Jabatan Perancangan Bandar dan Desa (JPBD) (2002) dan pemerhatian tapak. Objektif kajian ini adalah bagi mengenalpasti keperluan fisiliti OKU di taman awam melalui analisis dokumen disamping mengenalpasti fasiliti sedia ada bagi OKU di Taman Seremban 2 City Park. Hasil dapatan kajian menunjukkan keperluan fasiliti asas yang perlu disediakan mengikut garis panduan JPBD dibahagikan kepada tiga komponen utama iaitu aksesibiliti, reruang, dan kemudahan sokongan. Pemerhatian juga menunjukkan komponen reruang telah disediakan sepenuhnya seperti tandas, ramp, tangga, papan tanda dan lain-lain manakala bagi komponen aksesibiliti dan sokongan masih tidak memenuhi sepenuhnya keperluan khas OKU seperti laluan hertekstur dan papan tanda khas. Kesimpulannya, beberapa cadangan penambahbaikan telah dicadangkan seperti menambahkan dan menyelenggara fasiliti yang sedia ada dan kempen yang berterusan perlu
dijalankan. Selain itu, penganjuran lebih banyak aktiviti yang melibatkan persatuan orang kurang upaya, dan pihak berkuasa tempatan (PBT) harus dijalankan disamping menyediakan peruntukkan dalam bajet untuk pembinaan fasiliti yang khusus untuk golongan istimewa ini. Perancangan yang teratur perlu dirancang untuk menempuhi perubahan dalam struktur
demografi.

Kata Kunci: Orang Kurang Upaya, fasilti, halangan,

The open space system is put forward again in recent master-planning schemes, whose strategic framework is characterised by continuity and chain paradigm. This has become a crucial component for the regeneration and integration of the inner and modern city. This essay hinges on the most recent ecological theories as well as on the European cities design tradition, that goes from the XVIII Century to the rationalist period. The research focuses on: - the new significance of the urban open space, which uses the chain/network concept design of continuity/integration; - the role it can play as an urban regeneration and integration instrument, starting from the re-use of abandoned and left over space; - the real feasibility and efficacy, combined with its limits, of the general thesis and the first design experimentation on these themes. The investigation field is supplied by Rogers’ theories of urban regeneration and by the academic and political debate that, together with the reform, have shaped the framework of the new London Plan and the first design experimentation for the regeneration of the inner city. A key contribution of the present work is to analyse, also by using different speakers’ opinions, these ideas’ applicability to other European city. The importance of this research field stems from the great availability in contemporary cities, coupled with the abandoned land, left over space remaining from the settlement process. The questions addressed in this work deals with a number of issues. These are: first, the way these areas are associated to very different typologies and factors (real estate residues, minor roads, old railway routes disused, old valley lines broken, green rural residues, left over space after planning); second, how these are subject to improper use (warehouses, temporary vegetable gardens, improvised play areas, unauthorised parking lots, etc.) or inadequate use (green public spaces divided into town districts). Finally, how design tend to ignore these residual spaces or to use them in a fragmented vision of public and green spaces. The presence of these residual spaces depends on two factors: - the transformation of the manufacturing process, which has released the spaces of industrial dismantling (very large, often contaminated, inner city areas, connected to the road and railway network by the dedicated rail lines for manufactured material); - the recent contemporary cities building method founded on separated stages, not interconnected and auto-conclusive fragmented settlements, and the source of large residual “in between” spaces, with no purpose. Generally, the re-use of these spaces has been episodic. Its motivations were mostly connected to the centrality land values, as well as to the agents’ contingent intentions, purely for densification purposes (“to fill in gaps”) or to protect the empty space. Recent projects have shown how these residual spaces can be re-organized in a more comprehensive strategy for the contemporary city’s regeneration. The hypothesis is to re-use these areas (left over space, brownfield site, abandoned land) to built green chains viewed not only as an ecological recuperation of the city’s environment quality but also as an occasion to find space for the social aggregation and as an opportunity to give a unitary design and formal quality for the whole city and its parts. The debate on this matter has often charged these hypotheses as abstracted and impracticable. In reality, these already existed in the history and the recent projects demonstrate their feasibility even if this would involve different paths and purposes. The research must therefore verify these hypotheses by reconstructing and evaluating, from this point of view, the most recent projects, and the associated debate, that are taking place in London and the United Kingdom and try to understand if extent these paths are feasible for other European cities. This work is quite innovative for three raisons: - this book analyses the policies and their realization at local level; - contains huge quantity of unpublished documents and images; - identifies composite, spatial and functional roules to integrate and shape the open space system with the urban system Moreover, the assessment of whether and to what extent these paths are feasible for other European cities is also at the core of our investigation.

Il sistema del verde viene oggi riproposto in alcuni piani urbanistici più recenti secondo un disegno di struttura caratterizzato dalla continuità e dal paradigma reticolare; esso è utilizzato come componente primaria di un’operazione di riqualificazione ed integrazione della città consolidata e della città contemporanea caratterizzata dalla diffusione insediativa. La ricerca indagasu: i nuovi significati attribuiti al verde urbano con l’impiego del paradigma reticolare continuità/integrazione; il ruolo che questo può assumere quale strumento di riqualificazione ed integrazione urbana, a partire dal riutilizzo degli open space in dismissione e degli spazi residuali; la reale fattibilità ed efficacia, insieme ai limiti, delle tesi generali e delle sperimentazioni progettuali proposte o avviate su questi temi. Il campo di approfondimento è offerto dalle tesi sulla riqualificazione urbana di Rogers e dal dibattito e le riforme da queste suscitato che hanno determinato l’impostazione del Nuovo Piano di Londra (2003) e dalle prime sperimentazioni progettuali avviate per la riqualificazione di parti della città. Il percorso consente di verificare l’applicabilità di queste tesi alla riqualificazione della città europea. Le motivazioni ed il campo problematico della ricerca prendono le mosse dal considerare la larga disponibilità nella città contemporanea, insieme alle grandi aree di dismissione, di aree e spazi minori residuali del processo insediativo; come queste aree siano riconducibili a tipologie e fattori assai diversi, come esse siano oggetto di usi impropri o inadeguati; infine come i comportamenti ricorrenti nella progettazione tendano a trascurare o ignorare questi residui o ad utilizzarli in una visione frammentata dello spazio pubblico e del verde. Recenti esperienze hanno dimostrato come questi spazi ed aree residue possano essere oggetto di una strategia più complessiva per la riqualificazione della città contemporanea.

The idea for writing this piece of study is to analyze the overall impact of organizational culture directly or indirectly on employee's job performance.To find the influence of organizational culture on employee performance within software houses working in Pakistan. This is a survey based research study. Primary and secondary data were used in this study. Primary data was gathered via questionnaire and formal & informal interview. Customer service, employee participation, reward system, innovation & risk-taking and communication system, are considered variables for this study. Sample size is (n=110) therefore, descriptive statics, correlation and regression analysis have been used. The overall results support that culture of organizations has the significant positive impact on employee's job performance at selected software houses in Pakistan. Employee's participation is a most important factor for achieving organizational goals.This study fulfils an acknowledged necessitate learning the impact of culture on the employee's job performance of the software industry in Pakistan.

Measuring the impact of parks on property values: new research shows that green spaces increase the value of nearby housing Sarah Nicholls Partially in response to the large volume of data required to conduct such analysis, as well as its potential complexities, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) is currently organizing an effort to develop simpler means of calculating the property value impacts of open spaces (as one part of a broader study aimed at enabling parks departments to calculate their total dollar contributions to all aspects of communities and community life). To obtain more detailed information and advice on how to calculate the property value impacts of your park (system), or to discuss the possibility of including your city as a study site in the TPL study described above, please contact the author at Michigan State

With an increasing global population, there is growing demand for access to natural greenspaces for recreation. The importance of such access is now widely recognised, for example in terms of improvements to physical and psychological health. Because recreation can also result in damage to ecological interest, there is a need to balance access and nature conservation. As the primary mode by which visitors arrive to many sites is by car, parking characteristics may influence on-site visitor levels. However, few studies have related visitor use to parking features. Using data from 55 unpublished studies, we consider how parking type (e.g. formal car parks, laybys), parking capacity, presence/absence of facilities and charging relate to the visitor volume at sites designated for their nature conservation interest. A negative binomial regression model to control for the effect of habitat type and season is then developed. The number of visitors was significantly different between parking locations with different capacities. Compared to the smallest locations (2.7 visitors per hour), this difference was strongest for the largest locations (12.5 visitors per hour). Visitor numbers varied less between parking types and with the presence/absence of facilities. Locations where parking was charged, across all capacities, had significantly more visitors than free-of-charge locations. These results provide estimates of typical levels of use at different parking locations. However, visitor numbers might also be influenced by a site's attractiveness. Further studies on visitor numbers before and after introducing measures are needed, to provide empirical evidence for the effect of parking interventions.

Park managers are increasingly faced with responding to the recent rise of those experiencing unsheltered homelessness residing in urban green spaces. In response, researchers have explored and attempted to mitigate a variety of negative social and ecological impacts associated with unsheltered homelessness in urban parks. However, these impacts are often mitigated through the enforcement of policies criminalizing homeless park use or through environmentally harmful changes to landscapes. To help generate more equitable and beneficial solutions to unsheltered homelessness in urban green spaces, this study based in the United States interrogated a variety of stakeholders' perspectives, including park managers, local community members, and relevant social service organizations. Overall, data expressed how unsheltered homelessness and related cyclical mitigations negatively affected the social and environmental benefits of urban park systems, as well as illuminating the need for a more informed citizenry about the challenges facing individuals experiencing homelessness through public education. Implications for urban park managers and stakeholders are discussed.

Increasingly, parks and protected areas are seen as tourist locations that could help visitors learn and experience a particular place. The uniqueness of a successful park is derived not only from the value of the resources available but also on how well those values are exhibited and presented to tourist. The first impression account is believed to have a significant impact on one's recreational experience. A group of Malaysian students on an exchange program at the University of South Australia evaluated several parks and recreation areas in Adelaide, South Australia. Using mainly observational investigation with background research on interpretation, the study surveyed four different types of parks around the city. Focus on theme, media and facility the research analysed the park attributes on interpretations approaches based on their strengths and potential. The result found several successful methods employed for helping tourist gain valuable experience in their visits.

As a historically intense country, Egypt's built environment has always been the focus of plentiful urban research. However, the natural component in the urban fabric of Egyptian cities has been undermined and understudied in between all the numerous ideas and data. In a historical city like Cairo, layers of history are illustrated in its parks and gardens. Left unearthed and neglected, these vital spaces are subject to negative change and decay under the pressure of land use demands, among various other challenges. Many of Cairo's parks and gardens date back to the 19th and 20th century, containing endless gestures from the cultural essence of this time era in their design. This paper discusses ten public parks and gardens in Cairo founded in the 19th and 20th centuries, and survive to our present day (whether completely or partially). Viewing the initial design and development of these parks in comparison with their current state is rather intriguing to investigate. These historical parks and gardens are worthy of identification for preservation. With resourceful and directed management, these spaces can dramatically change the view of Cairo as a suffocating dense urban tissue, to a more perforated and engaging urban experience for its community.

When Erion Veliaj became mayor of Tirana, Albania, in 2015, he inherited a fast-growing city with unchecked construction and traffic that threatened the health and well-being of all citizens—especially the youngest and most vulnerable. Overcoming public distrust and budgetary shortfalls, Veliaj’s administration worked with private donors and international experts to quickly construct parks, playgrounds, nurseries, schools, and pedestrian spaces. At the beginning of the mayor’s second term in July 2019, the city was poised to adopt new models for streets and neighborhoods redesigned to serve the interests of infants, toddlers, and their caregivers.

The preservation of Cultural Heritage in historically rich third world countries is a complex issue. Historical urban parks in particular face various challenges relating to management and evaluation. This paper tackles formulating a pragmatic process for managing historical urban parks in Egypt through a comparative analysis between distinguished foundations in the field. These are UNESCO's World Heritage Convention (Global), Med-O-Med (Intercultural, Mediterranean and ME countries), NPS (National, USA), TCLF (Non-governmental, USA) and Barcelona's City council (Local, Spain). The research is verified through survey among professionals in relevant fields in Egypt, to authenticate the applicability of the recommended proposal.

Social interaction among diverse ethnic groups motivates people within communities to visit urban parks towards achieving social cohesion. Malaysians of different ethnic backgrounds spend their leisure time in urban parks because it offers opportunities for social interaction. The perception and requirement of attributes needed varies among the
various ethnic groups of Malays, Chinese and Indians in order to be assured of their full utilization of the parks. This study investigates the urban park attributes that encourage the utilization of urban park by these three ethnic groups toward achieving social cohesion. Using a survey questionnaire method a total of 274 respondents were sampled at Batu Pahat urban parks in Johor, Malaysia. Afterwards, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to analyse and validate respondents’ perception of urban park utilization. The findings show that aesthetics, safety, lighting, maintenance and cleanliness
in public spaces attracted people to visit the urban park and contributed towards social cohesion.

Managers and planners may offer many recreational opportunities at the urban park but it does always depend on the users as to how they actually perceived the opportunities. These have been affecting their value system and influenced their attitude towards the setting. This study aimed to understand the value of urban park as perceived by three different stakeholders group linked to the urban park setting for urban park planning and management strategies. The application of Q methodology in this study was able to solve the diversity of interests among stakeholders by considering the fact that individual's opinions may be different from each other. The concourse used in this study based on the Malaysian Planning Guideline for Open Space and Recreation (2010) to explore the urban park setting that delivering the values. Then, Q sample photos were chosen to represent five elements in the urban park setting that are accessibility and traffic system, recreation facilities, landscape element, park furniture and other facilities. The photos were presented during Q sorting process and respondents were asked to sort the photos based on the questions given. Data analysis process was done using PQ method software that applied factor analysis technique and four values were produced which are natural value, sense of ownership and comfort value, recreational and health value and lastly, social value. This information was linked to the certain urban park setting for the improvement of urban park planning and management strategies for urban park. Keywords: urban park, urban park values, community planning, Q methodology, urban park stakeholders, urban park planning, urban park management.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Given the emergence of obesity as one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States, it is not surprising that a focus on healthy lifestyles has become a central issue for disease prevention. The recent convergence of health and the built environment opens up new possibilities for park and recreation professionals to participate in initiatives that focus on lifestyle physical activity. Although there is a growing body of literature on the promotion of coalitions and public private partnerships, little has been written about multisector partnerships that focus on health and the built environment. At the same time, there has been a lack of critical attention paid to the theme of scale in partnership projects-often meaning little more than resolution. Although scale is a key concept in cartography, GIS, and other forms of geographic representation, some geographers suggest scale plays a critical role in political and social change.

Because of the perceived weather sensitivity of park visitation in Ontario, Canada, several previous assessments have examined the impact of climate change. However, these assessments have predominantly been based on modeling approaches (regression analysis). The current study uses a multiyear temporal climate-analog approach to reassess the impact of climate change on visitation to Pinery Provincial Park in southwestern Ontario based on the observed effects of historical climatic anomalies on park visitation from 2000 to 2016. Consideration was also given to major events such as the North American terror attacks on 11 September 2001 and the confounding effect that events such as this may have had on the results. There were no statistically significant relationships (at the 95% confidence level) between seasonal climatic anomalies and park visitation in Ontario during the winter or spring seasons. There was a weak statistical relationship between anomalously warm summer seasons and park visitation, when compared to summer seasons with climatically normal temperatures; however, the presence of nonclimatic variables may have confounded these results, producing a false positive. Autumn-season park visitation was most sensitive to climatic anomalies, with the warmest temperatures causing visitation to increase by 37%, the wettest conditions causing visitation to decrease by 11%, and the driest conditions resulting in a 24% increase. These observed seasonal temperature anomalies represent temporal climate analogs for projected climate change across the span of the twenty-first century. Thus, the results of this study suggest that previous assessments may have overestimated the positive impacts of projected climate change on park visitation in this region.

Recreational use and protection of nature and landscape are usually perceived as two conflicting approaches taking place in urban, peri-urban and rural landscapes. Natural and semi-natural areas, especially those adjoining or well connected to urban areas, are often utilised for recreation, leisure activities or tourism. These uses can lead to conflict situations between protection and outdoor recreation. In this paper, we define those features of recreation which can have a negative impact on the landscape and we come up with contemporary design and planning strategies integrating recreation and protection into one inclusive approach. The aim is to lower the negative impact of leisure activities and develop a new, multipurpose approach in land use planning which could replace the conventional bipolar understanding of this problem. A properly designed outdoor recreational infrastructure, considering the multifunctionality of the landscape, can convert recreation from a stressing fac...

Social interaction among diverse ethnic groups motivates people within communities to visit urban parks towards achieving social cohesion. Malaysians of different ethnic backgrounds spend their leisure time in urban parks because it offers opportunities for social interaction. The perception and requirement of attributes needed varies among the various ethnic groups of Malays, Chinese and Indians in order to be assured of their full utilization of the parks. This study investigates the urban park attributes that encourage the utilization of urban park by these three ethnic groups toward achieving social cohesion. Using a survey questionnaire method a total of 274 respondents were sampled at Batu Pahat urban parks in Johor, Malaysia. Afterwards, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to analyse and validate respondents’ perception of urban park utilization. The findings show that aesthetics, safety, lighting, maintenance and cleanliness in public spaces attracted people to visi...

Social interaction among diverse ethnic groups motivates people within communities to visit urban parks towards achieving social cohesion. Malaysians of different ethnic backgrounds spend their leisure time in urban parks because it offers opportunities for social interaction. The perception and requirement of attributes needed varies among the various ethnic groups of Malays, Chinese and Indians in order to be assured of their full utilization of the parks. This study investigates the urban park attributes that encourage the utilization of urban park by these three ethnic groups toward achieving social cohesion. Using a survey questionnaire method a total of 274 respondents were sampled at Batu Pahat urban parks in Johor, Malaysia. Afterwards, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to analyse and validate respondents’ perception of urban park utilization. The findings show that aesthetics, safety, lighting, maintenance and cleanliness in public spaces attracted people to visi...

Cette conclusion de l'ouvrage "Whose Future Is Here?" tire les enseignements de la recherche-action menée par le collectif ARCH en 2019 dans le quartier Nord de Bruxelles et interpelle les pouvoirs publics bruxellois, en proposant des pistes d'actions pour une adaptation des politiques de la ville aux spécificités des quartiers de gare dans une grande métropole et aux enjeux de l'hospitalité urbaine devant le fait migratoire.

Green Technology design approach is a new solution that must be applicable to preserve a nature and reduce the pollution. There are so much innovation could be use to in the development of the park to reduce the electricity use, eco-friendly and liveable for the community. This paper aims to exemplify an effort by a group of students, through multi-professional inputs, in designing for a city facility that can add more towards a liveable city. The results of the approach are multidisciplinary design that includes the idea from multi-professional in making a livable park for community surroundings Tasik Biru Kundang, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract Focuses on heritage tourism, a form of leisure travel in the US Categories of heritage attractions; Description of a typical heritage tourist; Benefits from heritage tourism; Other issues involved in the development and promotion of heritage tourism.

During the Winter 2017 quarter, Dr. Thomas Murphy’s Cultural Anthropology class conducted oral history interviews to help document Edmonds Community College’s involvement with the community and various Native Tribes. A team of students consisting of Shaun Erler, Kathleen Siemion, and Zach Murphy, with aid from field technician Mina Mina Farag, conducted an interview with Laurie Cowan about her life and the work she did for the City of Lynnwood in the development of Gold Park.

Tourism in protected areas in Sri Lanka has the potential to provide economic development as well as sources of the funding for maintaining the environmental values of national parks. However, for this to occur it is important tourism is managed in a sustainable manner. This paper uses a case study approach to examine the characteristics and problems associated with tourism in the most popular National Park in Sri Lanka–Ruhuna (Yala). It is clear there are a number of environmental effects arising from tourism that are degrading the natural values of the protected area resulting in lower amenity value for tourists. The problems associated with tourism are exacerbated by the lack of recognition given to the impacts resulting from religious tourists visiting the area and the lack of controls placed on their behaviour within the Park. Management has introduced various measures aimed at alleviating the problems caused by tourism, such as monthly meetings with tour operators and the provision of educational and interpretative material for local people. In addition, there are plans to construct a new road to reduce congestion currently experienced on the Park roads. However, unless funding is increased and more consideration is given to the religious tourists and their impacts, tourism in the Park will not be sustainable.

Although several methods have been developed for measuring factors affecting long-term recreation trends, few have examined what accounts for short-term changes in recreation demand. This study examines weather and stream discharge as transient environmental characteristics influencing recreation participation. A simple method for measuring how these factors affect the environmental suitability of a river area is developed utilizing data corresponding to the Illinois River, a heavily used recreational stream in northeastern Oklahoma. Stream discharge, daily low temperature, and cloud cover are useful predictors of river recreation demand when coupled with a variable corresponding to weekend versus weekday. The information presented may be useful in expanding our understanding of behavioral responses to short-term changes in recreational environments and may assist planners and commercial operators in estimating markets.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Given the emergence of obesity as one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States, it is not surprising that a focus on healthy lifestyles has become a central issue for disease prevention. The recent convergence of health and the built environment opens up new possibilities for park and recreation professionals to participate in initiatives that focus on lifestyle physical activity. Although there is a growing body of literature on the promotion of coalitions and public private partnerships, little has been written about multisector partnerships that focus on health and the built environment. At the same time, there has been a lack of critical attention paid to the theme of scale in partnership projects-often meaning little more than resolution. Although scale is a key concept in cartography, GIS, and other forms of geographic representation, some geographers suggest scale plays a critical role in political and social change.

Recreational use and protection of nature and landscape are usually perceived as two conflicting approaches taking place in urban, peri-urban and rural landscapes. Natural and semi-natural areas, especially those adjoining or well connected to urban areas, are often utilised for recreation, leisure activities or tourism. These uses can lead to conflict situations between protection and outdoor recreation. In this paper, we define those features of recreation which can have a negative impact on the landscape and we come up with contemporary design and planning strategies integrating recreation and protection into one inclusive approach. The aim is to lower the negative impact of leisure activities and develop a new, multipurpose approach in land use planning which could replace the conventional bipolar understanding of this problem. A properly designed outdoor recreational infrastructure, considering the multifunctionality of the landscape, can convert recreation from a stressing fac...

In an era of rapid urbanization, a changing climate, and deepening political division, parks represent increasingly important places for urban residents to interact with, and feel connected to, the natural environment and the mental and physical health benefits it provides. Unfortunately, in an age of austerity politics, parks and recreation departments in Midwest Rust Belt cities often lack adequate funding to maintain such public spaces. Recently, the business-minded Rock Island, Illinois Department of Parks and Recreation has implemented a creative cost-saving management solution: “naturalizing” sections of its city parks. Using a mixed-methods approach, this interdisciplinary study aims to discover how the community members near two representative urban parks in Rock Island perceive this economically motivated “re-wilding” of long-manicured and domesticated urban nature. Resident reactions reveal enduring conceptions of a nature-culture divide, as well as the upper class, White ...