An Analytical study of the value of urban open spaces in promoting environmental improvement and social wellbeing

Abstract

According to current projections, more than 75% of the human population will live in cities and urban areas by 2050. This will lead to overcrowding of the cities that will lead to conversion of much needed open spaces to meet infrastructure needs. Loss of urban spaces will contribute to physical inactivity which together with unhealthy diets will contribute to a rapid increase in the non-communicable diseases among the urban populace. Therefore modern cities must incorporate urban parks to provide aesthetic, social, physiological and psychological benefits to urban societies. In Sri Lanka, an initiative has been taken to create urban parks, multi use trails and wetland nature parks to encourage active and passive recreation as well as social gathering. This research project was formulated to test the hypothesis that “created parks have generated improvement in physical environment such as quality of air and aesthetics and has made an impact on sociological wellbeing of the user community”. The research focused on four open spaces created in Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, Diyatha Uyana, Parliament green, Japanese friendship road walk path and model paddy field walk path. One environmental parameter, air quality and visitation patterns to these parks were investigated with the aim of identifying level of exposure of the visitors while spending time at these sites and visitor preferences. The air quality of the four sites is well within National air quality standards, especially during the peak use hours of these sites by general public. The parks attract a multitude of users mainly between 29 and 49 years of age. The users show site tenacity based on the type of activity they engage in while using these parks. These parks have positively contributed to social and physical well being of park users.