Towards more inclusive urban parks

Urban parks are essential for people's recreation and well-being. In addition, they facilitate the establishment of a bonding to a place and feeling home. Several studies have shown how important urban parks are for mobile societies - in particular displaced persons - to link to the host place and overcome the disruptions of the move.

by Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Towards more inclusive urban parks
Characteristic panoramic views of the Persian garden (top) and the Swiss park (bottom) used in the study

Most studies assess cognitive and affective reactions of people via so-called self-reported information, and there is a lack of experimental studies dealing with measured affective responses which would complement reported assessments.  

Our newly published paper fills exactly this gap: it is an experimental contribution to assessing the relationship between reported place attachment and experimentally measured well-being in urban parks in a mobility and migratory context. We collected cognitive information and measured people's affective reactions while experiencing a virtual park visit. The results show that a higher place attachment and place identity to parks and a higher familiarity with the structure significantly increases relaxation, thus improving the visited places' recreational qualities.

The full paper is published Open Access in Landscape and Urban planning journal:
Mahsa Bazrafshana, Reto Spielhofer, Ulrike Wissen Hayek, Felix Kienast, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey (2023). Greater place attachment to urban parks enhances relaxation: Examining affective and cognitive responses of locals and bi-cultural migrants to virtual park visits. Landscape and Urban Planning, external page https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104650.

And the research data and scripts are also available: external page https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.356
 

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