Park

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the act of stopping a vehicle, see parking. For other uses of Park or Parks, see Park (disambiguation).
"Recreation ground" redirects here. For other uses, see Recreation ground (disambiguation).

Halley Park in Bentleigh, Victoria, Australia
A park in Turkey


A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and

trails for walking, biking and other activities. Some parks are built adjacent to bodies of water or watercourses and may comprise a beach or boat dock area. Urban parks often have benches for sitting and may contain picnic tables and barbecue
grills.

The largest parks can be vast natural areas of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers (or square miles), with abundant wildlife and natural features such as mountains and rivers. In many large parks,

snowshoeing
in colder months. There are also amusement parks that have live shows, fairground rides, refreshments, and games of chance or skill.

History

Depiction of a medieval hunting park from a 15th-century manuscript

medieval
times for game hunting. They had walls or thick hedges around them to keep game animals (e.g., stags) in and people out. It was strictly forbidden for commoners to hunt animals in these deer parks.

These game preserves evolved into landscaped parks set around

stately home parks where the natural landscape was enhanced by landscape architects such as Capability Brown and Humphry Repton. The French formal garden such as designed by André Le Nôtre at Versailles
is an earlier and elaborate example. As cities became crowded, private hunting grounds became places for the public.

Early opportunities for the creation of urban parks in both Europe and the United States grew out of medieval practice to secure pasture lands within the safe confines of villages and towns. The most famous US example of a city park that evolved from this practice is the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts (1634).[1]

With the

natural beauty were also set aside as national parks
to prevent them from being spoiled by uncontrolled development.

Design

Hatanpää Park in Tampere, Finland
Keukenhof, Royparkal Tulip Park, Netherlands

Park design is influenced by the intended purpose and audience, as well as by the available land features. A park intended to provide recreation for children may include a playground. A park primarily intended for adults may feature walking paths and decorative landscaping. Specific features, such as riding trails, may be included to support specific activities.

The design of a park may determine who is willing to use it. Walkers might feel unsafe on a

mixed-use path that is dominated by fast-moving cyclists or horses. Different landscaping and infrastructure may even affect children's rates of park usage according to gender. Redesigns of two parks in Vienna suggested that the creation of multiple semi-enclosed play areas in a park could encourage equal use by boys and girls.[2]

Parks are part of the urban infrastructure: for physical activity, for families and communities to gather and socialize, or for a simple respite. Research reveals that people who exercise outdoors in green-space derive greater mental health benefits.[3] Providing activities for all ages, abilities and income levels is important for the physical and mental well-being of the public.[4][5]

Parks can also benefit

pollinators, and some parks (such as Saltdean Oval in East Sussex) have been redesigned to accommodate them better.[6] Some organizations, such as the Xerces Society are also promoting this idea.[7]

Role in city revitalization

City parks play a role in improving cities and improving the futures for residents and visitors - for example, Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois[8] or the Mill River Park and Green way in Stamford, CT.[9] One group that is a strong proponent of parks for cities is The American Society of Landscape Architects. They argue that parks are important to the fabric of the community on an individual scale and broader scales such as entire neighborhoods, city districts or city park systems.[10]

Design for safety

Veale Gardens in Adelaide, Australia
A well-lit path in Delhi's Garden of Five Senses

Parks need to feel safe for people to use them. Research shows that perception of safety can be more significant in influencing human behavior than actual crime statistics.[11] If citizens perceive a park as unsafe, they might not make use of it at all.[5]

A study done in four cities; Albuquerque, NM, Chapel Hill/Durham, NC, Columbus, OH, and Philadelphia, PA, with 3815 survey participants who lived within a half-mile of a park indicated that in addition to safety park facilities also played a significant role in park use and that increasing facilities instead of creating an image of a safe park would increase use of the park.[12]

There are a number of features that contribute to whether or not a park feels safe. Elements in the physical design of a park, such as an open and welcoming entry, good visibility (sight lines), and appropriate lighting and signage can all make a difference. Regular park maintenance, as well as programming and community involvement, can also contribute to a feeling of safety.[13]

While Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) has been widely used in facility design, the use of CPTED in parks has not been. Iqbal and Ceccato performed a study in Stockholm, Sweden to determine if it would be useful to apply to parks.[14] Their study indicated that while CPTED could be useful, due to the nature of a park, increasing the look of safety can also have unintended consequences on the aesthetics of the park. Creating secure areas with bars and locks lowers the beauty of the park, as well as the nature of who is in charge of observing the public space and the feeling of being observed.[14]

Active and passive recreation areas

Burnside Skatepark in Portland, Oregon is one of the world's most recognizable skateparks.

Parks can be divided into active and passive

skateparks
. Active recreation such as team sports, due to the need to provide substantial space to congregate, typically involves intensive management, maintenance, and high costs. Passive recreation, also called "low-intensity recreation" is that which emphasizes the open-space aspect of a park and allows for the preservation of natural habitat. It usually involves a low level of development, such as rustic picnic areas, benches, and trails.

Many smaller neighborhood parks are receiving increased attention and valuation as significant community assets and places of refuge in heavily populated urban areas. Neighborhood groups around the world are joining to support local parks that have suffered from urban decay and government neglect.

Passive recreation typically requires less management which can be provided at lower costs than active recreation. Some open space managers provide trails for physical activity in the form of walking, running, horse riding, mountain biking, snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing; or activities such as observing nature, bird watching, painting, photography, or picnicking. Limiting park or open space use to passive recreation over all or a portion of the park's area eliminates or reduces the burden of managing active recreation facilities and developed infrastructure. Passive recreation amenities require routine upkeep and maintenance to prevent degradation of the environment.

Parks owned or operated by government

National parks

Northeast Greenland National Park, the world's largest national park
Main article: National park

A national park is a reserve of land, usually, but not always declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. Although this may be so, it is not likely that the government of a specific area owns it, rather the community itself. National parks are a protected area of International Union for Conservation of Nature Category II. This implies that they are wilderness areas, but unlike pure nature reserves, they are established with the expectation of a certain degree of human visitation and supporting infrastructure.

While this type of national park had been proposed previously, the United States established the first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people", Yellowstone National Park, in 1872,[15] although Yellowstone was not gazetted as a national park. The first officially designated national park was Mackinac Island, gazetted in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's second officially established national park.[16]

The largest national park in the world is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974 and currently protects 972,001 km2 (375,000 sq mi).[17][18]

Sub-national parks

Main articles: State park and Provincial park

In some

the Australian state of Victoria, these are known as state parks, whereas in Argentina, Canada and South Korea, they are known as provincial or territorial parks. In the United States, it is also common for individual counties
to run parks, these are known as county parks.

Urban parks

Yoyogi Park is a large urban park in Tokyo.
Main article: Urban park

A park is an area of open space provided for recreational use, usually owned and maintained by a local government. Parks commonly resemble

Grass is typically kept short to discourage insect pests and to allow for the enjoyment of picnics and sporting activities. Trees are chosen for their beauty and to provide shade.[19]

Some early parks include the

la Alameda de Hércules, in Seville, a promenaded public mall, urban garden and park built in 1574, within the historic center of Seville; the City Park
, in Budapest, Hungary, which was property of the Batthyány family and was later made public.

An early purpose built public park was

Princes Park in the Liverpool suburb of Toxteth, laid out to the designs of Joseph Paxton from 1842 and opened in 1843. The land on which the Princes park was built was purchased by Richard Vaughan Yates, an iron merchant and philanthropist, in 1841 for £50,000. The creation of Princes Park showed great foresight and introduced a number of highly influential ideas. First and foremost was the provision of open space for the benefit of townspeople and local residents within an area that was being rapidly built up. Secondly it took the concept of the designed landscape as a setting for the suburban domicile, an idea pioneered by John Nash at Regent's Park
, and re-fashioned it for the provincial town in a most original way. Nash's remodeling of St James's Park from 1827 and the sequence of processional routes he created to link The Mall with Regent's Park completely transformed the appearance of London's West End. With the establishment of Princes Park in 1842, Joseph Paxton did something similar for the benefit of a provincial town, albeit one of international stature by virtue of its flourishing mercantile contingent. Liverpool had a burgeoning presence on the scene of global maritime trade before 1800 and during the Victorian era its wealth rivaled that of London itself.

The form and layout of Paxton's ornamental grounds, structured about an informal lake within the confines of a serpentine carriageway, put in place the essential elements of his much imitated design for Birkenhead Park. The latter was commenced in 1843 with the help of public finance and deployed the ideas he pioneered at Princes Park on a more expansive scale. Frederick Law Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 and praised its qualities. Indeed, Paxton is widely credited as having been one of the principal influences on Olmsted and Calvert's design for New York's Central Park of 1857.

There are around an estimated 27,000 public parks in the United Kingdom, with around 2.6 billion visits to parks each year. Many are of cultural and historical interest, with 300 registered by Historic England as of national importance. Most public parks have been provided and run by local authorities over the past hundred and seventy years, but these authorities have no statutory duty to fund or maintain these public parks.[20] In 2016 the Heritage Lottery Fund's State of UK Public Parks reported that "92 per cent of park managers report their maintenance budgets have reduced in the past three years and 95 per cent expect their funding will continue to reduce".[21]

Central Park in New York City is the most-visited urban park in the U.S.[22]

Another early public park is the Peel Park, Salford, England opened on August 22, 1846.[23][24][25] Another possible claimant for status as the world's first public park is Boston Common (Boston, Massachusetts, US), set aside in 1634, whose first recreational promenade, Tremont Mall, dates from 1728. True park status for the entire common seems to have emerged no later than 1830, when the grazing of cows was ended and renaming the Common as Washington Park was proposed (renaming the bordering Sentry Street to Park Street in 1808 already acknowledged the reality).

Linear parks

A

greenbelt
.

Country parks

Main article: Country park

In some countries, especially the United Kingdom, country parks are areas designated for recreation, and managed by

local authorities
. They are often located near urban populations, but they provide recreational facilities typical of the countryside rather than the town.

Military parks

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.[26]

In 2021, following the

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, a Military Trophy Park was opened in Azerbaijan's capital Baku, showcasing seized military equipment, as well as the helmets and wax mannequins of Armenian troops.[27] The helmets were reported by international media to belong to dead Armenian soldiers.[27][28] Several international journalists have called the park "barbaric".[29][30][31] Armenia strongly condemned it, accusing Baku of "dishonoring the memory of victims of the war, missing persons and prisoners of war and violating the rights and dignity of their families".[28] Armenia's ombudsman called it a "clear manifestation of fascism", saying that it is a "proof of Azerbaijani genocidal policy and state supported Armenophobia".[32] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan stated that such museums are a widely accepted international practice, and the country has a right to commemorate its victory through parades, parks, museums and other means.[33] Azerbaijani authorities [who?] claimed that the helmets were left behind by retreating Armenian soldiers.[34] When Azerbaijani historian Altay Goyushov, one of the leaders of liberal democratic opposition, criticized the helmets corridor, he was rebuffed by local journalists and bloggers who justified demonstrating the helmets, one of them going as far as inviting "all who does not feel well looking at them to go and drown in Caspian sea".[34]

Private parks

Private parks are owned by individuals or businesses and are used at the discretion of the owner. There are a few types of private parks, and some which once were privately maintained and used have now been made open to the public.

Hunting parks were originally areas maintained as open space where residences, industry and farming were not allowed, often originally so that nobility might have a place to hunt – see

country houses
in Great Britain and Ireland still have parks of this sort, which since the 18th century have often been landscaped for aesthetic effect. They are usually a mixture of open grassland with scattered trees and sections of woodland, and are often enclosed by a high wall. The area immediately around the house is the garden. In some cases this will also feature sweeping lawns and scattered trees; the basic difference between a country house's park and its garden is that the park is grazed by animals, but they are excluded from the garden.

Other park types

  • Amusement parks have live shows, fairground rides, refreshments, and games of chance/skill.
  • Dog parks
    permit dogs to run off-leash. Parks have differing rules regarding whether dogs can be brought into a park: some parks prohibit dogs; some parks allow them with restrictions (e.g., use of a leash).
  • Forest parks are large areas of attractive country with marked paths and special areas for camping.[35]
  • Nature park
  • Parklet
  • Pocket park
  • Regional park

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-415-25225-6
    .
  2. CityLab
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  3. ISBN 978-0-521-34139-4
    .
  4. ^ Friedman, Daniel; Dannenberg, Andrew; Frumkin, Howard (July 29, 2013). "Design and Public Health: Working Hand-in-Hand for Better Built Environments". ARCADE. 31 (3). Archived from the original on February 2, 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Issue Brief: Creating Safe Park Environments to Enhance Community Wellness" (PDF). National Recreation and Park Association. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  6. CityLab
    .
  7. ^ Shepherd, Matthew; Vaughan, Mace; Hoffman Black, Scott (2008). "Pollinator-friendly parks" (PDF). Xerces Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 15, 2011.
  8. ^ "ASLA 2008 Professional Awards". www.asla.org. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  9. ^ "2015 ASLA PROFESSIONAL AWARDS". www.asla.org. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  10. ^ "Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes". www.asla.org. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  11. S2CID 169913264
    .
  12. S2CID 156745459
    .
  13. ^ "Key Factors in Planning, Designing and Maintaining Safer Parks". Project for Public Spaces. December 31, 2008.
  14. ^
    S2CID 147276930
    .
  15. ^ "Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850–1920". Library of Congress.
  16. ^ "National parks". Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Australian Government. July 31, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  17. ^ "Greenland in Figures 2009". Statistics Greenland (6th revised ed.). June 2009. Archived from the original on April 28, 2010.
  18. ^ "The National Park". Greenland.com. Archived from the original on April 5, 2013.
  19. ^ "Park greens by damac". IM Properties. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
  20. ^ Layton-Jones, K (2016). "History of Public Park Funding and Management (1820 – 2010) Historic England Research Report 20/2016". research.historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  21. ^ "State of UK Public Parks 2016 | The National Lottery Heritage Fund". www.heritagefund.org.uk. November 29, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  22. ^ "About the Central Park Conservancy". Central Park Conservancy. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  23. ^ "Parks in Broughton and Blackfriars". Salford City Council. August 6, 2007. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009.
  24. ^ "Public Parks & Gardens in Manchester". Manchester UK. Archived from the original on September 22, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
  25. ^ University of Salford: Peel Park Archived December 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on September 7, 2008
  26. ^ "Is Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev the new Saddam Hussein?". The National Interest. April 16, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  27. ^ a b "Azerbaijan's display of dead soldiers' helmets sparks outrage in Armenia". The Independent. April 15, 2021. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  28. ^ a b "Fury in Armenia as Azerbaijan displays war trophies". Al Jazeera. April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  29. ^ Hanrahan, Jake (April 15, 2021). "This is hideous. The Azerbaijan regime has created what is essentially a war crimes theme park for Aliyev. Unbelievable. See this thread". Twitter. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  30. ^ alexmassie (April 13, 2021). ""You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn." John Buchan". Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  31. ^ "International organizations cannot remain silent on Baku's "park of barbarism" – MEP Nikos Androulakis". Public Radio of Armenia. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  32. ^ "Park",Baku%20on%20April%2012%2C%202021 "Baku's newly-opened "park" a proof of state supported Armenophobia – Ombudsman". Public Radio of Armenia. April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  33. ^ No:131/21. "Commentary of the Press Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Retrieved May 30, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  34. ^ a b "Парк военных трофеев" в Баку – бурное одобрение и яростное осуждение
  35. ^ "Oxford Learner's Dictionaries".

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parks.
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