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IDENTIFYING NATURE-PLAY THROUGH A DETAILED CLASSIFICATION OF OPEN SPACES

According to a study by Trust for Public Land in 2020, Cincinnati was ranked fifth in its park system nationally. In such a city, it is perhaps a common perception that there is abundant access to nature. We look at eight selected neighborhoods within the city, both aerially and from a public pedestrian’s perspective to assess which open areas provide nature play settings, and how accessible they are. To understand the perception of green open spaces, it is important to look at not only the designated open spaces of the city, but also at all the other visible open green spaces that might be privately owned or inaccessible otherwise. The gap in the perception of open spaces, and the opportunities of nature-play is a dual one – one being the issue of presence of nature in these open areas, and another being of access.

Location

Key Points

  • Studies find nature-based play spaces offer more affordances (and thus can support more play typologies according to the theory of affordances by Gibson 1979) for engaging in unstructured play.

  • Such play spaces offer more flexibility and diversity of play typologies (Woolley and Lowe 2013).

  • A comparative study among children in equipped playgrounds versus natural play areas found that the children in natural play areas tend to engage in active and complex play typologies for longer periods of time than in equipped playgrounds (Herrington and Brussoni 2013).

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METHODOLOGY

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SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS

To organize the large mass of data and to compress the social indexes into a smaller number of indicators (composite variables) one needed to arrive at a measure of socio-economic status (SES). SES was thought of as broader than also, the traditional use of the construct, and approximates an indicator of quality of social life. On the basis of the New Haven study and similar studies in Mecklenburg and Forsythe counties in North Carolina, a correlation matrix of 20 variables was developed using Cincinnati census tract data from the American Community Survey 2005-2009 (ACS) (population characteristics and housing characteristics). 

8 NEIGHBORHOODS

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The Focus Neighborhoods

Based on the SES (Socio Economic Status) data, two neighborhoods from each of the SES category is chosen for the purpose of our study. These neighborhoods include East Price Hill and Avondale (SES 1), West Price Hill and West End (SES 2), Westwood and College Hill (SES 3), and Hyde Park and Mount Washington (SES 4). In terms of demography, these eight neighborhoods comprise of 40% of the city’s population and 45% of the children below 18 years of age.

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OPEN SPACES

In 1907, Landscape Architect George Kessler prepared the first park masterplan for Cincinnati, inspired by the Garden City and City Beautiful Movements. Kessler’s ambitious plan, paralleling those of Boston, Chicago, Kansas City and several other cities, proposed a connected system of parks and parkways that redefined the structuring of the city/urban space. The plan have had its lasting impact on the open spaces of the city. An analysis of the open spaces gives a better understanding of the current scenario.

FINDINGS

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1. MAP AREA WITH ACCESS  TO ALL OPEN SPACES
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2. MAP AREA WITH ACCESS  TO ACCESSIBLE PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
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3. MAP AREA WITH ACCESS  TO PUBLIC OPEN SPACES THAT HAS NATURE PLAY OPPORTUNITIES

DISCUSSIONS

  • Even though the city looks green and have a lot of open space – be wary that it does not necessarily translate to good access to nature play.
  • Access to parks and open space does not automatically provide access to nature-play
  • While churches and cemeteries are owned by non-profitable organizations, they can often offer natural playscapes to children and are quite accessible.
  • Some nature preserves and natural areas are also owned by organizations aimed at conserving natural lands, and often might provide free access to public for trails, hikes, and free play.
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