TY - JOUR
T1 - Users' perception of Kowloon Park, Hong Kong
T2 - Visiting patterns and scenic aspects
AU - Wong, Koon Kwai
AU - Domroes, Manfred
N1 - Funding Information:
By introducing environment-friendly components, such as urban parks, into the urban facades, the environmental quality of cities can be improved. However, many urban administrators still view urban park as a mere community amenity, a non-profitable provision that bears heavy single-sided costs to municipality budgets. In Hong Kong, there is growing recognition that urban park can be an asset to the city. The Government stated that the outdoor recreation is now considered as a basic human need for activities, which are essential to the mental and physical well-being of the individual and community as a whole (Hong Kong Planning Department, 2002). Outdoor leisure and recreational activities, such as strolling, jogging and playing tai-chi necessitate the provision of different types of open space in town plans. Apart from leisure and recreational uses, urban park also allows the penetration of sunlight and air movement in densely built-up areas, as well as provides planting areas for visual relief. These functions are particularly important in a high density, high-rise built-environment like Received date: 2003-08-25 Foundation item: Under the auspices of the Germany-Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme (No.GER/99-00/01) and the Faculty Re-search Grant of the Hong Kong Baptist University (No.FRG/00-01/1-38) Biography: WONG Koon-kwai (1950-), male, a native of Guangdong Province, Ph.D., associate professor, specialized in the analy-sis of human-environment interaction. E-mail: [email protected]
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - Hong Kong is a hyper-dense city with 7×106 people living in an area of 1100km2. One way to improve the livability of compacted and congested cities like Hong Kong is through the provision of urban parks, an aspect that has largely been under-researched. This study focuses on how users perceive and utilize various facilities in the Kowloon Park. The findings revealed that the Kowloon Park is one of the most preferred parks in Hong Kong for both local residents and tourists. Users were quite satisfied with the park's facilities. Notably, the most important component of an urban park is its greenery. This is followed by water elements, seating places, and facilities for various recreational activities. The improvements users would like to see in urban parks include good design and management, meeting users' needs, overcoming barriers to use, and providing a high quality and varied experience for different groups in the community. The findings of this study provide a good basis to address park management issues from the users' perspective. In particular, parks should provide easy access, encourage optimum usage and enable complimentary improvements to the environment.
AB - Hong Kong is a hyper-dense city with 7×106 people living in an area of 1100km2. One way to improve the livability of compacted and congested cities like Hong Kong is through the provision of urban parks, an aspect that has largely been under-researched. This study focuses on how users perceive and utilize various facilities in the Kowloon Park. The findings revealed that the Kowloon Park is one of the most preferred parks in Hong Kong for both local residents and tourists. Users were quite satisfied with the park's facilities. Notably, the most important component of an urban park is its greenery. This is followed by water elements, seating places, and facilities for various recreational activities. The improvements users would like to see in urban parks include good design and management, meeting users' needs, overcoming barriers to use, and providing a high quality and varied experience for different groups in the community. The findings of this study provide a good basis to address park management issues from the users' perspective. In particular, parks should provide easy access, encourage optimum usage and enable complimentary improvements to the environment.
KW - Urban park
KW - Urban park management
KW - User perception
KW - Visiting pattern
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=5644299225&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11769-003-0058-8
DO - 10.1007/s11769-003-0058-8
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:5644299225
SN - 1002-0063
VL - 14
SP - 269
EP - 275
JO - Chinese Geographical Science
JF - Chinese Geographical Science
IS - 3
ER -