Neighborhood Urban Green Spaces for Senior Citizens and Children, Case Study: Delhi

Abstract

Due to rapid urbanization trend, the distance between city inhabitants and nature is increasing day by day and it is necessary to bridge this gap by promoting urban green spaces in the city. Green spaces are important for sustained well-being of people from different age groups, ensuring diverse benefits including improved health, social bonding, recreation, and sheer experience of nature while being in the city. During the past few decades, the Master Plan of Delhi has made efforts in improving and increasing the provision planned green spaces. Delhi is the greenest city in India with 19% green cover having different types of green space at different levels such as regional, city, district, community, neighborhood, and housing play area. Now, the research question is that, are the neighborhood parks accessible to senior citizens and children, if they are accessible then, are they usable to senior citizens and children? How much is the usage? This paper describes how the parks are designed? And what are its components? What issues are coming in using the parks? The aim of the study is to analyze the utilization pattern of neighborhood urban green spaces by our target age groups and develop a plan for better utilization in Delhi. Only the neighborhood level parks (daily use parks) are taken into account for the study. There are three parameters used for the calculation of urban green spaces usage: (i) number of users, (ii) length of stay (time spent), and (iii) frequency of visits. There are three parameters used for calculating the usability of the selected parks: (i) ease of accessibility, (ii) provision of facilities, (iii) maintenance. To assess the usage of neighborhood green spaces in Delhi, the primary survey of senior citizens and children was conducted. Analysis of the collected data shows that the sector-6, Dwarka neighborhood park has a higher number of users than the sector-8, Dwarka neighborhood park due to availability of facilities, distance traveled by the users, and the population living near to the park. Issues related to maintenance and availability of facilities in both the parks are also observed.