Analysis of Factors Affecting Urban Community Perception in Public Leisure Spaces: The Case study of Public Parks in Yazd

Urban sprawl and population growth impact urban quality significantly by reducing livability and human comfort causing areduction in outdoor leisure and recreation activities. In addition, busy lifestyles of the urban community also affect the lack of time for leisure and recreational activities in public outdoor spaces.
Leisure is defined as free time that does not involve work or performing other life sustaining functions. Leisure and work are rivals for time. If one increases, the other decreases. This is the same for individuals and for society as a whole in every culture and society. Social role and function of public parks can be important for lower income groups. While the conditions in such areas are less attractive to those of the higher income area, the urban public park can provide lower income citizens opportunities for fun and entertainment within a place with environmental quality. Nowaday, most of a community’s leisure activities take place indoorsin such places as cinemas, coffee shops, restaurants, and shopping centers. The use of indoor rather than open and green outdoor spaces during leisure activities has led to a greater passive lifestyle in urban communities. People in urban spaces neglect the fact that physically active outdoors lifestyles are important in terms of physical and mental health to enhance the quality of life. Urban public parks and their design are important factors which influence citizens’ leisure activities. The objective of this research is to identify the impact of the community perception on leisure activities at two urban public parks in the city of Yazd. Kuhestan Park and City Grand Park were selected for this study.
The literature review was carried out to gather information and findings and determine the study criteria of previous research regarding leisure in urban public parks.
The results from the literature review and observation survey served very well in codifying the variables and attributes for structuring the questionnaire to examine citizen perception of leisure activities in public parks of Yazd.
According to this study, the use of parks has changed from quiet activities during the day to more community activities in the evening and night.
People dispersed throughout the parks during the day, while in the evenings and at nightfall the areas became more vibrant with social leisure activities.
The questionnaire survey was carried out atvarious times and different locations of the parks using random stratifying technique.
This study reveals the positive perception of the community towards night-time leisure activities at
urban public parks in both case studies.
Four types of variables were studied in relation to night-time leisure in urban public parks: comfort, convenience, safety and aesthetics.
The findings of this study showed that the urban park users’ perception of safety and related factors had the greatest correlation with increase in leisure activities in urban public parks.
The results of this research could be used to improve the Yazd local authority strategies and guidelines regarding future urban public park planning and design. This study has identified crucial factors contributing to citizens’ comfort, convenience, and safety in public parks as well their aesthetic views of such places in relation to leisure activities.