Green Space Access in Scottish Cities : GIS Analysis of Accessibility in Scotland's Four Largest Cities

This study looks at the difference in accessibility to green spaces within the four largest Scottish cities. Having access to green spaces provides several physical and mental health benefits while also providing important ecosystem services. Previous studies show that the frequency of use of a gree...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Shepherd, Matthew
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för geografi 2019
Subjects:
GIS
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-159783
Description
Summary:This study looks at the difference in accessibility to green spaces within the four largest Scottish cities. Having access to green spaces provides several physical and mental health benefits while also providing important ecosystem services. Previous studies show that the frequency of use of a green space declines once the distance surpasses 300 m to an access point. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to analyse the service area of an access point to a green space, from which the rate of accessibility is established. The study also analyses the difference in accessibility between Euclidean and network distance. It is found that the Euclidean difference underestimates the distance needed to reach an access point and that 300 m recommendation by Euclidean distance is more closely resembles 500 m network distance. This study recommends that a distinction be made between which measurement metric is used when stating distances regarding accessibility, in order to create a more consistent approach.