2016 Volume 79 Issue 5 Pages 513-518
Myanmar is located at the northwest of Indochina. Yangon, former capital of Myanmar, is the largest city of the country with the land area of 10,275km2 and the population of 7.4million. Due to the population increase and concentration, it is likely that the urban area would expand toward the suburbs, creating problems including urban sprawl with insufficient living conditions and inappropriate social services. In this context, the study was conducted to understand current conditions of urban parks of Yangon from the two perspectives; namely development and utilization status. The utilization status was identified by means of conducting a household interview survey, a park users’ counting survey, and a park users’ interview survey. The study identifies that (a) Yangon has 134 parks and playgrounds with the total area of 211ha, (b) The citizens who are richer or live closer to the city center tend to visit parks more than others, and (c) The parks tend to be used for more regular daily use by richer and elder citizens, in contrast for more special use by younger generation.