Investigation of the methodology of reevaluating small-scale urban parks from the viewpoint of nursery school's usage

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the methodology of reevaluating small-scale urban parks, which are often considered as having little value for children’s playground in urban area, from the viewpoint of nursery school’s usage, and to discuss the issue of appropriate state of small-scale urban parks. In this study, questionnaire survey and interview survey to nursery schools were applied, for the purpose of illustrating current states of small-scale urban park usage of nursery schools. Moreover, spatial analysis using GIS was applied, aiming at clarifying the details of nursery school’s small-scale urban park usage. As a result, 80 urban parks which had less than 1,000 square meters were seen in survey area, and 12 cases were usually used by infants in nursery schools. Besides, interview survey revealed that the small-scale urban park had value for infants, in that they could play in small-scale urban parks safely, because children of elementary schools have little interests such small-scale urban parks and seldom use those facilities for their playgrounds.