Use and appropriation of space in urban public parks : GIS methods in social geography

摘要

The research objective is the analysis of the appropriationof space in urban public parks. For this purpose,extensive field observations were conducted in severalparks in Zurich, Switzerland, over the span of threeyears, with records made of the location, assumed age,gender and activity of park visitors. Based on researchin environmental psychology and anthropology, amodel was developed building on the two conceptsof ?personal space? and ?activity footprints? to representspace appropriation. In line with the view thatquantitative spatial analysis methods remain a validtool for critical, non-positivist research, the model wasimplemented using kernel density estimations for thespatio-temporal analysis of the observed park use. Itis argued that the probability surfaces generated bykernel density estimations are an adequate representationof the specific vagueness of human space appropriationas they remain sensitive to the presence ofindividual park visitors.