Designing sustainable urban parks: A proposal backed by practical research

Sustainable urban park designs are essential in advancing urban sustainability by addressing environmental issues, enhancing community well-being, fostering social interactions, and boosting local economies. Hence, this study aimed to develop a sustainable urban park design model. A total of 32 design elements were identified through a comprehensive literature review. The significance of these elements to the sustainability of urban parks was evaluated through a survey conducted with 318 participants. The survey results indicated that “being clean and well-kept” was the most important design element, receiving a mean score of 4.86 out of 5. In contrast, “availability of kiosks for buying drinks and snacks” emerged as the least important element, with a mean score of 3.81. Furthermore, exploratory factor analysis was used to categorize the design elements into six factors that collectively explained approximately 60% of the total variance. These factors were labeled as management quality, life quality, social quality, esthetics and furnishing quality, environmental quality, and activity quality. In the final phase of the study, Altinpark, located in Ankara, was examined using the developed model. Altinpark is one of the largest and renowned parks in the city, encompassing an area of 640,000 m² and housing over 18,000 trees. The examination revealed that while the park was well-designed, it exhibited significant shortcomings in terms of sustainability. The findings of this study are anticipated to guide local governments and communities in the design and construction of urban parks, enhancing their contribution to urban sustainability through improved functionality and serving as exemplary spaces.