How good is your basket of parks? A combined index of park quality and accessibility for youth

Parks and green spaces are essential components of urban areas as they provide ecological, economic, health and social functions. Their positive outcomes are closely linked with both the quality of the parks as well as their accessibility, especially via walking and cycling. This is particularly relevant for youth who largely depend on active modes for independent travel. To date, most studies have focused on a single component (quality or accessibility). To our knowledge, no study has measured the quality of a group of parks accessible to an individual. This study, therefore, proposes a methodology to generate an index that combines accessibility and quality: the Combined Index of Parks Quality and Accessibility for Youth (CIPQAY). The index is designed by combining a recently developed quality index, the “QUality Index of Parks for Youth” (QUINPY) with cumulative-opportunity accessibility measures, and is then applied to the city of Montreal, Canada. The QUINPY variables and scores are adapted to reflect the combined quality of accessible parks, based on five criteria: structured play diversity, nature, park size, safety, and maintenance. Using open-source data, the CIPQAY is then operationalized based on the study context and data availability. The final index contains 17 variables and is computed for each residential lot (n = 374,599). Findings show a low correlation between the CIPQAY index and the number of parks accessible, highlighting the relevance of this composite index. This research provides researchers and planners with a systematic methodology, transferable to other contexts, to measure the quality of parks accessible to individuals. • A comprehensive index, combining park quality and accessibility, is developed. • Low correlation is found between this index and the number of parks accessible. • This index better reflects attractiveness than common accessibility indicators. • The methodology can be adapted to other contexts and cities.