Quality and utilization potential of urban parks: case study TaSmajdan park, Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

In order to develop a sustainable urban environment, the modern approach to landscape design emphasizes the importance of environmental quality which promotes health and amenity and in which all members of a community can equally meet their needs. An important prerequisite for the design of high-quality parks in landscape design is respecting the needs and expectations of users. The quality of an urban area is the intensity with which open areas are used for the purposes of different activities and it is referred to as the utilization potential of an area. As a result of the extensive research of literature, the quality criteria for city parks are defined as: accessibility, activity / diversity of facilities and equipment, amenity and sociability. This study aims to determine the importance of the proposed quality criteria which are effective in assessing city parks as places for a successful design. The utilization potential is evaluated by using the quality criteria in the case of urban park Tasmajdan in Belgrade. The method of a structured survey was conducted on the sample of 300 randomly selected users. The research results show that the four tested criteria are very important for assessing the utilization potential of a park. Also, the obtained results are important for establishing the principles and recommendations that can be implemented in the process of landscape design, aimed at improving the quality of parks to meet the needs of its users for certain types of activities and achieve the appropriate use of parks.