Presence or absence of fencing, security and accessibility of urban parks

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the influence of the presence or absence of fencing of urban public parks in the users’ perception regarding the users’ safety (inside and outside the parks) and public property, as well as the accessibility of these spaces and the effects caused by this use and ownership of the internal spaces of the parks. Thus, were evaluated two parks in Porto Alegre, which are the Farroupilha Park and Germania Park. The main results show that the safety’ perception is not influenced by the lack of fencing in the open parks, contrary to what occurs in closed parks. Closed park’s users associate the presence of fencing on the preservation of public property, and in open parks this evaluation varies with the users’ type. Furthermore, the activities’ types performed by users of open parks, and the proximity of the residence, both in closed and in open parks, are factors that influence the evaluation of urban parks’ accessibility.