Reading the Landscape: Park Profiles 2013 – 2014. Social Assessment Papers No. 2 and 3
By D.S. Novem Auyueng, Lindsay K. Campbell, Michelle L. Johnson, Nancy Falxa Sonti, Erika S. Svendsen
By D.S. Novem Auyueng, Lindsay K. Campbell, Michelle L. Johnson, Nancy Falxa Sonti, Erika S. Svendsen
These reports present a project overview and research findings from the 2013 and 2014 Social Assessment of Parks and Their Natural Areas. In these reports, we offer a conceptual and geographic introduction to the research, outline our study area, introduce research methods, present detailed findings from individual sites and the study area as a whole, and synthesize the findings from our mixed methods approach to the inquiry. The report is organized in two parts – the first is a full project summary and the second includes individual park profiles. These park profiles summarize and explain findings from each of our park locations in New York City. Data presented in each profile are from three visits to each park in summer 2013 or 2014 with three types of data collection: direct human observations, signs of prior human use, and rapid interviews. The profile format is as follows: a site map, narrative syntheses of findings, illustrative photographs, summary bar graphs and tables of quantitative observations, and tables and discussion of major themes that emerged from onsite park user interviews. Park profiles are arranged in alphabetical order by borough.
Read Report(this link opens in new window)This report summarizes the main threats to one type of urban natural area–forests–and the strategies cities use to minimize or negate these threats. Overall, this report shows that cities use various tactics such as ordinances, zoning, land acquisitions, and federal protections to preserve natural areas. The most successful approaches feature o...
More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Sustaining healthy urban forests is increasingly relevant to this population given the wide range of economic, ecological, and social benefits that urban forests provide. Yet forests in cities grow in sites that are fragmented, with frequent disturbance, altered soils, and complex lan...
The Natural Areas Conservancy developed and implemented a study to gather data on fiscal year 2017–fiscal year 2020 funding and resources allocated for forested natural areas care in New York City. The NAC developed a questionnaire for NYC Parks Division of Forestry, Horticulture, and Natural Resources (FHNR, now NYC Parks Environment & Plann...