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Effects of a Park in a Community

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Introduction

Parks refers to open spaces that provide individuals or group of people with opportunities for passive and active recreation. In effect, they are a crucial part of every community that gives he metropolitans and cities with places to enjoy nature. They improve the psychological, physical, mental, and social health of the citizens. They also strengthen the communities and ensure attractive neighbourhoods and hence right places to work and live. The leading park advocates and architects believe that green open sites are crucial environs in enhancing social control and enlightenment. They also promote and praise parks for enabling health-giving characters as well as character-molding capabilities. In many countries, some of these open spaces are essential localities for political and social contestation. The detailed description of benefits of parks in a community reveals that public green spaces are crucial in every society as they enhance all dimensions of human life.

Value of Parks

A well-designed park is attractive to human eyes. Equally, their benefits are far-reaching to every citizen either directly or indirectly. In this regard, parks are valuable as they ensure safe, healthy, and beautiful community. The effects of the parks extend to economic values as they reduce poverty, crime and also attracts and retain residents and businesses in a city. They also abate pollution, control stormwater runoff, and soil erosion. Thus, they improve the lives of the citizens and for the neighbouring communities. The analysis of the various effects enables the understanding of the value of the parks in a community.

Environment Effects

Trees are worth for every individual as they generate oxygen, and play a vital role in controlling pollution, enabling water to recycle, and preventing soil erosion. In addition to environmental benefits from the trees, the parks lighten the load of storm-water runoff and sewerage. Notably, parks incur exponentially low expensive and hence effective in enabling storm water management as opposed to managing the human-made sewers. The national and state parks are also observed to have high effects on conservation. Thus, the benefits of parks under environmental factors include control of storm-water runoff and cooling as well as pollution abatement.

Cooling and Pollution Abatement

As noted earlier, parks have trees that help in the generation of oxygen and hence reduce air pollution. In addition to trees, other vegetation prevent soil erosion and enable water recycling. Notably, trees are efficient in removing a variety of pollutants from the atmosphere. Air pollution leads to high risks of some diseases such as cancer. It also has adverse effects on the elderly, children, and the citizens that have respiratory problems. In fact, parks reduce the mortality rate caused by pollution.

Parks also enhance cooling as the trees generate oxygen and also provide shades. The open spaces reduce urban heat islands that are created by population density, excessive buildings, and paved surfaces. It is worth noting that a congested community experience high temperatures especially if there are no chances of air recycling. As a result, the society experience high air conditioning costs increased pollution and upsurge of illness and mortality rate related to rising in heat. In this regard, parks are valuable in a community as they provide vegetation and trees that enable cooling through evapotranspiration and shades.

Storm Water Runoff control

Trees in the park also play a vital role in managing the flow of storm and water runoff. Equally, they are effective and less expensive compared to the use of drainage ditches and concrete sewers. Notably, the problem of runoffs is as a result high coverage of a community with impervious surfaces like sidewalks, roads, rooftops, and parking lots. Such surfaces prevent the water from soaking into the ground. The incorporation of trees as a city infrastructure. The trees intercept rainfall and hence slows the rate that the water reaches the storm-water facilities.

Health Effects

Parks provide right recreational places for families, groups, and individuals. Notably, in the current societies, health and wellness issues are significant concerns as a result of increased unfitness care drain among the citizens (National Recreation and Parks Association, 2011). In effect, the government incurs high cost on health issues such as obesity epidemic. The benefits of parks under environmental factors include enhancement of physical activity, frequency exercise, and exposure to nature and greenery.

Physical Activity

Parks provide spaces that enable physical activities that enable the citizens to improve their physical fitness and quality of life. Physical activities are beneficial to human health as it reduces issues such as obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart illnesses, and osteoporosis. Physical exercises also help in boosting the immune system as well as playing a key role in increasing life expectancy.

Frequency Exercise

Parks also provide open spaces for frequent exercises to the citizens. According to National Recreation and Parks Association (2011), many citizens in the urban areas have no adequate spaces for physical exercise. In effect, they consider parks as comfortable areas for a variety of physical activities. Exercise is bodybuilding activities and hence prevents the adverse effects from personal physical unfitness.

Exposure to Nature and Greenery

Natural, recreational areas offer not only physical benefits but also psychological health. Notably, a contact with natural world helps in psychological therapy (Vincia D'Souza, 2012). Thus a walk through parks helps in reduction of depression and also relieve anxiety. Recreational activities also help in reducing isolation, alienation, and loneliness. In effect, it enhances positive moods that improve self-esteem and hence reduce rates of suicide.

Social Effects

Parks in a community are very crucial in enabling social life. The citizens get a chance to come together for recreational activities. As a result, the citizens are relieved from mental fatigue, aggression, and violence. The social effects from the parks include crime minimization, recreational opportunities, and stable neighborhoods.

Crime Minimization

The recreational activities in the parks help the youth and other groups of people to utilize their leisure time in beneficial ways. The communities that have a park on their neighbourhoods have a chance to socialize and express their feelings and hence ensure safety and reduce violence (Vincia D'Souza, 2012). The social life also helps the residents to understand one another and discuss the problems affecting their community.

Recreational Opportunity

Parks also provide spaces for recreational facilities for all ages and health status. For instance, they offer spacious spaces for children to exercise their different games. The disable persons also have a chance to participate in various integrated outdoor experiences. As a result, the citizens can improve the interpersonal skills revitalize their interests in life and increase their concern for healthy living.

Stable Neighbourhoods

As a result of enhanced social, the communities experience stable neighbourhoods. The residents develop strong ties through initiated social bonds. Notably, families that recreate together enhance cohesive and close trends and hence have a great chance of staying together. The togetherness among families is likely to extend to the neighbours and the community at large. Thus, parks help in building harmony and diversity.

Economic Effects

In addition to health, social, and environmental benefits, parks are vital in economic developments. They enable growth in the economy through tourism and property values.

Increased Property Values

As discussed earlier, parks provide open areas for physical and frequent exercises that help in solving and preventing a variety of adverse health issues. In this regard, many people are ready to pay any amount for the various facilities in the parks. As a result, the facilities earn the country high income considering that in the contemporary society, people are highly concerned about physical fitness.

Tourism Benefits

Parks are also an important aspect in attracting the tourists and business investors. In effect, a community gains revenues and benefit from investments in the locality as well as the neighbouring societies.

In conclusion, it is undeniable that parks are essential to every community. In this regard, it is important for a society to ensure attractive and quality parks. Equally, it is essential for a country to increase parks and also add facilities to the existing ones

References

National Recreation and Parks Association. (2011). Rejuvenating the Neighborhoods and Communities Through Parks—A Guide To Success. Retrieved on 6 Nov. 2017. From http://www.nrpa.org/uploadedFiles/nrpa.org/Publications_and_Research/Research/Papers/Rejuvenating-Neighborhoods-White-Paper.pdf

Vincia D'Souza, L. (2012). Public Perceptions of Urban Community Park Benefits. The university Of Texas At Arlington. Retrieved on 6 Nov. 2017 from, uta-ir.tdl.org/uta-ir/bitstream/handle/10106/11642/DSouza_uta_2502M_12029.pdf?sequence=1