Evaluating public open spaces through the lively planning integrative perspective: a developing country context

Abstract

Public open spaces (POSs) provide a forum for social gathering, health, leisure, and recreation opportunities for city dwellers. POSs are considered one of the city’s essential components that connect city dwellers to nature and improve their quality of life. India, a developing country, is rapidly urbanising. Indian cities are emerging with diverse and well-developed societies. These societies are looking for POSs that are not only inclusive, vibrant, functional, and sustainable, but also capable of providing people with social, economic, and environment benefits. It is therefore essential to evaluate existing POSs at the city, neighbourhood, and site scales using a modern approach. The evaluation aids in identifying the POSs’ strengths and weaknesses, which influence their character and use. This study evaluates city POSs using the ‘Lively planning integrative perspective’ (LPIP), which includes seven aspects: Livability, Sustainability, Successful spaces, Place-making, New Urbanism, Green planning intervention, and Public realm. The study also proposes the ‘Lively planning integrative perspective index’ (LPIPI) for evaluation. The study evaluates two POSs, i.e. parks, which located in the city of Nagpur. Both POSs provide free access to users. A mixed methods approach is used for data collection and includes tools such as self-administered questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews, and observation. A total of 747 respondents from both spaces participated in the main survey. The study’s results revealed that POSs have some functional and aesthetic strengths that support LPIP, but also have some weaknesses that limit their use. The study offers recommendations to assist planners and designers in making better decisions and developing inclusive POSs for city dwellers.