دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تصدیق ارزشمند بودن پارک های شهری با اطلاعات شادمانی - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

Urban planners emphasize that urban nature plays an important role in providing social and psychological benefits to urban dwellers. Particularly, it provides space not only for the improvement of public health, but also for social interaction and community cohesion. However, less scientific attention has been paid to the effects of urban parks on the subjective well-being of urban dwellers who live in high density cities. In this study, we examine the relationship between individual subjective well-being and urban parks with individual survey data for self-reported happiness in Seoul. We obtain longitudinal Seoul Survey Data (SSD) conducted by the Seoul government between 2005 and 2015, and employ pooled cross-section data analysis with location-specific and time-specific fixed-effects to estimate the effects of urban parks on the subjective well-being of urban dwellers. In addition, we estimate the monetary value of urban parks using the average marginal rate of substitution between urban parks and household income. Our findings show that urban parks are associated with residents’ subjective well-being. Specifically, on average, an individual household has an implicit willingness-to-pay of approximately 129,300 won (approximately 110 U.S. dollar) in monthly household income for a 100 m2 increase in urban parks. High-income residents’ willingness-to-pay is approximately seventeen times more than that of low-income residents. Seniors also have more willingness-to-pay for urban parks.

6. Discussion and conclusions

Urban parks are important places providing substantial benefits that improve physical and psychological health, facilitate social engagements, as well as increase the individual subjective well-being of urban dwellers. Particularly, the amenities of urban parks can promote a quality of life for those who live in a high density urban area. However, few studies have supported it from the perspective of happiness. This study attempts to fill the gap by revealing how urban parks affect the subjective well-being of urban dwellers, especially focusing on the city of Seoul.

Through the pooled cross-section data analysis with Seoul Survey Data between 2005 and 2015, we found that an improvement in urban parks is positively associated with residents’ subjective well-being. For example, an increase in 100 m2 of urban park is associated with an increase in a 0.015 increase in happiness. In other words, an increase in 3333 m2 (it is the about 1/1000 of the Central Park in NYC) of urban park in each region is related to a 0.5 increase in happiness of urban dwellers. In addition, on average, an individual has an implicit willingness-to-pay of approximately 129,300 won (approximately 110 U.S. dollar) in monthly household income for a 100 m2 increase in urban parks. This result does not suggest an absolute value of urban parks, but suggests individual implicit willingness-to-pay for the urban parks in the city of Seoul. The value of urban parks (the average marginal rate of substitution between urban parks and income) can be different from the results of other empirical studies because the abundance of urban parks is not the same among different urban settings across the world. Nevertheless, most studies, including this study, suggest a positive relationship between urban parks and the subjective well-being of urban dwellers (Ambrey & Fleming, 2014; White et al., 2013). We acknowledge that the effects of urban parks on the subjective well-being of urban dwellers is not large. However, they are significantly important in improving their happiness. If people cannot easily change their own socioeconomic characteristics, public policy for providing more and better urban green spaces would contribute to making residents happier, especially for people who live in a large city.