Park user characterization for increasing and insight into citizen engagement

A number of environmental and health issues can be better resolved through partnerships between citizens and scientists. A key factor in obtaining shared citizen science outcomes is engagement with the public and bringing... [ view full abstract ]

A number of environmental and health issues can be better resolved through partnerships between citizens and scientists. A key factor in obtaining shared citizen science outcomes is engagement with the public and bringing together citizens, stakeholders, researchers, and policy-makers. We carried out surveys judging attitudes about the environment as well as gauging the knowledge and literacy toward the environment with a focus on park and greenspace use.
These data have allowed us to broadly characterize different types of park and greenspace users. Not surprisingly we found a strong correlation between education and financial status. However, factors such as pet ownership and parenthood also have a substantial impact on responses. Using multiple correspondence analysis, we were able to link these characteristics with distinct preferences for certain park features and motivations for use. This means that different people from similar locations would be more or less likely to engage in projects depending on the type of project, and may be engaged different ways. Our data provide insight into how groups and stakeholders may engage in environmental education or citizen science. Furthermore, spatial analysis indicates park exposure and distance are important variables.
Our characterizations have implications for how to engage the public in citizen science projects involving climate change, public health issues such as obesity, and through what means to engage citizens. Persons living the same distance from the same park may have different conceptions of citizen generated data based on a number of these factors and can therefore play an important role in data quality and data gathering.