Parks are often the best opportunity for city residents to interact with nature. Urban parks also promote community well-being by improving physical and mental health, providing numerous ecosystem services, and increasing social interactions. Because of the absence of detailed information about park amenities (e.g., facilities, viewsheds, etc.), this indicator uses metrics of park size as surrogates for park quality.
How is it scored?
This indicator was scored using the park acreage metrics of the Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore methodology. Park acreage includes the median park size and the percentage of a city’s area that was parkland. We scored watersheds based on the 75th percentile of the park acreage metrics for southeast Michigan. Park metrics were scored a 100% if they were equal to or greater than the 75th percentile. Park metrics below the 75th percentile were scored by
Urban area scores were area-weighted to calculate a watershed score. Watershed scores were population-weighted to calculate an overall region score.
Data source: Trust for Public Land.