Residential Reach and Routine Contact in Youth Greenspace Access: Evidence from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague

Abstract

Urban greenspace access measures are often based on residential walking distance despite the fact that children and teenagers interact with their urban environment in school, college, university, and via travel routes. This paper analyzes whether residential reach to public greenspace amenities in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague is translated into educational and travel-related contacts for youth. The analysis is based on access quantities for 848 publicly accessible greenspaces including 398 in Amsterdam, 281 in Rotterdam and 169 in The Hague. The data source differentiates children between the ages of 0 and 14 years old and adolescents between the ages of 15 and 24 years old and includes the following categories: residence-based walksheds, education-based walksheds, modeled commute entry, commute-distance exposure, dispersion values, and Spearman rank associations. To investigate the degree to which residential access is translated into contact with greenspaces, we compare three approaches, namely residence proximity, nearby educational institutions, and travel through greenspaces to access educational institutions. The increase of the walking distance from 300 m to 800 m leads to approximately a five-fold increase of mean residential access for residents, children, and adolescents. However, this larger distance does not translate into similar levels of exposure. An 800 m walking distance results in the average greenspace being accessible for 1203.6 children and 937.3 adolescents. On the other hand, there is an average of only 2.0 child-oriented and 1.1 adolescent-oriented educational institutions within 800 m. The modeled commute entry drops to 68.7 children and 34.6 adolescents per greenspace. Adjusting for resident-accessible youth, the commute entry rate for adolescents is 35.33% less than for children. Commute entries of adolescents are also extremely concentrated. Their coefficient of variation is 4.36 and maximum to mean is 66.10. These findings show that residential reach can be successfully applied for the identification of young residents near greenspace amenities, but not for youth exposure, particularly in adolescent learning routes. Monitoring of municipal exposure to greenspaces should separate residential, educational, and route-based exposures.