Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of ...

Figure 4.25 shows the high priority of the sanitary situation on the one hand and on the
other hand the offer of entertainment facilities seems to be insufficient. Furthermore, many
people wish to have a children’s playground inside the park.
Each age group has different demands, shown specifically by table 4.12:
People up to the age of 30 find that the parks lack entertainment facilities. This wish
decreases with increasing age.
The middle-aged visitors (30-54) focus on children’s playgrounds and other services.
The retirees rank missing toilet facilities as a priority.
It is obvious that the young people have a very low interest in (more) natural features, like
lakes (1.7 % only) and trees/ grass (4.7 %).
By focusing on single missing facilities or features, it can be stated that:
“missing parking lots” are required disproportionately often by:
o young people (15 - 29 years)
o visitors travelling by motorbike or by bus;
the complaints by motorbike drivers is to be expected whereas people
coming by bus might have reacted already: they travel by bus due to the bad
parking situation.
mostly People up to 30 years find that the parks lack of entertaining facilities. This
wish decreases with increasing age.
Table 4.12: Missing facilities and features depending on age groups
Feature age group 15-29 30-54 55+
parking lot 10.1% 4.3% 2.5%
entertainment facilities 32.0% 14.5% 10.0%
services 17.8% 23.2% 0.0%
trees/ grass 4.7% 13.0% 17.5%
toilets 22.9% 10.1% 45.0%
lakes 1.7% 5.8% 0.0%
children’s playground 10.8% 29.0% 25.0%
Total 100% 100% 100%
Number 297 69 40
(Own survey, 2010-2011)
Of course, weaknesses differ between the parks. Thus the following figures show the
ranking and level of demand for each of the four investigated parks.
The complaint about missing toilets was the most prevalent in Thong Nhat park (see figure
4.26). There are several public toilets, but they are old, not very well maintained and very
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