Analysis on Motives of Urban Park User and Influence of Socio-Demographics on Motives (a case study: Residents of Gorgan City)

Today, urban parks play an important role in sustainability cities. Urban parks also provide environments for recreation, activity, and enjoyment and have an important role in people’s health. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate people’s motivation and preference for visiting urban parks and to consider their needs in park designs. Thus, this study presented two 1) to identify and to prioritize people’s motivation to urban park use 2) to compare people’s motivations in tern of demographic variables. In this study a survey was conducted among 300 visitors selected by random sampling from visitors of two urban parks in the city of Gorgan in Iran. Visitors respond to a questionnaire about people’s motives for use of urban parks. The seven-point Likert scale was used to assess opinions. The result of factor analysis on people motivation also released five factors: mental health, involvement to nature, social interaction, calming and physical activity. The factors accounted for 61.38 % of the variance. The first factor (mental health) was the most important people’s motivation for urban park use. A significant different in involvement to nature in term of marital and social interaction in term of gender was found. Married respondents were more desired about involvement to nature and social interaction than single. The results also indicated to men were more desired to physical activity than women. Finding also showed that 36-50 age groups have more willing to involvement to nature and social interaction than younger group, 26-35 age groups. This result contributes notions towards significantly impacting design of urban parks and their facilities that designers and decision makers should manage those facilities to satisfy the users’ needs.