Open Spaces: Quantity or Quality

Abstract

"Urban and regional open spaces play many roles, where outdoor recreation has a much wider context than that of existing parks. North American park standards are inadequate and unrealistic when applied to the Montreal Urban Community. The regional open space index (ROSI) is suggested as a means of evaluating and analyzing open spaces that offer recreational activities while adding to regional, natural and cultural diversity. This index, based on a number of spacial and social qualitative characteristics, evaluates the proportion of spaces developed in view of outdoor recreational activities according to an acceptable minimum with regard to all available spaces. It enables judicious sectorial interventions and generally proposes an integrated framework for an outdoor space development policy. In the long run, it will serve to evaluate the evolution of urban open space development."