Program on the Environment

Urban green space not only has significant ecological benefits, it improves urban life quality by providing city dwellers access to nature and outdoor recreation opportunity. Unfortunately, urban green space is currently under strong pressure due to urbanization, along with spatial planning policy, and densification. As a result, modern city dwellers are facing a prospect of living in a reduced green residential environment. Discovery Park is Seattle’s largest city park and attracts visitors year-round for its abundant wildlife species, extensive trail space and diverse scenic views. However, various development plans have been proposed based on the belief that the park space is “unused” (Groover, 2017). The development of open space in Discovery Park will reduce Seattleites’ access to nature in the urban environment, in addition to the loss of various benefits from the park on nature and human well-being. To fulfill the study’s purpose for investigating the value of Discovery Park, I interviewed 12 Chinese citizen/Chinese American park visitors about their use and value of Discovery Park and asked them to compare between Discovery Park and Chinese urban green space, which is intensely mitigated by man force compared to Discovery Park. With this information, I found that Discovery Park is actively used and deeply valued by its visitors.