THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF PARKS AND THEIR ECONOMIC IMPACTS 3 Methodology We used a snowball sampling strategy to identify documents for review. We began with a set of 15 key documents from the National Recreation and Park Association’s (NRPA’s) extensive existing reports on parks, green space, and health, as well as 15 documents identified as critical pieces of literature by the Urban team. From this initial sample, we expanded our review to examine citations from these sources as well as papers that cited them. We sought to include not only academic literature but also practitioner reports and guidance documents from the field. From the initial set of documents, we identified where there were gaps in the literature. We used keyword searches to pull in additional documents focused in the four topic areas (physical, mental, social, and environmental health). From that body of literature, we focused on documents published between 2000 and 2021, with exceptions for a few key sources. We concluded with 102 reference documents that include journal articles, practitioner documents, and book chapters sourcing quantitative analyses, secondary data reviews, literature scans, surveys, case studies, toolkits, and other methodologies. We discussed our preliminary findings and methodology with experts from the field through the NRPA advisory committee, NRPA staff, and senior Urban advisors. These perspectives helped supplement our research review by grounding the findings and strengthening our process. BOX 2 Terminology Park An open outdoor space. Incorporates amenities such as playgrounds and courts as well as green space. This document will refer exclusively to public parks unless otherwise noted. Used jointly with green space within this document; where we mean parks specifically, it will be noted in the text. Green space Land that incorporates greenery such as grass, tree cover, shrubs, etc. This document refers to publicly accessible green space unless otherwise noted. At points in this document, the research will refer to specific types of green spaces (e.g., tree cover). Used jointly with parks within this document; where we mean green space specifically, it will be noted in the text. Access
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