THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF PARKS AND THEIR ECONOMIC IMPACTS 7 park features and amenities is associated with an increase in park usage for both youth and adults (Heath and Bilderback 2019; Veitch et al. 2012). Urban versus Rural Much of the literature on the effects of parks on health tends to focus on urban and suburban areas. Because of the nature of urban development, access to unplanned green space is limited, necessitating the intentional creation of park space. This leaves several gaps in the literature on the impact of parks and green spaces. First, the term “urban areas” encompasses a broad range of cities based on region, geographic size, and population. Further, it can encompass areas that might be colloquially considered suburban. Smaller cities may lack the funding for parks that larger cities are able to marshal, but larger cities may face distinct gentrification pressures and rapidly changing neighborhood demographics (Eldridge, Burrowes, and Spauster 2019). The inequities in access to quality park space may also align with urban/suburban divides. Parks in dense center city areas have considerably less acreage per person than more suburban areas (Rigolon 2016). These center city parks were also more likely to be in predominately Black neighborhoods, although patterns of gentrification complicate efforts to use set neighborhood definitions. Further, research focused on urban parks may not be directly applicable to parks in rural areas. Observational evidence suggests that rural parks may be utilized differently than urban ones, with visitors in rural areas more likely to engage in sedentary activities and less likely to be engaged in moderately vigorous exercise (Roenmich et al. 2018). A survey of residents in rural Iowa found a statistically significant relationship between feelings of access to recreational and walking space and community satisfaction overall (Payne and Schaumleffel 2008). But conflicting evidence from a survey of California youth suggested that perceived park quality and access is correlated with physical activity among urban youth but not rural youth (Babey et al. 2008). Similar to urban areas, rural areas are diverse and have a multitude of differing characteristics. Comparative analyses or typologies of rural areas as they relate to parks and green spaces are a gap in the literature.
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