Unpacking a Parks Planning Strategy - Part 1

Now that our Open Space and Recreation Strategy (OSRS) has been adopted I thought that I would start a series of articles highlighting some of what I think planners would be interested in that are in the strategy. The OSRS is always available on the Parks and Recreation Collection (PaRC) website, but often its handy to showcase certain parts.

I thought that I would start at the front, with the Glossary of Terms. These are definitions of important concepts within the OSRS and within our industry. Planners in local government are often called upon to define concepts in our industry, and we most certainly are an industry that has lots of concepts. I thought that the Glossary might be educational for some:

Glossary of Terms Used in this Strategy

Public open space and/or open space: terms used primarily by local government to describe all land, whether it be crown land managed by Council on behalf of the state, or land that is owned by Council that is accessed by the public for recreation and leisure. Land types can include parks, reserves, sports fields, coastal reserves, beaches, road corridors and village greens.

Crown Land: land that is owned by the State, managed through the NSW Crown Land Management Act (2016) and is often managed on behalf of the State by local government or other authorities and organisations; such as showgrounds and parks.

Community Owned Land: term outlined in the Local Government Act (1993) to denote land owned by a local government authority whose purpose is for the community, such as parks, reserves, village greens.

Park and/or Reserve: Can have two specific meanings, one being a general description of an area set aside for the public for recreation. The other being a formal term for a park set aside, such as a national park or reserve, for specific purposes.

Recreation: a term that has two meanings and both are used in this Strategy. One is an overarching description for every physical activity that is undertaken by people, includes: structured sport, unstructured sport, active and passive recreation, fitness activities, aquatics, play. The other meaning is specific to physical activities that are not a structured or unstructured sport, such as Quidditch, bike riding, running or walking.

Structured Sport: an activity undertaken by people that involves physical activity, normally confined to a prescribed area such as a sports field or court, has rules, and is normally undertaken as a part of a competition.

Un-Structured Sport: more recent term used to describe a sport activity that is not part of a larger competition, such as an informal game of cricket, or football.

Sports fields and facilities: land set aside for the primary purpose of structured outdoor sports. Active open space for team sports, training and competition and typically features sports facilities such as playing fields, change rooms, and car parks. It may accommodate unstructured community or individual use when not required for its primary purpose, such as dog walking and could include informal lawns, memorial gardens, play, and other facilities as part of a larger community “hub”.

Aquatics: refers to all water-related activities, inclusive of swimming, boating, ocean and lake-based activities.

Bushland: passive open space that includes vegetation which is either a remainder of the natural vegetation of the land or, if altered, is still representative of the structure and floristics of the natural vegetation. Includes biodiversity corridors, reserves, national parks, wetlands and state forests.

Community: a group of people living in the same area or place, or a group of people having certain characteristics, attitudes, and interests in common.

Play: an informal physical activity that involves unstructured activity whose primary purpose is fun, and which does not include all the factors of sport. Is often undertaken in formal playspaces, but not always.

Nature Play: any activity that gets children active or thinking actively outdoors, primarily in natural settings or involves natural materials, with the end goal of building skills and ability to play without the need for parental or adult control.

Fitness: Group or individual activity whose primary purpose is physical activity for fitness, such as Parkrun, bootcamp, running.

Leisure: Defined by its “quality of experience”, such as sightseeing, birdwatching. Denoted by little or no physical activity.

Outdoor Recreation: Any activity that is physical and specific to natural spaces, such as canoeing, rogaining or trail running.

Active Transport: Any form of physical activity whose primary purpose is getting from one place to another.

Adaptive Management: is an approach to managing open space that involves processes and strategies designed to achieve outcomes in the face of uncertainty.

Carrying Capacity: is a planning concept where all natural systems, such as a natural turf sports field, bushland or nature reserve have an inherent amount of use or impact that they can sustain before negative signs or degradation are observable or measurable. Impacts can include overuse by humans and/or effects of climate change such as extreme rain events or bushfires.

Impact Assessment Model: a planning mechanism that provides to land managers an iterative decision-making model for identifying the state of any natural system and the effects of external impacts on that system. The decision-making component of adaptive management.

No Net Loss of Open Space: a planning concept that states that there should be no loss of public open space that is not replaced or enhanced. The total amount of public open space should not decrease.

Canopy Coverage: the amount of tree canopy i.e. branches, leaves and shade that exists within a certain area. Normally indicated by a percentage of coverage.

Ausplay: annual data set produced by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) that details what physical activities Australians are undertaking and in what proportion. The leading planning data set for analysis and provision of sport and recreation programs and infrastructure.

Sport and Play Hierarchy: a defined order of facilities and the embellishments that should be provided for each, such as Local, District, State and National. Used as a planning mechanism that addresses community need.

Desired Standards (of provision): a set of standards that we plan for and strive to achieve. In relation to sport and recreation infrastructure a guide for provision.

Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR): a financial planning mechanism that identifies the Return on Investment of a facility.

CAPEX: Capital Expense. Money spent on the building or upgrading of a facility or open space.

OPEX: Operational Expense. Money spent on the maintaining of a facility or open space. ?

Parks estate and/or portfolio: all parks, reserves and public open space that make up the whole.

Landscape and/or landscape planning: considers the natural ecosystem as a whole and not just individual parks.

Ecosystem: ?An ecosystem is all the plants and animals that live in a particular area together with the complex relationship that exists between them and their environment.