DOI: 10.17866/rd.salford.3412723.v1
title: Recreation scores and analysis for research sites within Manchester and Salford

description: This file contains the recreation scores for all 49 research sites.  The legal accessibility, physical accessibility and recreational infrastructures rankings for each sites were combined to form the recreation ecosystem service scores.<br>This file also contains the cross-tabulation analysis of the recreation scores verses four area groups (one - between 1m<sup>2</sup> and 2499m<sup>2</sup>; two - between 2500m<sup>2</sup> and 5499m<sup>2</sup>; three - between 5500m<sup>2</sup> and 7999m<sup>2</sup>; four - larger than or equal to 8000m<sup>2</sup>) and two type of sites (aquatic, terrestrial).<br>The area groups cross tabulation analysis shows that two sites (33 - Primrose Primary School pond and 38 - Scott Avenue allotment green roof) having a recreation score of two, and they both are less than 2500m<sup>2</sup>.  Site 33 is situated inside the school, and access to the pond is for the staff and students of the school only – public access prohibited.  There is a tall fence and locked gate to prevent public access from outside of the school premise – physically restricting access. However, the recreational infrastructures (benches, viewing platform and footpaths) are well maintained.  Site 38 is situated inside a council owned allotment. Access into the allotment is only for people who paid to rent out allotment plots for growing food, therefore the general public is prohibited from accessing the site.  The allotment green roof requires a ladder for access, and the allotment itself has a tall fence surrounding it and a locked gate. Therefore, access is physically restricted.  At the other end of the scale, 22 sites achieved the maximum score of six. Seven of the 22 sites are larger than or equal to 8000m<sup>2</sup>, and they are sites 14 - Footpath beside David Lewis Sports Ground, 18 - Heaton Park boating pond, 24 - Nutsford Vale, 32 - Platt Field pond, 44 - The Meadows, 45 - Three Sisters and 49 - Woodland walkway within Alexandra Park.  These sites are all situated within either public parks or local nature reserves; hence there is no issue with legal accessibility or physical accessibility.  They all have well maintained recreational facilities because of their land use purposes. Seven sites within the 21 sites that achieved the maximum score are smaller than 2500m<sup>2</sup>.  They are sites 12 - Chorlton Water park pond, 19 - Heaton Park Dell Garden pond, 21 - Hullard Park pond, 35 - Range Road public garden, 36 - Salford University garden, 43 - Stevenson Square green roof and 47 - Untrimmed vegetation area inside Hulme Park.  Area wise, these sites appear to be too small to possess any recreational potential. However, sites 12, 19, 21 and 47 are situated within public parks, site 43 is a public garden, site 36 is situated in the middle of a university campus, and site 43 is in the middle of a public square in the Manchester city centre. Therefore, their maximum scores are justified based on the land use of their surrounding areas.<br>Statistical analysis was performed to find out if there is a relationship between the size of the sites and the recreation scores they can achieve.  The 49 sites were further categorised into two categories (1 = sites less than or equals to 5500m<sup>2</sup>; 2 = sites more than 5500m<sup>2</sup>)  for the analysis.  After performing the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis analysis, it was found that the p-value of 0.943 is larger than 0.05. This implies that there is no significant difference between site sizes compared with the recreation score each site is awarded, out of the 49 sites surveyed.<br>The type of site cross tabulation analysis shows that 22 out of 49 sites (44.9%) achieved the highest recreational score, which is six.  The 22 sites are split evenly between sites with only terrestrial characteristics and sites with aquatic characteristics. The two sites that achieved the lowest scores (sites 33 – Primrose Primary School pond, and 38 – Scott Avenue allotment green roof) are also split evenly, with site 33 being aquatic dominated and site 38 being terrestrial dominated.  <br>The recreation ecosystem service scores were statistically examined to see if there is a significant difference between aquatic and terrestrial sites.  After performing the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis analysis, it was found that the p-value of 0.181 is larger than 0.05.  This implies that there is no significant influence between the type of site compared with the recreation score each site gets, out of 49 sites surveyed.