Backyard Trails - Parks and Trails

Backyard Trail routes

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Use of Backyard Trails

“Backyard Trails Pilot Project Part 1: Exploring the Urban Fringe”

“Backyard Trails Pilot Project Part 1: Exploring the Urban Fringe”, a preliminary qualitative analysis of the recreational value of eleven selected backyard trails mapped with TrailWatch App The research estimated that approximately 1.5 million residents live within 15 minutes’ walking distance of the eleven trails altogether, constituting 20% of Hong Kong’s population. Backyard trails function as an important green lung. The report also spells out the strategies are needed for repairing and achieving long-term cooperative backyard trail management. Backyard trails are not administered as urban parks nor do they belong to country parks, hence they are given a low priority in open space planning and recreational policy.

“Backyard Trails Pilot Project Part 2: Counting Trail Users”

“Backyard Trails Pilot Project Part 2: Counting Trail Users”, a preliminary quantitative analysis of the recreational value of ten selected backyard trails. Pedestrian flow statistics were collected on those trails so as to quantify actual trail usage and observe the ways in which trail use changes throughout the day, over the week, and through different seasons. The research team selected ten trails in the city with custom-build infrared people counting sensors installed next to the walking paths for 6 to 12 days at each location in July–August 2022 and December 2022–February 2023. The sensors counted the number of people (“human presences”) passing by and logged whether they were passing from left to right, or right to left.

Well-being

TrailBlazer I

The TrailBlazer 1 Research Project is conducted by the School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong, supported by WYNG Foundation and Parks and Trails. The overall objectives of the Trailblazer Project are 1) to assess the utilisation of country parks and its link with physical, mental, and social well-being of Hong Kong residents and 2) to formulate and initiate a public health policy dialogue on evidence-based health promotion strategies through country park usage. Country Park users and non-users were compared on different indicators of physical, mental, and social well-being. Country park users had better self-reported health than country park non-users. The results showed that a randomly-chosen country park user has a 56% chance of reporting better health than a randomly-chosen non-user. Participants who visited country parks more frequently tended to have a higher rating of self-reported happiness and life satisfaction. Respondents rated the importance of country parks to their lives on a 5-point unipolar scale. Almost half of the respondents (49.2%) consider country parks to be important to extremely important.

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