Abstract
Recent expansion of urban parks has been partly successful in terms of providing urban outdoor recreation space. Unfortunately we paid very little attention to the importance of providing regional identity to urban parks until recently. Thus one of the most important tasks of the contemporary landscape architects of Korea is to investigate ways to improve regional identity of urban parks. This study is aimed at evaluating how well the current urban parks have realized their own regional identity. To test the effectiveness of the concept of 'identity', the identity items were created, while a research model was developed by using such variables as in urban park identity, park satisfaction, belongingness to the region, and residential satisfaction. In order to test the model, the causations were analyzed. Meanwhile, the scales to evaluating identity were reviewed by means of the unstructures group interview, and were finally determined as 10 items; culture, uniqueness, symbolic, historic nature, homogeneity, harmony, difference, public benefit, nativeness and traditionality. Data from three new towns in the capital region-Bundang, Ilsan and Sanbon-were collected, and their central parks were referred to a questionnaire survey. The data were processed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and path analysis. It was found through this survey that subjects 'sentiments regarding the sample towns' regional identity differed slightly. Residents of Bundang felt the strongest amount of regional identity, followed by those of Ilsan and Sanbon. In addition, the most important scale on regional identity is 'park satisfaction', followed by 'belongingness to the region' and 'residental satisfaction'. The path analysis was conducted to interpret the causations in a more detailed and comprehensive way than correlation analysis. As a result, it was proven that the regional identity affects 'belingingness to region' through the intermediated variable 'park satisfaction', while affecting ' residential satisfaction' through the intermediate variables 'park satisfaction' and 'beligningness to region'. In other words, although the regional identity of a park does not directly affect 'belongingness to region' or 'residental satisfaction', it has indirect effects on them through intermediate variables.