Urban Parks Spatial Distribution Analysis and Assessment Using GIS and Citizen Survey in Tangier City, Morocco (2015 Situation)

In the last years, the city of Tangier (northern Morocco) has faced tremendous growth pressure. Actually, it is considered as one of the most densely populated cities with a density of 930 inhabitants per km2. This strong demographic pressure has contributed to the increase of urbanization rate up to 60.3% compared to 55.1% nationally. In the present paper, based on Geographical Information System (GIS) technics, the proximity of four Tangiers’ commons; Tanger, Boukhalef, Charf and Benimakada, to urban parks is analyzed. First, the spatial distribution of these urban parks is studied in terms of efficiency level referring to three indices (i.e., Park Area per Capita, PAC, Park Area Ratio, PAR, and Population Ratio, PR). Second, assessment of the population satisfaction and needs is carried out through both face-to-face and online citizen survey questionnaire. Accordingly, a total of 610 returns are collected from citizens of different commons. The outcomes highlight interesting points mainly the insistence and requirement for more urban parks. Finally, results show that public urban parks are not efficiently distributed in relation to residents and urban development. Some populations have access to urban parks, whereas more than half of the inhabitants were found to have limited access because of their dispersed and inconvenient spatial distribution. PAC values corresponding to Tanger, Boukhalef, Charf and Benimakada commons were determined to be 6.08, 2.07, 0.61 and 0.08 m2, respectively. Therefore, Charf and Benimakada commons show to be the most affected commons.