Social Ecological Resilience

1 Introduction
This study forms part of a broader research project that investigates ecological resilience and human disturbances in small urban parks and their implications for urban park design, planning and management. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a method for integrative evaluation of ecological and anthropogenic characteristics of small urban parks. Small urban parks, often referred to as pocket parks (Nordh et al. 2009; Peschardt et al. 2012; Nordh & Østby 2013; Peschardt et al. 2014), can comprises a range of outdoor public area from grey spaces (such as small squares, paved areas) to green spaces ranging from trees to lawns and flower beds (Nordh et al. 2011). For the purpose of this study, we defined small urban parks

As mentioned, small urban parks are important for habitat connectivity, as stepping stones and as supplement to larger urban parks (Forman 1995). However, the importance of small urban parks in supporting urban biodiversity and ecological function is often overlooked, where larger parks have traditionally been in focus (Forsyth & Musacchio 2005). In order to assess specific social-ecological systems at the level of small urban parks, it is important to identify site-specific factors. The importance of site-specificness is also recognised in urban and landscape design, as for example highlighted by Kahn (2005) who stresses that urban sites are dynamic; they change over time and as a designer or planner one should be aware of this and incorporate these dynamics into their decision. Furthermore, the factors beyond the urban site’s boundary are actually influencing the events happened in the sites (Kahn 2005). Hence, small urban parks as (part of) urban sites have to be studied spatially and temporally, and study should include site context in order to obtain a better understanding of social and ecological characteristics and

This option does not require the observer to interact with the study subjects, and the subjects do not know that they are being observed (Blankenship 2009; Liu & Maitlis 2013). Several past studies have applied similar methods for assessment of urban green spaces. Tzoulas & James (2010) used the method to evaluate recreational use and activities in urban green space. Ostermann (2010) also applied structured observation to gain data on people’s everyday activities. Meanwhile, Ngesan et al. (2012) used a similar approach to map human behaviour and activities during nighttime in an urban park. In this study, we used structured observation to capture not only the variety of human activities but also to assess the animal species richness, soundscape (types of sound) and smells. Field measurements were used to measure the features and landscape elements in the parks, vegetation diversity and structure, as well as sound levels. The methods of structured observation and field measurements have been used in an integrative framework to study the socio-ecological characteristics of small urban