Development of the urban green space quality assessment tool (RECITAL)

The quality of green spaces could play a crucial role in green spaces’ health benefits and their underlying mechanisms. We developed and implemented the RECITAL: a multidimensional in situ quality assessment tool for urban green spaces, primarily to characterize quality aspects relevant to human health. The tool includes 90 items divided into eleven thematic dimensions. Applying RECITAL, we assessed the quality of 149 urban green spaces in Barcelona, Spain, and the obtained results showed overall good-to-excellent reliability. Decision-makers could use the quality scores generated by RECITAL to fine-tune the design and management of urban green spaces. Simultaneously, researchers could apply it to study how different quality aspects of urban green spaces would affect their potential to exert health benefits.