The areas in orange on the map are accessible greenspace areas around Bath and Bristol. A lot is written about access to green space, but there is often more to it than many current data models capture.
What do we mean by access?
Legal vs. not legally accessible land has important ramifications for our right to roam, but is a limited definition for practically accessible space. Many accessible green spaces are private land, or are not afforded the legal designations of open access land.
Access is a multi-faceted issue of both legal rights and how easy it is to reach a green space, but also how much space is available. Distance is a useful measure if we are measuring the feasibility of everyday use, but so is variety and the richness of green space options to explore.
Cost is also a commonly overlooked issue. To be equally open to all we should consider this check on access. Some spaces, no matter how close to a home may not be truly open to all.
The urban vs. rural over-arching setting gives more context yet is often treated uniformly. A large park in an urban area may give more space than a small park in a rural setting, but how we experience being in green space may not reflect these square metre measurements.
In the UK, no one dataset currently incorporates all of the above.
However, several can be joined to do the trick: CROW Access Land, public rights of way, Local Nature Reserves, National Nature Reserves, Country Parks, Woodland Trust Sites and private woodlands noted by the Woodland Trust as woodland open to the public, National Trust open access land, and play spaces and public parks and gardens as mapped in the Ordnance Survey Open Greenspace dataset.
Some things need to be removed: private clubs and tennis courts and others that are man-made surfaces, appearing in the OS Open Greenspace dataset, urban public rights of way, and urban common land.
Some things needs to be added in by hand: Local Authority nature reserves, informal city green spaces, extra permissive footpaths. Community orchards and river corridors in residential areas are common here. Aerial photography and Open Street Map is useful to capture these spaces.
And finally, whilst not added here, roads in rural areas are often themselves an accessible right of way in a green setting. Within this some roads should be removed: restricted local access roads and farm tracks, and those unsafe to walk.