Assessment of selected social data collection techniques for use in urban public recreation planning

Recreation planners serving local .governments are faced with difficult problems in selecting data collection techniques, and can find little useful guidance in the literature. A range of techniques have been assessed using the social science literature, field investigations and informants. The conclusion is that, for' most urban community planning purposes it appears appropriate to use several techniques in stages, because each technique has significant shortcomings. Assessment of the techniques investigated is based on technical and conceptual criteria. The technical considerations include cost, accuracy and reliability, flexibility of use, ethical and political issues, and data validity—matters which receive at least passing attention in the literature. Conceptual considerations that are specifically related to public recreation include identifying individual's and community's needs, ascertaining the extent to which existing and potential users are being served, attempting to predict changes in leisure behaviour, and analysis of preferences for different types of recreation. The results indicate that for most purposes it will be necessary to use a combination of techniques in order to balance the weaknesses of one against the strengths of another. The relative importance of each criterion depends on the purposes and context of the study. It is suggested that in general the best strategy will be to choose techniques sequentially, starting with those that are most flexible and inexpensive. In this strategy the results of each stage should be used to investigate the options for the next stage, by defining the questions that need to be answered and the probable value of the results obtained by alternative techniques. The first stage should be use of secondary sources, documented data and informants, because of the low cost and flexibility of these techniques. Casual observation and dialectical scanning should be used next, because they are relatively inexpensive and flexible and have the capability of rounding out the data required to bring the research purposes into focus. The outcome of this stage should define data needs and research constraints in a form that permits informed judgement about which, if any, of the more sophisticated techniques are appropriate or necessary for the planning purposes. The strengths of the survey questionnaire technique are that it gives a comprehensive picture of present recreation activities, and identifies characteristics of non-users as well as users of local public recreaction opportunities. Trade-off games do what other techniques cannot, in eliciting realistic statements of preferences. Controlled observations are capable of producing accurate usage data. Delbecq is a technique that is used to investigate implementation problems once a desirable program or specific plan has been defined. The Delphi technique can explore likely changes in the future, and their implications for present decisions. Full scale citizen participation is basically a planning technique in which data collection is a secondary function. However, it necessarily involves use of informants and casual observation techniques, and can easily and inexpensively accommodate Delphi, Delbecq and dialectical scanning. This brief statement of the general strategy omits many important qualities of the different techniques, which planners must know in order to choose the best combination for a recreation planning task.Applied Science, Faculty ofCommunity and Regional Planning (SCARP), School ofGraduat