*4.1. The Distribution and Provision of Urban Parks in the City*

The distribution of parks in Tarragona reveals that they are concentrated in the central part of the city. This corresponds to the area with the highest density populations: out of the 14 parks, five are located in the Ensanche area (Saavedra, Camp de Mart, La Col·lectiva, Riu Francolí and Puig i Valls parks). This highlights the number of parks in the eastern area, with the Amfiteatre park, in Sant Antoni and the Reconciliació park. However, three aspects need to be specified: (a) this is the urban area with the largest surface area in the whole city; (b) the total surface area of the existing parks is not very big and most of them cover an average or small surface area; and (c) most are in the area nearest the city center, neighboring the historic center, where there is no urban park because of the morphological characteristics. The northern area has low-density residential estates and does not have these facilities (Figure 5). The existence of a high number of private urban green areas means that there are no public urban spaces. The districts to the west of the city have a high population and proportionally few urban parks.

According to the data taken from the land registry plots in each of the 14 urban parks listed by the town hall in the city of Tarragona, their total surface area is 374,606 sqm. However, this overall figure hides various case studies: the surface area differs considerably between the parks, with two of them, the Riu Francolí park (with 130,684 sqm.) and Sant Pere i Sant Pau park (with 122,130 sqm.), representing two thirds of the total surface area of urban parks (Figure 5). At the other extreme, we find parks that correspond more to the concept of landscaped square, such as the Sant Antoni square (1294 sqm.) and Fitolaca square (1558 sqm.).

There is also a difference between the occupancy percentages of each surface area type in the parks (green areas, bare soil, roads and facilities). Generally speaking, vegetation is the predominant type, as it covers a little more than half the area (55.1%), with much higher values in the cases of the Bonavista (81.5%) and, particularly, the Sant Pere i Sant Pau (88.2%) parks. In the case of the latter, its large surface area makes it the city's "green lung". At the other extreme, we have the "landscaped squares" in Sant Antoni and Rodríguez de la Fuente, which have extremely low vegetation values (14.5% and 17.0%, respectively).

**Figure 5.** Surface area of the urban parks in Tarragona, in sqm. Source: own work.

Finally, it is worth highlighting the disparity between the surface areas occupied by the various facilities (sport, culture, etc.) in each park. In some parks, these elements are completely non-existent (La Col·lectiva and Rodríguez de la Fuente parks), while in others (Camp de Mart and Camí de la Coma park), at least one third of the surface area is covered by facilities.
