We examined the diversity of activities and benefits by park type
using the Shannon diversity index for each park unit with five or
more mapped physical activities and benefits. Sports parks (n = 6)
have the highest diversity of physical activity (normalized Shannon diversity index = .81) while neighbourhood parks (n = 27) have
the least diversity (diversity = .57). For park benefits, natural parks
(n = 2) and community parks (n = 5) contain the highest diversity
(diversity = .82 and .80 respectively) while neighbourhood parks
(n = 19) have the least diversity (diversity = .62).
The diversity of both physical activities and benefits appear
modestly related to park size. The bivariate correlation between
the Shannon diversity index and park size for parks with five or
more mapped physical activities is r = .57 (n = 48, p < 0.001) while
the relationship with the diversity of park benefits is somewhat
less, but also statistically significant (r = 0.51, n = 38, p < 0.01). Fig. 4
shows the distribution of park benefit diversity as a function of park
type and park size.