Evaluating Safety and Inclusivity in Park Design Through Women’s Safety Priorities Index (WSPI)

Women’s experiences of safety and comfort in urban parks are shaped by interrelated design, environmental, and social factors that are rarely captured in a single evaluative framework. Focusing on neighbourhood parks in Amman, Jordan, this study develops the Women’s Safety Priorities Index (WSPI), a composite indicator designed to assess how women perceive the safety, accessibility, and inclusivity of these everyday public spaces. Survey data were collected from female park users and grouped into key dimensions including lighting, signage, visibility, isolation, accessibility, facilities, environmental quality, and motivation to visit. Item scores were normalised to a common scale, with isolation reversed so that higher values consistently reflected more women-friendly conditions, and then aggregated into dimension-level sub-indices. These sub-indices were combined into an overall WSPI using data reduction techniques to derive empirical weights, and internal consistency checks were conducted to ensure reliability. A priority improvement matrix was constructed by jointly considering central tendency and variability for each dimension, and further analysis examined differences across age, marital status, and employment groups. The findings indicate that accessibility, signage, and lighting are perceived as comparatively strong aspects of neighbourhood park design, while environmental quality, the availability and condition of facilities, motivation to visit, and feelings of isolation are weaker and require more urgent attention. Priority analysis highlights facilities and environmental quality as primary targets for intervention, with visibility, motivation, and isolation forming a second tier of concern. Demographic patterns show that younger women place particular emphasis on lighting and visibility, married women are especially sensitive to accessibility and reduced isolation, and employed women place greater value on facilities and environmental comfort. Overall, the WSPI translates complex perception data into actionable insights, supporting planners and policymakers in Amman and similar cities in prioritising gender-responsive improvements in neighbourhood park design and management.