Abstract
In response to serious environmental and socio-cultural challenges brought about by fast urbanization, the concept of a sustainable city emphasizes the quality of life of urban residents, assuring the importance of parkland provision in urban development. Despite China’s fast urban expansion in recent decades, scant attention has been paid to the development pattern of urban parkland in China and its implications toward urban sustainability. Engaging official data from government sources, this study conducted a spatial-temporal analysis of urban parkland in China. Results support the overall fast increase of urban parkland provision in China with a clear regional disparity. Moreover, the shift of development momentum from the east to the west has been identified in the recent decade. The status of economic development, the progress of urbanization, and the level of urban development investments are identified as key influential factors influencing the temporal changes of urban parkland in China. With the increasing demand for urban parkland and its important role in ensuring urban sustainability, recommendations to improve urban park development in China are proposed, including integrating urban parkland in urban land use management with specific planning guidelines, establishing a dynamic urban parkland monitoring system, incorporating both national and regional policy frameworks catering for both national standards and regional preferences, and shifting urban development investments with more emphasis on urban maintenance expenditure.
Highlights
The global trend of fast urbanization has caused serious environmental, economic, cultural, and social challenges
Current research in urban recreational land use in China is largely fragmented and focuses on small scale analysis. In this context, using macro time series data, this study investigates the spatial-temporal evolution of urban parkland provision and discusses practical implications of urban park development on enhanced urban sustainability in China
Despite the similarity in the total expansion rate and annual expansion rate between the period of 1981 to 1998 (423.35%, 24.90%) and 1999 to 2016 (440.44%, 25.91%), the later period exhibited a much higher contribution (84.48%) to the overall urban parkland expansion for the study period of 1981 to 2016, which might be caused by the fast urbanization since 2000 in China
Summary
The global trend of fast urbanization has caused serious environmental, economic, cultural, and social challenges. The economic services of urban parks did not initially appear to be important; the development of urban tourism highlighted the environmental, socio-cultural, and recreational values of urban parks It helped improve the attractiveness and competitiveness of cities for both residents and prospective visitors, enhancing its economic contribution to urban development [2,4]. Due to the importance of urban parks, their critical role in city sustainability, and to facilitate an enhanced urban sustainability, research on the expansion trends of urban parkland is of vital importance It helps identify practical implications of urban parkland development. Current research in urban recreational land use in China is largely fragmented and focuses on small scale analysis In this context, using macro time series data, this study investigates the spatial-temporal evolution of urban parkland provision and discusses practical implications of urban park development on enhanced urban sustainability in China. Specific research goals include: (1) examination of the provision of urban parkland in China by measuring its scale, elasticity, intensity, and gradient level; (2) analyzing the factors influencing the spatial and temporal changes of urban parkland in China; (3) examining the spatial disparity features of urban parkland expansion across 31 provinces; and (4) discussing the practical implications of urban parkland development in China
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