A user-feedback indicator framework to understand cultural ecosystem services of urban green space

Abstract

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are intangible benefits humans derive from the ecosystem, closely related to residents' spiritual enrichment, perceptual development, entertainment, and aesthetics. Despite the growing recognition of CES, there remains a need for a public understanding of CES performance in terms of indicators content, change and occurrence. This study developed a three-level indicator framework for evaluating urban green spaces CES at the design level. We integrated seven categories of CES indicators as primary indicators of the framework. Based on text comments in social media data, a bottom-up approach was adopted to collect CES-related words as the secondary indicators and elements. We evaluated the CES performance in union square park using the established framework. The results indicate that interactive activities are the most popular CES in the park, while the sense of place, social relationship and educational functions fail to receive a wide response, which should be given strong attention. The leading indicators within the park exhibit consistent trends in seasonal and demographic changes. In addition, there are co-occurrences between CES indicators, mainly manifested in interactive activities, aesthetic values, and health benefits, and the degree of co-occurrence varies. The CES framework proposed in this study measures the CES perception within urban green spaces, provides a detailed explanation of CES indicators, and forms an effective theoretical basis for future park management and development.