Analysis of factors affecting urban park service area in Beijing: Perspectives from multi-source geographic data

Abstract

The rapid process of urbanization aggravates the imbalance between the supply and demand of urban public services. Urban parks are among the most important urban public services, and their use efficiency has been an important index for urban planning. Therefore, it is essential to estimate well their service area and influencing factors. Traditional survey data used to analyze the characteristics of urban park services are limited by small samples and high cost. Owing to thriving information communication technologies, vast amounts of human activity data have become available that enable understanding of human travel behavior. In this study, we analyzed a park service area, which is defined as the zone of influence of individual parks, in Beijing, and the factors that influence the service area. First, the service area was estimated using 1-SDE based on mobile phone signaling data. A multiple linear regression model was then used to analyze the influence of factors on the park service area. The results show that (1) external factors including population density, the number of commercial facilities, and traffic convenience have significant influences on the park service area; (2) employment places positively influence the park service area on the weekday; and (3) other factors such as park design and park reputation had inconsistent effects on the park service area, in either sign or significance, regarding the weekday and the weekend. The findings of this study will be of practical value when designing parks or undertaking city planning in the future.