Impact of Mega-Events on Uses of City Squares - Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Guangzhou Flower City Square

Abstract

Lying to the north of the Haixinsha Island, where the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of 2010 Asian Games were hosted, the Flower City Square (the Square) by itself forms an integral part of the new Central Axis of Guangzhou. Thanks to the media publicity of the Asian Games, the Square has now become a household name in Guangzhou and China. Relating major sports events with city squares, as in this case, taking advantage of the Asian Games to foster a festival atmosphere on the Square and present a spectacular metropolitan view, is proven to be a very effective measure to brush up the city image. This paper, based on a two-year survey on the Square, the record of spatial annotation analysis on uses of the Square, and questionnaire surveys involving the randomly selected visitors on the Square, compares the uses of the Square during and 2 years after the 2010 Asian Games through the means of Frequency Analysis, probes into the visitors satisfaction degree on the Square and its evaluation factors with the Factor Analysis Method, and demonstrates the impact of mega-events on the city squares and its implications.