Abstract
The rational distribution of parks within an urban park system should ensure reasonable travel distance for citizens, as well as good recreation quality, which seems to be more important than the former in megacities with high population density. However, studies on the accessibility of parks ignored the competitiveness and exclusiveness of urban green space, and the method can be improved to get a more scientific result as the basis for spatial optimization of urban park systems. Therefore, in this study, we consider the park’s quasi-public goods attribute when building an accessibility measurement method, and both the park’s service supply capacity and demand of citizens were included, as well as the influence of spatial travel cost. This method, based on the empirical research results obtained from a case study of Shaoxing in East China, provides a more suitable accessibility estimate compared with the previous methods, which can reflect the park’s spatial distribution characteristics. Recommendations for improving the accessibility of parks include increasing the number of parks, reducing the cost of travel, enhancing park service capacity, and reducing the population density within the park’s service area.
Highlights
Public parks represent the green land within a city that is open to the public, and their main functions include recreation, protecting the ecological environment, beautifying the landscape, and preventing disasters such as floods [1]
When parks were considered quasi-public goods, the standard deviation of the data sample of accessibility level changed from 2.74 to 1.51, which means that the discrete degree of the accessibility measurement value of parks decreased
Considering the nature of quasi-public goods, taking only the spatial proximity as the influencing factor in the research about accessibility would lead to the overestimation of the accessibility and hide the problems with the park system’s spatial layout, as evidenced by the Shaoxing old city
Summary
Public parks represent the green land within a city that is open to the public, and their main functions include recreation, protecting the ecological environment, beautifying the landscape, and preventing disasters such as floods [1]. The gravity model method assumes that the accessibility of the park decreases with increasing resistance experienced by citizens, and increases with the increasing service capacity of parks This analysis method considers the influence of distance, and considers the attraction effect of a park’s characteristics such as size, quality, and grade [18]. As high-density development is a common feature of urban land use in China, park service shortages are a common problem in many cities Restricted by factors such as the park size and its supply of facilities, citizens are competitive when enjoying park services. Some citizens with low incomes or who are unwilling to pay the fee are excluded from enjoying the park’s services These parks should be excluded before the evaluation of accessibility, but this was ignored in previous studies. The overall estimation error of 3.73% is acceptable since it is less than 5%
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