The Impact of a Child-Friendly Design on Children’s Activities in Urban Community Pocket Parks

Abstract

Urbanization is a global trend that is expected to continue, and by 2025, it is estimated that almost 60% of the world’s children will live in urban areas. Urban community pocket parks provide a solution to the need for parks in high-density urban communities due to their flexible location, small size, and patchy distribution. This paper aims to examine and optimize the construction of urban community pocket parks from a child’s perspective to encourage children’s participation in these parks. The first step was to conduct a literature review to identify key evaluation indicators for assessing the child-friendliness of pocket parks. Then, the AHP-entropy TOPSIS approach was used to establish an indicator system to effectively evaluate the child-friendliness of pocket parks in urban communities. The system included physical space, cognitive ability, emotional development, environmental perception, and social interaction. Finally, suggestions for optimization were made based on the weighting of influencing factors. The results show that freedom of movement (6.2%) significantly affects the child-friendliness ratings of community pocket parks. Additionally, Hefei residents are not sufficiently influenced by the diversity of play (2.29%) and play facility planning (2.58%) in pocket parks. Therefore, consideration should be given to focusing on the degree of nature adaptation in park construction and renewal projects, as well as understanding children’s perception of nature.