The Seasonal Migrants Spatially Affect the Park Green Space Accessibility and Equity under Different Travel Modes: Evidence from Sanya, China

Abstract

The influx of seasonal migrants has a significant impact on public services in destination places and may reshape the spatial accessibility and equity patterns of park green space (PGS). However, the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method and its extended forms neglect discrepancies between the travel behaviors of seasonal migrants and native residents and thus fail to delineate variations in PGS accessibility and equity in areas with seasonal migrants. To avoid this issue, this study drew on the case of Sanya, a city with large numbers of Houniao, who are primarily retirees leading seasonal migration between the north and the south of China. A multi-group, multi-mode Gaussian-based 2SFCA method was also proposed to evaluate the PGS accessibility and equity before and after the Houniao influx. The method considered the changes in the COVID-19 restrictions from a refined perspective, with fine-scale residential areas being the research units and travel time requested from the web map application programming interface. The results showed that most residential areas were found to have relatively low PGS accessibility and equity levels, except for those in the south-central and southwestern urban areas of Sanya. Both the Houniao influx and lifted COVID-19 restrictions affected the spatial patterns of PGS accessibility and equity. PGS accessibility and equity were decreased by the Houniao influx, whereas walking and public transport within a few residential areas outside Houniao gathering spots improved. This study can serve as a basis for the reasonable planning of PGS and other public services in cities receiving seasonal migrants, such as Sanya.