Urban green space, uneven development and accessibility: a case of Dalian's Xigang District

Abstract

This study examines the socio-spatial context of uneven development and the residential accessibility of green space in Dalian of Liaoning Province, China. The social fairness was analyzed with a community scale as the basis. We combined social scientific methods with a GIS method using a behavior accessibility model from the perspectives of fairness of urban green space allocation based on social geography, geographic information science, management science and many other related discipline theories. The results show that: 1) Most of the urban green space distribution presents an unbalanced phenomenon, and it does not match with the population distribution; 2) We found some differences in the accessibility of the population with different attributes and opportunities to use and enjoy the urban green spaces, mainly due to: the dual social and spatial attributes of the residents and the serious stratum differentiation generated were the internal causes; the residential space differentiation and the pursuit of economic and real estate development were the direct causes; and unreasonable planning, in regard to the fact that government policies did not give consideration to efficiency and fairness, was also an important factor.