Parks In Wuhan Research Articles

The Influence of Perceptions of the Park Environment on the Health of the Elderly: The Mediating Role of Social Interaction

The aging population has brought increased attention to the urgent need to address social isolation and health risks among the elderly. While previous research has established the positive effects of parks in promoting social interaction and health among older adults, further investigation is required to understand the complex relationships between perceptions of the park environment, social interaction, and elderly health. In this study, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to examine these relationships, using nine parks in Wuhan as a case study. The findings indicate that social interaction serves as a complete mediator between perceptions of the park environment and elderly health (path coefficients: park environment on social interaction = 0.45, social interaction on health = 0.46, and indirect effect = 0.182). Furthermore, the results of the multi-group SEM analysis revealed that the mediating effect was moderated by the pattern of social interaction (the difference test: the friend companionship group vs. the family companionship group (Z = 1.965 > 1.96)). Notably, family companionship had a significantly stronger positive impact on the health of older adults compared to friend companionship. These findings contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms through which urban parks support the physical and mental well-being of the elderly and provide a scientific foundation for optimizing urban park environments.

Towards a sustainable city: Deciphering the determinants of restorative park and spatial patterns

Urban parks have been found to provide mental health benefits. Some empirical studies have tested natural features and perceptual measures respectively, announcing their contribution to psychological restoration. However, inconsistent findings were occasionally reported, whereas few attempts have been made to combine both observed and perceptual factors for validation. Little is known about the variation of restorative drivers and their spatial patterns. To address these problems, this study combined public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) and deep learning method to capture visual qualities of landscape features along with several important perceptual measures. A typical urban park in Wuhan, China, was selected for a pilot study, and 1560 crowdsourced on-site images were collected, with thematic and geographic information being integrated. A series of statistical models, e.g., OLS, QRM, and MGWR, were employed successively for validation. The results showed that landscape preference, place attachment, greenery and water were validated as the global explanatory factors to estimate the conditional mean of psychological restoration. The variation of influential effects of these factors were detected at different restoration levels. There exist spatial heterogeneity for these influential factors on restorative effects. Findings provided new knowledge on a deeper understanding of the subtlety of restoration drivers and their spatial patterns. The findings offered useful insights and guidance for urban planners in creating high-quality green parks with restorative values.

Measuring the Spatial Accessibility of Parks in Wuhan, China, Using a Comprehensive Multimodal 2SFCA Method

The spatial accessibility of urban parks is an important indicator of the livability level of cities. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive multimodal two-step floating catchment area (CM2SFCA) method which integrates supply capacity, the selection probability of individuals, and variable catchment sizes into the traditional multimodel 2SFCA method. This method is used to measure park accessibility in Wuhan, China. The results show that the spatial distribution of park accessibility under the proposed method is variant. High accessibility areas are clustered near the Third Ring Road with strong supply capacity parks, and low accessibility areas are distributed in the western and southern regions. Compared with the single-model accessibility (bicycling, driving, and public transit) method, we found that the multimodal spatial accessibility, combining the characteristics of three single transportations, can provide a more realistic evaluation. We also explore the spatial relationship between park accessibility and population density by bivariate local Moran’s I statistic and find that the Low Ai-High Pi area is located in the center of the study area, and the Low Ai-Low Pi area is located at the edge of the study area, with a relatively discrete distribution of parks and weak supply capacity. These findings may provide some insights for urban planners to formulate effective policies and strategies to ease the spatial inequity of urban parks.

HOMER-Based Multi-Scenario Collaborative Planning for Grid-Connected PV-Storage Microgrids with Electric Vehicles

One of the crucial methods for adapting distributed PV generation is the microgrid. However, solar resources, load characteristics, and the essential microgrid system components are all directly tied to the optimal planning scheme for microgrids. This article conducts a collaborative planning study of grid-connected PV-storage microgrids under electric vehicle integration in various scenarios using HOMER 1.8.9 software. To be more specific, in multiple scenarios, we built capacity optimization models for PV modules, energy storage, and converters in microgrids, with several scenarios each accounting for the cleanliness, economic performance, and overall performance of microgrids. For multiple scenarios, this paper used the net present value cost and levelized cost of electricity as indicators of microgrid economics, and carbon dioxide emissions and the fraction of renewable energy were used as indicators of microgrid cleanliness. The optimal capacity allocation for economy, cleanliness, and a combination of economy and cleanliness were separately derived. Finally, on a business park in Wuhan, China, we conducted thorough case studies to compare and debate the planning performance under various scenarios and to undertake sensitivity analyses on the cases. The sensitivity analyses were conducted for the optimal configuration of microgrids in terms of the EV charging scale, carbon dioxide emissions, PV module unit cost, and storage unit cost. The results of the simulation and optimization show that the optimization approach could determine the ideal configuration for balancing economy and cleanliness. As the EV charging demand increased, the energy storage capacity required in the microgrid gradually increased, while the carbon dioxide emission limit was negatively correlated with the energy storage capacity demand. The unit investment cost of PV module units had a greater impact on the optimal system configuration than the cost of batteries.

Characteristics of Soil Heavy Metal Pollution and Health Risk Assessment in Urban Parks at a Megacity of Central China

In this study, we compared the concentrations of the heavy metals Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, and Pb in the surface soils of urban parks in Wuhan, Hubei Province, with those in the surface soils of urban parks worldwide. The soil contamination data were assessed using enrichment factors and spatial analysis of heavy metals using inverse distance weighting and quantitative analysis of heavy metal sources with a positive definite matrix factor (PMF) receptor model. Further, a probabilistic health risk assessment of children and adults using Monte Carlo simulation was performed. The average Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, and Pb concentrations in the surface soils of urban parks were 2.52, 58.74, 31.39, 186.28, 27.00, and 34.89 mg·kg-1, respectively, which exceeded the average soil background values in Hubei. From the inverse distance spatial interpolation map, heavy metal contamination was primarily observed to be present to the southwest of the main urban area. The PMF model resolved four sources: mixed traffic and industrial emission, natural, agricultural, and traffic sources, with relative contributions of 23.9%, 19.3%, 23.4%, and 33.4%, respectively. The Monte Carlo health risk evaluation model demonstrated negligible noncancer risks for both adult and child populations, whereas the health effects of Cd and Cr on children were a concern for cancer risks.

Humanization of nature: Testing the influences of urban park characteristics and psychological factors on collegers’ perceived restoration

Previous studies have mainly focused on the independent role of landscape characteristics or preference on psychological restoration respectively. However, few studies have explored the complex relationships between restorative effects, landscape characteristics, preference and place bonding factors, particularly in urban parks. The development of new data environment and technique methods enables such a synthesis of innovative approach to reveal the influences of urban park characteristics and various psychological factors on collegers’ perceived restoration. A typical urban park in Wuhan, China, was selected for pilot study, in which 1560 crowdsourced images were collected using the Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) tool. With the help of Deep Learning techniques, landscape characteristics were combined with perceptual factors for the Partial Least Squares (PLS) based statistical analysis. It was found that some landscape properties, such as vegetation and water, presented indirect impacts in activating restoration via psychological mediators. The mediating effect of sense of place and the moderating effects of landscape characteristics on the preference-restoration nexus were revealed. These findings shed new light on the complex process in environmental restoration in which psychological and physical factors are intertwined. At the end, theoretical and managerial implications were proposed for the improvement of landscape planning in restoration studies.

Are There Differences in Thermal Comfort Perception of Children in Comparison to Their Caregivers’ Judgments? A Study on the Playgrounds of Parks in China’s Hot Summer and Cold Winter Region

Playgrounds in urban parks are important for children’s physical and mental health, but global warming has led to a worsening outdoor environment and children’s outdoor activities have been affected. Improving the outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) of playgrounds can encourage children to engage in more and safer outdoor activities. However, there are a limited number of studies focusing on preschoolers’ outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) and most of them have substituted children’s thermal comfort with caregivers’ evaluations. To investigate the differences between children’s and caregivers’ evaluations of thermal sensation, thermal benchmarks and thermal adaptive behavior for children, we conducted meteorological measurements on representative playgrounds in three parks in Wuhan, China, and administered thermal perception questionnaires to preschool children and their caregivers. In addition, the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) was used to establish evaluation criteria for children’s OTC and to make recommendations for the improvement of the playground environment. We draw five conclusions by analyzing 719 valid questionnaires: (1) Children were less sensitive to changes in meteorological factors than caregivers and had better tolerance of cold environments. (2) The NPET for preschoolers was evaluated by children and by caregivers, respectively, as 22.9 °C and 22.3 °C in summer and 10.6 °C and 11.2 °C in winter. (3) Playgrounds in Wuhan’s parks are uncomfortable for a long time in summer and a short time in winter. (4) Both children and caregivers want to improve summer comfort by lowering the temperature and winter comfort by increasing solar radiation. At the same time, children and caregivers show different preferences in adaptive behavior choices. (5) Adding deciduous trees and water play facilities can improve the site thermal environment. Furthermore, the OTC of humans can be improved by adding more service facilities on playgrounds.

Study on Diversity and Protection Countermeasures of Zhongshan Park in Wuhan City

Park green space is an important part of garden green space, concentrated expression of the diversity of urban plants. In order to explore the diversity of plants in the park, a typical site in Zhongshan Park in Wuhan was selected for this survey. The species importance, richness index, diversity index and evenness index were used to analyze the characteristics of plant diversity.There are a total of 184 plants of 114 genera and 64 families in Wuhan Zhongshan Park. Among them, there are 86 species of plants of 40 families and 64 genera, 60 species of plants of 26 families and 38 genera, and 26 species of herbs, 11 families and 15 genera.The richness was herb layer > tree layer > shrub layer.Pielou uniformity was herb layer > tree layer > shrub layer;Shannon-wiener diversity was herb layer > tree layer > shrub layer.Simpson diversity was herb layer > tree layer > shrub layer.The diversity of herbaceous plants in the park is high, and the index of shrub layer is generally low, with few species. Plants in the park grow well, some plants are not evenly distributed.

Study on Urban Landscape Green Space -- A Case Study of Longquanshan Park

Studying on Qinglongshan Forest Park in Wuhan by typical plot method, 15 typical plots in the park were investigated, and the species richness index, diversity index, evenness index, frequency and important value index were calculated. The results showed that there were 139 species of woody plants belonging to 46 families and 97 genera, including 41 species of evergreen trees, 32 species of deciduous trees, 62 species of evergreen shrubs, 25 species of deciduous shrubs, and 4 species of bamboo belonging to 1 family, 3 genera. Species richness index and Simpson diversity index were all expressed as tree layer > shrub layer, evergreen species > deciduous species. Pielou evenness was tree layer > shrub layer. This study can provide some reference for understanding the existing plant status of forest parks, carrying out science popularization, scientific research, protection and improvement of forest landscape quality.

Exploring Affecting Factors of Park Use Based on Multisource Big Data: Case Study in Wuhan, China

The exploration of park use and its affecting factors is necessary for urban park planning and management. Using big data, 70 urban parks in Wuhan were selected as the study objects in the present study. Two groups of linear regression models were developed to examine the effects of various factors on park use. The total numbers of visits and public demands in urban parks were recorded as 1,291,894 and 4,022, respectively. Social media data reflect visits, while public demand data reflect demands. First, a large area and sufficient facilities greatly help improve park use; moreover, we should pay attention to old urban parks in disrepair. More squares need to be considered in urban parks; attention should be paid to the water pollution and safety concerns that may arise in urban parks. Second, the influence of accessibility on park use is stable. It is beneficial for park use to construct greenways connecting residential areas and urban parks. The layout of pocket parks in the city center is also a feasible way to improve park use. Third, to improve park use, we should arrange commercial entertainment facilities and services in urban parks in point of interest (POI)-rich areas, as well as facilities and services for residents’ daily activities in urban parks in population-rich areas. This study provides a way to combine multisource data that reflect the number of park visits and park demands to explore affecting factors of park use.

Detecting the Cool Island Effect of Urban Parks in Wuhan: A City on Rivers.

As a nature-based solution, development of urban blue-green spaces is widely accepted for mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) effect. It is of great significance to determine the main driving factors of the park cool island (PCI) effect for optimizing park layout and achieving a maximum cooling benefit of urban parks. However, there have been obviously controversial conclusions in previous studies due to varied case contexts. This study was conducted in Wuhan, a city with high water coverage, which has significant differences in context with the previous case cities. The PCI intensity and its correlation with park characteristics were investigated based on remote sensing data. The results indicated that 36 out of 40 urban parks expressed a PCI effect, with a PCI intensity of 0.08~7.29 °C. As expected, larger parks with enough width had stronger PCI intensity. An increased density of hardened elements in a park could significantly weaken PCI effect. Noticeably, in this study, water bodies in a park contributed the most to the PCI effect of urban parks, while the vegetated areas showed a negative impact on the PCI intensity. It implied that in a context with higher water coverage, the cooling effect of vegetation was weakened or even masked by water bodies, due to the interaction effect of different variables on PCI intensity.

RETRACTED: Comparative analysis on calculation methods of carrying capacity of Logistics Park in Wuhan

Logistics resources will be concentrated in the same space by logistics park, to provide intensive logistics services and enhance the efficiency of logistics, thereby, a large number of logistics parks emerged in China for a period of time, and the park vacancy rate caused by high attention. Logistics Park construction should be matched with the demand. Calculation of logistics park carrying capacity is one of those problems should be solved. This paper uses the analogy method, the standard reference method and the space-time consumption method to calculate the comprehensive carrying capacity of “one port, six parks”, which is planned in Wuhan. The results show that although the space-time consumption method is more complicated than the other two, but its calculation results can better reflect the carrying capacity of Logistics Park.

Application Status and Evaluation of Aquatic Plants in Wuhan Landscape Waters

The purpose of this study is to explore the landscape quality of aquatic plants in the landscape water in Wuhan, reveal the rules of its construction, and provide some basis for landscape design and evaluation of aquatic plants. Based on the six representative parks in Wuhan, 9 quantitative and qualitative indexes were selected, and the evaluation model was constructed by using the analytic hierarchy process(AHP). The results showed that a total of 36 species of aquatic plants were found, mainly emergent plants. The five research objects are in grade Ⅰ and Ⅱ, and only the aquatic plants in Shahu Park are at the level of level Ⅲ, which indicates that the quality of aquatic plants in the main landscape water of Wuhan is at an excellent level. The evaluation model can objectively be used in the Wuhan landscape water body . Based on the evaluation results, 3 excellent aquatic plant plots are recommended.

Effect of spatial heterogeneity of plant communities on air PM10 and PM2.5 in an urban forest park in Wuhan, China

Understanding the associations between plant community characteristics and their effects on ambient particulate matter (PM) is a central theme of urban forest park management and development so as to maximise ecological services. The ambient PM concentrations and spatial distribution of plant communities in urban forest parks are not random, but show strong spatial patterns. We selected Ma'’anshan Mountain Forest Park in Wuhan, China, as an example of a typical park. The monitoring network consisted of 44 different plant communities at various locations that were monitored in December, April, July and October. The effects of the spatial heterogeneity of plant communities on ambient PM10 and PM2.5 were analysed using a spatial model to investigate the relationships between plant communities and levels of ambient PM. The results showed that differences in levels of ambient PM among plant communities resulted from both their composition and location. However, when spatial patterns were corrected, large seasonal variations in PM patterns were revealed due to seasonal differences in the characteristics of plants communities and pollution emissions. Significantly lower ambient PM concentrations were recorded in small-scale plant communities that were mainly distributed in the mountain areas and comprised of Pinus, Platycladus, Cunninghamia, Taxodium, Metasequoia, Quercus, Platycarya, and Cinnamomum. Correlation results revealed that six factors — diameter at breast height (DBH), leaf area index (LAI), canopy area (CA), slope (S), distance from pollution source (DPO) and distance from edge of park (DP) — had significant effects on ambient PM reduction. We found that ambient PM decline was primarily attributed to large DBH and community DPO. The effect of small-scale plant communities on ambient PM decline was the most significant in December, followed by October, April, and July. These plant community attributes are the basis of forest ecological services, and our findings indicate that the regulation of plant communities could improve urban forest services by increasing the efficiency of ambient PM concentration reduction.

Using multi-source big data to understand the factors affecting urban park use in Wuhan

Urban parks have been proved to have great benefits for people and urban environments. Estimating park use and understanding its influence factors are significant for urban park planning and designing. Currently, geospatial data are used to measure park use for convenience and low cost at the city and regional levels. In this study, two sets of geospatial data were used to describe the park use of 57 urban parks in Wuhan. Nine variables for three categories affecting park use were analyzed to find the relationship with park use. The results showed that the Baidu heat map data were better than Weibo check-in data for describing park use in Wuhan. Six variables showed significant correlation with park use. The results showed that park use was mostly affected by the surrounding environment features in this study, and it was easily impacted by park attributes. However, park use was slightly affected by accessibility.

INTEGRATION OF A LOW-COST MULTISENSORY UAV SYSTEM FOR FOREST APPLICATION

Abstract. To integrate the multi-spectral imagery and laser scanning data for forest management, a low-cost multisensory UAV system, named Kylin Cloud, is introduced in this paper. The Kylin Cloud is composed several low-cost sensors (i.e., GNSS receiver, IMU, global shutter camera, multispectral camera, and laser scanner), providing the fusion of the imagery and laser scanning data for reliable forest inventory. Experiments were undertaken in a forest park in Wuhan. Results showed that the registration error of the multispectral Digital Orthophoto Map (DOM) and laser scanning data is about one pixel, demonstrating a high potential of the proposed low-cost system.

Performance Analysis of the BIPV of an Industrial Park in Wuhan

The performance of BIPV system is a crucial factor for its development. This paper chooses PV arrays installed on an industrial park buildings in Wuhan as a research object. The performance of PV array has been investigated at different tilt angles and orientations on the meteorological conditions of Wuhan. The performance of the amorphous silicon BIPV system and that of the polysilicon BIPV system are presented. The two BIPV systems are both 30 kW, with a tilt angle of 20° and facing south. The performance analysis shows that average monthly output energy of the polysilicon system and that of the amorphous silicon system are 2440.85kWh and 2209.14kWh respectively. The performance of amorphous silicon BIPV system is better in May, June, July and August. The maximum monthly output energy can be obtained in August (3768kWh and 3308kWh).For the amorphous silicon BIPV systems facing south and with different tilt angles of 20° and 10°, more output energy can be obtained from the amorphous silicon BIPV system with a tilt angle of 20°. The performance of the amorphous silicon BIPV systems oriented facing south with a tilt angle of 10° and that of the amorphous silicon BIPV systems oriented facing north with the same tilt angle are also analyzed respectively in this paper. These analyzes will provide a reference for the development of BIPV in Wuhan.

Detailed Assessment of the Spatial Distribution of Urban Parks According to Day and Travel Mode Based on Web Mapping API: A Case Study of Main Parks in Wuhan.

This article employs two indexes—accessibility and effective service ratio (ESR)—to assess the spatial distribution of urban parks with the consideration of both equity and efficiency. Traditional approaches to calculate these two indexes are often based on the shortest distance to the park within its service radius by network analysis. Such approaches cannot reflect the actual travel behaviors of urban residents and require extensive data collection of road networks and complex parameter setting. To avoid these defects, this study directly acquires travel time data for various travel modes in a specific time period to the park through web mapping API (Application Program Interface), then calculates the accessibility and ESR of urban parks based on these detailed data. This method gets closer to actual park usage situation and avoids the cumbersome process of road network model building. At last, a case study is conducted on the assessment of spatial distribution of main parks in Wuhan, finding that districts with poor park accessibility in Wuhan can be divided into three types: districts with an absence of parks, districts with an insufficiency with parks, and districts separated from parks by traffic. Then, pertinent improvement suggestions are proposed, which provide some bases for decisions on future park planning and construction.

Multiscale Site Matching for Vision-Only Self-Localization of Intelligent Vehicles

Self-localization is a challenging issue in intelligent vehicle (IV) systems. Traditional self-localization methods, such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Inertial Navigation System (INS) and vision simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM), are subject to low accuracy, high cost or low robustness. To this end, this paper proposes a new multi-scale site matching localization (MS2ML) method for IV systems by using one single monocular camera. The MS2ML consists of a coarse localization, an image-level localization and a metric localization. In coarse localization, the proposed MS2ML calls the Bayesian vision-motion topological localization to obtain a set of nodes from a visual map. Furthermore, the holistic feature is generated for each query image, and hence, the holistic feature matching is implemented to realize image-level localization. A node is then selected from the candidate nodes. In metric localization, the closest node and vehicle pose are calculated through matching local features with three-dimension (3D) data. In order to evaluate the proposed MS2ML, real-world driving tests have been carried out in three different routes, two of which are from an urban roadway and an industrial park in Wuhan, China and the third one is from public KITTI (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technology Institute) data set. The total lengths of these routes are more than 7 km. The experiment results demonstrate that the average localization errors of the proposed MS2ML method are less than 0.45 frame and the pose errors are less than 0.59 m. As a result, the proposed method remains high accuracy and great robustness in various environments.

Mapping and Quantifying Spatial and Temporal Dynamics and Bundles of Travel Flows of Residents Visiting Urban Parks

Understanding the spatial and temporal movement patterns of residents visiting urban parks is essential to link park use with human well-being. There has been increasing interest recently in quantifying travel behaviors, but most studies have focused on flows of commuters within cities or tourists flows between cities. Actual, specific spatial and temporal connections between urban parks and residents within cities are still poorly understood. Here, we present an approach to take different types of travel flows into account when mapping and quantifying the spatial delivery and temporal dynamics of specific travel flows. This approach is based on empirical investigation of individuals’ movements from their homes to parks and online map navigation technology. The flow maps we generated capture key travel flow patterns, addressing where, which, when, and how much they were associated with the use of recreational service provided by urban parks in Wuhan, China, during the summers of 2015 and 2016. Such maps may aid efforts to restore or improve the efficiency of park access and use. We also examined bundles of these spatial and temporal flows, and show that similar transport conditions were important for bundling spatial flows, while temporal flow bundles were significantly related to spatial features. These findings could help to reveal potential trade-offs and synergies of travel flows associated with space and time constraints and facilitate exploration of policy alternatives for equitable and efficient use of urban park systems.