Urban Green Space Planning Research Articles

Assessing Buffer Gradient Synergies: Comparing Objective and Subjective Evaluations of Urban Park Ecosystem Services in Century Park, Shanghai

Urban parks provide essential ecosystem services (ESs) that enhance human wellbeing. However, discrepancies often arise between objective assessments of these services and stakeholders’ subjective perceptions. This study addresses a research gap concerning the synergies and tradeoffs between objective evaluations and subjective perceptions of key ecosystem services across various spatial scales. We investigated six key ecosystem services in Century Park, Shanghai, across seven buffer radii (8–100 m). Objective data were obtained from park view images (PVIs) and spatial analysis, while subjective perceptions were gathered through a scoring survey of 33 stakeholders. The key finding is that a buffer radius of 35 m offers optimal synergy between objective and subjective assessments for most ESs, particularly in pollution mediation, temperature regulation, and cultural services. Professionals showed stronger alignment in regulatory services like pollution mediation and temperature regulation, while residents exhibited higher synergy in net primary production (NPP) beyond a 75 m radius. Notably, cultural services displayed nuanced differences, with professionals preferring simpler landscapes and residents demonstrating varied aesthetic preferences. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating objective data and human perceptions in urban green space planning and governance. By incorporating diverse stakeholders and identifying optimal buffer zones, planners and designers can effectively balance ESs with human experiences. This approach ultimately fosters more sustainable and wellbeing-centered urban environments.

Unlocking Urban Breathability: Investigating the Synergistic Mitigation of PM2.5 and CO2 by Community Park Green Space in the Built Environment Using Simulation

Reducing carbon emissions and controlling air pollution is a dual challenge for China in addressing climate change. Analyzing the synergistic relationship between PM2.5 and CO2 in urban green spaces has become an important part of promoting pollution control. The study investigated the influence and synergistic relationship between the spatial pattern of community parks on PM2.5 and CO2 in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, through practical measurement and ENVI-met/Open Studio simulation calculations. The results showed that: (1) Within the sphere of influence, community parks exhibit a positive synergy varying with distance, peaking at 400 m and declining as 300 m > 500 m > 200 m > 100 m. (2) The green space rate, total edge (TE), and mean patch shape index (SHAPE_MN) positively influence the synergistic mitigation of PM2.5 and CO2, with a defined maximum impact boundary. The strongest synergistic reduction of PM2.5 and CO2 occurs at a green space rate of 85%, TE1200, and SHAPE1.2, with optimal influence boundaries of 300 m, 200 m, and 100 m, respectively. This conclusion demonstrates the key role of green space in community parks in the synergistic abatement and provides a scientific basis and practical guidance for the planning and design of urban green space under the goal of “dual-carbon”.

Identification of optimal locations for green space initiatives through GIS-based multi-criteria analysis and the analytical hierarchy process

Urban green spaces play a vital role in enhancing the well-being of communities and mitigating environmental challenges such as air pollution and global warming. Despite their importance, effective models to allocate these green spaces are often overlooked, particularly in developing countries. This study utilises GIS-based Multi-Criteria Analysis and the Analytical Hierarchy Process to recommend optimal locations for green space interventions in Lilongwe City, Malawi, based on nine factors: population density, proximity to roads, slope, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI), land cover, existing green space, proximity to water bodies, and nitrogen dioxide concentration. The results show that 0.57% (23,776 hectares) of Lilongwe city is highly suitable while 14.50% (604,596 hectares) is unsuitable for green space interventions, where population density was the most determining factor. The suitability varied across the city, with highly suitable areas predominantly located in the southern part. The study highlights the importance of informed decision-making in urban green space planning, setting a standard for equitable access to green spaces and sustainable urban development.

Exploring the equitable inclusion of diverse voices in urban green design, planning and policy development: a scoping review protocol

IntroductionDespite the increasingly evidenced positive impacts of green space on human physical and mental health, green spaces remain inequitably distributed across different socioeconomic groups. Urban planning and design should prioritise...

Pollen diversity in urban honey: implications for bee foraging behaviour and urban green space planning

Pollen diversity in urban honey: implications for bee foraging behaviour and urban green space planning

Research on Digital Greening Management of Smart Gardens in Chenggong District, Kunming City

With the rapid urbanization in China, city scales have expanded, bringing numerous management challenges. The continuous expansion of urban green spaces highlights the difficulty of adapting traditional urban garden management to complex conditions. The solution lies in using AI and big data for smart city management, specifically termed 'Smart Gardens'. This system integrates modern information technology into daily urban garden management. Through platform management systems, it enables comprehensive planning, construction, maintenance, supervision, and service of urban green spaces. This ensures real-time data updates, visualized management, and dynamic services. This digital transformation is essential. This paper analyzes the current issues and future development strategies of digitalized garden management in Chenggong District, Kunming. Through literature review, field research, and data collection, it aims to enhance the green space management in Chenggong District and other regions.

Assessing the relationship between urban park spatial features and physical activity levels in Residents: A spatial analysis Utilizing drone remote sensing

The park environment is crucial for promoting physical activity (PA). While numerous studies show that park environments influence PA behavior, inconsistencies remain, likely due to varing research methods and parks types. This study employs a fixed spatial grid method to systematically sample four representative parks in Tianjin, China. High-precision orthophoto map (DOM) data from drones provided detailed environmental attributes (like tree canopy area, lawn area, and paved area) and PA characteristics (number of participants, intensity, diversity). The results show: 1) Cluster analysis grouped 1839 park grids into 12 environmental attribute integrations, each correlating with different PA characteristics. “Tree-lined jogging corridors” and “Large sports field areas” exhibit the highest PA intensity, while “Entrance plazas”, “Central plazas,” and “Open sports spaces” have the highest number of participants and PA diversity. 2) Correlation analysis shows that various environmental attributes, including Lawn Area, and Paved Area, are significantly correlated with PA characteristics. 3）Random Forest analysis indicates the key attributes are the paved area for the number of PA participants and PA diversity, and specialized sports facilities area for PA intensity. These findings support urban green space planning and highlight the importance of better park environments for public health.

How do species richness and colour diversity of plants affect public perception, preference and sense of restoration in urban green spaces?

Urban development has led to an overlap between natural and artificial environments, affecting individuals’ experiences with nature. To create high-quality urban natural environments, it is crucial to understand the residents’ perceptions, preferences and psychophysical health benefits concerning biodiversity. This study, employing various experimental designs, investigated the perceptions, preferences and restorative experiences of 695 participants concerning different levels of plant species richness and colour diversity in four typical urban green space types (lawn, forest, square and streetscape). The following discoveries were made: (i) The colour diversity carried by vegetation in lawns was an important basis for the public to identify plant diversity. Lawns with high richness achieved by different grass species (that have green colour) were not preferred by the public, and increased colour diversity that can be achieved by adding flowering plants (forbs) was preferred by people more than a single green lawn. The species richness of forests was positively correlated with public perception, preference and perceived restoration, with single green forests being preferred by the public. Additionally, people preferred vegetated environments over unvegetated squares or streetscapes. (ii) Participants’ perceptions, preferences and perceived restoration were positively correlated. Their preference for and perceived restoration from plant diversity depended more on their perception of it than on the actual species richness. (iii) Participants’ gender, expertise, physical condition, ecological knowledge, childhood living environment, frequency of use and accessibility of green spaces, natural orientation (connectedness), gardening, sense of security and well-being all influenced their perceptions, preferences and perceived restoration from plant diversity to varying extents. Significant distinctions were found between different forms of experimental design. Combining between-subject and within-subject designs could both control individual errors to some extent and avoid long-term effects on the participants compared to using either design alone. These findings provide a theoretical basis and practical approach for future biodiversity-oriented urban green space planning and management to better maximise the ecological and social service benefits of urban green spaces.

Urban Green Space Planning Based on Remote Sensing Image Enhancement and Wireless Sensing Technology

Urban Green Space Planning Based on Remote Sensing Image Enhancement and Wireless Sensing Technology

Peri-Urban and Urban Green Space Management and Planning: The Case of Thessaloniki, Greece

Peri-Urban and Urban Green Space Management and Planning: The Case of Thessaloniki, Greece

Utilizing regression model to characterize the impact of urban green space features on the subjective well-being of older adults

Based on the background of rapid global ageing, research exploring urban green spaces and the subjective well-being of urban residents has become one of the key research interests. However, the evidence for assessing the real benefits of urban green spaces on the subjective well-being of older adults by comprehensively examining the features of urban green spaces is limited. We surveyed older urban green space users (n = 536) aged 60 years and older in Nanjing, China, and evaluated the impacts of spatial, green, and grey features of urban green spaces on older people's overall satisfaction with urban green spaces and subjective well-being. The results of the multiple linear regression model showed a strong association between the three types of urban green space features, overall satisfaction with urban green space, and subjective well-being of older adults. The study results indicated that the grey feature of urban green spaces emerged as the most influential factor (p = 0.004) among the three features of urban green spaces in relation to their effect on the subjective well-being of older adults. This implies that it is essential to focus on the importance of grey s of urban green spaces in the planning and design of urban green spaces for older adults' use of different urban green spaces and their sense of well-being. These results contribute to the development of healthy ageing policies and age-friendly urban green space management strategies in rapid ageing countries around the world.

Perception study of urban green spaces in Singapore urban parks: Spatio-temporal evaluation and the relationship with land cover

In the current era of increasing urbanization, urban green spaces play a crucial role in enhancing human well-being. However, quantifying public perceptions from text data at spatio-temporal scales remains challenging, and the relationship between urban green space perception and spatial-physical attributes requires further exploration. This study systematically examines public perceptions of urban green spaces within Singapore's urban parks from 2018 to 2022. Utilizing Twitter data, it applies large language models to conduct textual content analysis related to urban green space. The findings reveal a positive trend, with individuals expressing favorable perceptions and satisfaction towards urban green spaces in Singapore. Specifically, this study demonstrates that people's perceptions of urban green spaces are influenced by vegetation density. Higher vegetation density heightens people's awareness of spatial presence, while shrub and grassland may lead to neglect of urban green spaces as individuals focus more on themselves. Additionally, due to the spatial heterogeneity of the area, there is no clear correlation between all land covers and public satisfaction with urban green spaces in Singapore. The results also indicate a significant decrease in public perception in 2020, followed by a subsequent recovery. This fluctuation is attributed to the substantial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that external socio-political, economic, and public health events can impact public green space needs and spatial perceptions. In conclusion, this study contributes to the understanding of urban green spaces by effectively analyzing textual content extracted from social media data using large language models. The insights gained contribute valuable to the following discussions regarding the planning and design of urban green spaces and urban parks.

A Lightweight Multi-Label Classification Method for Urban Green Space in High-Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery

Urban green spaces are an indispensable part of the ecology of cities, serving as the city’s “purifier” and playing a crucial role in promoting sustainable urban development. Therefore, the refined classification of urban green spaces is an important task in urban planning and management. Traditional methods for the refined classification of urban green spaces heavily rely on expert knowledge, often requiring substantial time and cost. Hence, our study presents a multi-label image classification model based on MobileViT. This model integrates the Triplet Attention module, along with the LSTM module, to enhance its label prediction capabilities while maintaining its lightweight characteristic for standalone operation on mobile devices. Trial outcomes in our UGS dataset in this study demonstrate that the approach we used outperforms the baseline by 1.64%, 3.25%, 3.67%, and 2.71% in mAP,F1,precision, and recall, respectively. This indicates that the model can uncover the latent dependencies among labels to enhance the multi-label image classification device’s performance. This study provides a practical solution for the intelligent and detailed classification of urban green spaces, which holds significant importance for the management and planning of urban green spaces.

Calculation of the Optimal Scale of Urban Green Space for Alleviating Surface Urban Heat Islands: A Case Study of Xi’an, China

Research has demonstrated that urban green spaces play a crucial role in mitigating the severe urban heat island (UHI) effect. However, existing studies often suffer from limitations such as the neglect of the cooling effect of water bodies within the green spaces and incomplete considerations of the overall cooling effect. These limitations may lead to inaccuracies in the research findings. Therefore, the present study takes the city of Xi’an as a case study to explore the optimal green space size for achieving efficient cooling. The results indicate that (i) urban green spaces exhibit robust cooling effects, with variations observed among the various types; (ii) for community parks without water, and for street gardens, the optimal areas of these green spaces are 3.44 and 0.83 hectares, respectively; (iii) for community parks with water, the area of internal water bodies should ideally be maintained at around 29.43% of the total green space area in order to achieve an optimal cooling efficiency. In conclusion, this study introduces a new perspective and new optimization methods for urban green space planning, thereby offering scientific guidance to urban planners in formulating effective development and management policies and urban planning schemes.

The spatial planning of housing and urban green space: A combined stated choice experiment and land-use modeling approach

Urban green space (UGS) is receiving increasing attention as a means to make cities better adapted to climate change and to create high-quality living environments for citizens. The spatial planning of UGS generally asks a trade-off between optimizing land-use and accessibility characteristics which may differ between housing types. In this paper, we use a stated choice experiment to estimate residential location preferences related to neighborhood land-use, UGS and accessibility characteristics in the framework of a land-use model. A national sample of 394 Dutch homeowners participated in the experiments and mixed logit models were estimated by housing type distinguishing detached, row houses and apartments. The estimation results show that trade-offs made between a green neighborhood and accessibility to urban amenities tend to differ between the housing types. The estimates are used as parameters in a housing land-use allocation model. An application of the model to a residential area development problem shows that creating green buffers along road infrastructure is the most beneficial way of allocating UGS considering the housing value for residents. The application further shows that apartments benefit more strongly from UGS in the neighborhood than from high accessibility of urban amenities compared to detached and row houses. Finally, we find that the optimal spatial allocation of UGS depends on whether maximizing housing market-value or residents’ utility is the prime objective.

Extensive inequality of residential greenspace exposure within urban areas in China

Ensuring residents' equal access to high quality urban greenspace is vital for urban environmental justice and sustainable urban development. However, most previous studies have mainly focused on greenspace quantity, overlooking its quality. Moreover, the national-level spatial distribution pattern of residential greenspace exposure (RGE) within urban areas remains unclear. Here, we have improved the existing RGE assessment framework by integrating both the quality and quantity of urban greenspace to evaluate RGE and its associated inequality across 119,692 blocks in 334 Chinese cities in 2020. We find that the spatial distribution pattern of RGE varies with urban size. Large cities exhibit a distinct clustering of low RGE in their central areas, whereas small cities tend to show a pronounced clustering of high RGE in the central areas. RGE in Chinese cities indicates extensive inequality, as the average RGE of high-exposed people is nearly four times greater than that of low-exposed people. Moreover, residents in larger cities are more prone to experiencing greater inequalities compared to those in smaller cities. We also find that the landscape metrics (i.e., connectance index and mean Euclidean nearest-neighbor distance) of greenspace possess a strong explanatory power (R2 = 0.431) for the observed inequality. Our study underscores the importance of optimizing the landscape structure of urban greenspace and enhancing equality in the quality of greenspace. These findings provide novel insights for urban greenspace planning and promoting urban environmental justice.

Beneficial effect of residential greenness on sperm quality and the role of air pollution: A multicenter population-based study

BackgroundPoor sperm quality is a major cause of male infertility. However, evidence remains scarce on how greenness affects male sperm quality. ObjectivesTo assess the associations of residential greenness with male sperm quality and the modification effect of air pollution exposure on the relationship. MethodsA total of 78,742 samples from 33,184 sperm donors from 6 regions across China during 2014–2020 were included and analyzed. Individual residential greenness exposures of study subjects were estimated using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) during the entire (0–90 lag days) and two key stages (0–37, and 34–77 lag days) of sperm development. Contemporaneous personal exposure levels to air pollutants were estimated using a spatio-temporal deep learning method. Linear mixed models were employed to assess the impact of greenspace in relation to sperm quality. The modification effect of air pollution on the greenspace-sperm quality relationship was also estimated. ResultsPer IQR increment in NDVI exposure throughout spermatogenesis were statistically associated with increasing sperm count by 0.0122 (95 % CI: 0.0007, 0.0237), progressive motility by 0.0162 (95 % CI: 0.0045, 0.0280), and total motility by 0.0147 (95 % CI: 0.0014, 0.0281), respectively. Similar results were observed when the model added air pollutants (PM1, PM2.5 or O3) for adjustment. Additionally, specific air pollutants, including PM1, PM2.5, and O3, were found to modify this association. Notably, the protective effects of greenness exposure were more pronounced at higher concentrations of PM1 and PM2.5 and lower concentrations of O3 (all Pinteraction < 0.05). Statistically significant positive effects of NDVI were observed on sperm motility in early spermatogenesis and sperm count in late spermatogenesis. ConclusionsExposure to residential greenness may have beneficial effects on sperm quality and air pollution modifies their relationship. These findings highlight the importance of adopting adaptable urban greenspace planning and policies to safeguard male fertility against environmental factors.

Urban green space preferences for various health-related psychological benefits of adolescent pupils, university students and adults

Previous research has shown that biophysical and social characteristics of urban green spaces (UGS) and individual factors may play a role in preferences for restorative environments. However, little is known about the trade-offs between (bio)physical and social characteristics of UGS on different health-related psychological benefits between different population groups. This exploratory study used an image-based discrete choice experiment, in which 298 adolescent pupils, 159 university students, and 142 adults were asked which urban green spaces they would prefer for general recovery, stress reduction, and concentration improvement. Each of the 128 green space scenarios depicted different attributes of varying levels of recreational infrastructure, numbers of trail users, distances between forest vegetation and trail, traffic noise, background scenery, both in winter and in summer. The results indicate that visitor numbers and traffic noise strongly influenced green space preferences for all study groups, but groups differed in terms of their preferences and trade-offs for the psychological benefits. The biophysical environment was less important for adolescent pupils, while recreational infrastructure was less important for the adults. There were group differences in stated preferences for general recovery, stress reduction, and concentration enhancement. Implications for urban green space planning are presented.

Implementation of Decision Support System for Ecological Environment Planning of Urban Green Space

Implementation of Decision Support System for Ecological Environment Planning of Urban Green Space

Nature-based solutions for fast-growing city regions: A new spatial equilibrium model for complementary urban green space planning

Urban green spaces assume a pivotal role in city-level nature-based solutions for sustainable development. Parks, street greening, and community greens play a significant role in regulating the urban microenvironment, enhancing subjective well-being, and increasing regional attractiveness. Additionally, urban greenbelts have the capacity to control urban sprawl, thereby influencing housing prices and population distribution. However, the exisiting urban models have typically addressed greenbelts and other green spaces in isolation, resulting in fragmented planning strategies. This study aims to establish a novel spatial equilibrium model that accurately assesses the socio-economic effects resulting from the combined impact of various urban green spaces. This model encompasses green infrastructure components and carefully balances their appeal against the consequent rise in housing costs. The proposed model can elucidate the latent synergistic interactions among multiple urban green policies, which enables urban policymakers to access the multifaceted impacts of greening policy combinations. and suggests that combining different urban greening policies can mitigate the negative effects of a single policy type, such as population redistribution. A case study based on empirical data from Shanghai, China, has been employed to identify the additional value associated with diverse urban green spaces. The scenario analysis suggests that combining different urban greening policies can alleviate the negative impacts of urban population relocation. These findings furnish urban planners and policymakers with novel insights to develop the distribution strategy of urban green spaces via judicious policy integration. Consequently, the proposed model furnishes a novel academic standpoint on the role of urban green spaces within the context of nature-based solution for sustainable development of metropolitan conglomerates and nascent urban agglomerations amidst the evolving post-COVID-19 environment.