TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the determinants of urban green space utilization based on microblog check-in data in Shanghai, China
AU - Chen, Dan
AU - Long, Xuewen
AU - Li, Zhigang
AU - Liao, Chuan
AU - Xie, Changkun
AU - Che, Shengquan
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 32001361.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Urban green space has significant social, ecological, cultural and economic value. This study uses social media data to examine the spatiotemporal utilization of major parks in Shanghai and explore the determinants of their recreational attraction. Methods: Based on microblog check-in data between 2012 and 2018 across 17 parks in Shanghai, we investigated the patterns at different temporal scales (weekly, seasonal and annual) and across workdays and weekends by using log-linear regression models. Results: Our findings indicate that both internal and external factors affect park utilization. In particular, the presence of sports facilities significantly contributes to higher visit frequency. Factors such as the number of subway stations nearby, scenic quality and popularity have a positive impact on check-in numbers, while negative factors affecting park use are number of roads, ticket price and average surrounding housing price. Across different temporal scales, the use patterns of visitors have obvious seasonal and monthly tendencies, and the differences of workday and weekend models lie in external factors’ impacts. Conclusions: In order to achieve the goal of better serving the visitors, renewal of urban green spaces in megacities should consider these influential factors, increase sports facilities, subway stations nearby and improve scenic quality, popularity and water quality. This study on spatiotemporal utilization of urban parks can help enhance comprehensive functions of urban parks and be helpful for urban renewal strategies.
AB - Urban green space has significant social, ecological, cultural and economic value. This study uses social media data to examine the spatiotemporal utilization of major parks in Shanghai and explore the determinants of their recreational attraction. Methods: Based on microblog check-in data between 2012 and 2018 across 17 parks in Shanghai, we investigated the patterns at different temporal scales (weekly, seasonal and annual) and across workdays and weekends by using log-linear regression models. Results: Our findings indicate that both internal and external factors affect park utilization. In particular, the presence of sports facilities significantly contributes to higher visit frequency. Factors such as the number of subway stations nearby, scenic quality and popularity have a positive impact on check-in numbers, while negative factors affecting park use are number of roads, ticket price and average surrounding housing price. Across different temporal scales, the use patterns of visitors have obvious seasonal and monthly tendencies, and the differences of workday and weekend models lie in external factors’ impacts. Conclusions: In order to achieve the goal of better serving the visitors, renewal of urban green spaces in megacities should consider these influential factors, increase sports facilities, subway stations nearby and improve scenic quality, popularity and water quality. This study on spatiotemporal utilization of urban parks can help enhance comprehensive functions of urban parks and be helpful for urban renewal strategies.
KW - Shanghai
KW - Social media data
KW - Spatiotemporal utilization
KW - Urban green space
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U2 - 10.3390/f12121783
DO - 10.3390/f12121783
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121639424
SN - 1999-4907
VL - 12
JO - Forests
JF - Forests
IS - 12
M1 - 1783
ER -