The benefits of the natural environment in urban space have been explored in numerous studies. However, only a few statistics and studies have been conducted on the correlation between emotion and urban waterfront space, especially considering gender differences. Taking Wuhan city as an example, this study puts forward a new approach and perspective. Text emotion analysis is combined with the spatial analysis technique based on big data of social media. Based on the emotions of the public of different genders in urban space, suggestions are provided for urban planning and development from the perspective of POI (Point of Interest). The main steps are: (1) Analyzing the emotional score of Weibo texts published by citizens in the waterfront area of 21 lakes in Wuhan City; (2) exploring the public emotion characteristics of different genders in the urban waterfront; (3) classifying the waterfront according to the emotional response (score) of the public of different genders; (4) exploring the relationship between different POI types and waterfront types and proposing planning suggestions. The results of this study provide evidence for gender differences and spatial distribution of public emotions in the Wuhan waterfront area. It can help decision-makers to judge the prior protection and development direction of waterfront space, thus demonstrating the feasibility of this approach.

Accessibility is an important factor in measuring the recreational development potential of Wuhan lakeside areas where people like bike-sharing services for leisure. By using bike-sharing big data, this paper visualizes the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and depicts the free flows of OD (Original Points and Destination Points) points of the bike-sharing activities taking place within 4 km of 21 lakes in the Wuhan Third Ring Road on an important holiday. Based on these distribution laws, statistics and spatial measurement are used to measure and compare the theoretical accessibility and actual accessibility of these lakeside areas at different grid scales in order to estimate the recreational development potential and explore the causes and possible suggestions behind the recreational potential. Results show that Ziyang Lake, Shai Lake, and South Lake have great recreational potential in improving their accessibility, whereas the Hankou lake dense area has a saturated recreational development potential due to its high accessibility characteristics. The differences in the water environment, surrounding road traffic conditions, and construction situations in these lakes influence their accessibility. Some differences are also observed between the actual and theoretical accessibility of most of these lakes, and there is a long way to go for real improvement of their recreational development potential. To better exploit the recreational development potential, improving the accessibility of these lakes remains an important issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.