Characteristics of Urban Parks in Chengdu and Their Relation to Public Behaviour and Preferences

Abstract

Urban parks can offer a variety of ecosystem services such as beautifying the landscape, ecological regulation, leisure and recreation, and maintaining biodiversity. Understanding how urban parks affect people’s lives can help guide the construction and planning of parks in a direction that is more beneficial to the public. Therefore, it is worth studying the extent to which different urban parks with different characteristics affect public behaviour and preferences. This paper takes five typical urban parks in Chengdu and analyses the relationship between characteristics of the park ecosystem and public behaviour and preferences. The characteristics include the park scale, blue-green space ratio, plant diversity, and degree of re-wilding. Visit frequency, stay time, and park preference characterise public behaviour and preferences. The results show: (1) There are obvious differences in the ecosystem characteristics of the five parks: Qinglong Lake Wetland Park is the largest; the proportion of blue-green space in Jiangjiayiyuan Garden is the highest; the degree of re-wilding in Bailuwan Wetland Park is the highest; the proportion of green space and plant diversity in Guixi Ecological Park is the highest; and the proportion of blue space in Jincheng Lake Wetland Park is the highest. (2) There are differences in public behaviour and preferences for different parks. Tourists visit Qinglong Lake Wetland Park the most in spring and autumn and they choose Guixi Ecological Park instead in summer and winter. The public stays longer in Qinglong Lake Wetland Park and shorter in Jincheng Lake Wetland Park. (3) The scale of urban parks, the proportion of blue-green space, and the degree of re-wilding, especially the proportion of blue space, have a positive impact on the public’s evaluation and promote public visits. The results of the study could help improve public awareness of the relationship between park characteristics and ecological services and well-being.

Sustainability of Urban Parks: Applicable Methodological Framework for a Simple Assessment

“…Many studies evaluate the perception and satisfaction of urban parks and the experiences and emotions produced within these green spaces, considering the size of the park, the vegetation, the convenient infrastructure, the perception of natural scenery, the conservation of equipment and nature, and the cleanliness of the environment [10,50,51]. While these studies focus mainly on visitor attraction and the appreciation of nature, it is equally essential to consider the parks' contribution to sustainability.…”

“…It must also be mentioned that the size of a park and its density of tree cover positively impact visitors' perception and promote more visits [50]. Larger urban parks receive more visitors than smaller parks, and the size is more important than the distance a park visitor has to travel to go to the park.…”

Correlation between Vegetation Landscape and Subjective Human Perception: A Systematic Review

“…It is well known that perceived preference, as a user's comprehensive perceptual evaluation of the environment, can effectively maintain human mental health [66]. Figure 4 indicates that some of the literature on human perception studies lacks clear specific dimensions (such as perceived safety and aesthetics), opting instead to use perceived preference as a measure of users' satisfaction with vegetation landscape characteristics [67]. Among the correlations with perceptions, perceived preference had a significant correlation with the remaining three perception categories.…”

How to Design Greenway on Urban Land Utilization: Linking Place Preference, Perceived Health Benefit, and Environmental Perception

“…In fact, a better understanding of the preferences of a given city’s residents for their public green spaces may inform policy makers and city planners to effectively provide and manage urban green spaces to meet users’ needs [ 15 ]. The research on the degree of influence of urban parks on preferences will help the future construction of urban parks to better meet the needs of the public, enhance the park ecosystem services, and promote sustainable urban development [ 16 ].…”