Equity Measurement of Public Sports Space in Central Urban Areas Accessible by Walking and Public Transportation Based on Residential Scale Data

Abstract

Background: Urban public sports space, including parks and sports facilities, has captured much public attention because of its close correlation with public health. However, few studies have assessed the equity of accessibility to various types of public sports space comprehensively with a fine scale. Methods: This study proposed a spatial equity measurement method based on multi-source urban data and GIS network analysis. Residential buildings were taken as the minimum research unit to investigate the equity differences of residents' enjoyment of urban public sports space accessible by walking and public transportation. Taking Harbin, China as an example, in the concepts of life circle, this study calculated and visualized the equity of more than 12, 000 residential buildings to a variety of public sports space in the central urban area. Results: The results showed that: 1) There was obvious inequity of sports space in the central city. The results under classification varied sharply, while the overall results moderated to a certain extent. 2) There were sharp differences between different types of sports space, and square space had the worst structure of equity. 3) The results of the two traffic modes were significantly correlated, and the correlation coefficient of the comprehensive results was the largest. In areas with poor walking equity, the results of the bus mode were generally not high either. Conclusion: This study integrated multi-source data into the traditional spatial computing models and provided an important reference for the equitable planning of urban public sports space. Attention should still be paid to the characteristics of the population in the planning intervention, such as the preference for public sports space and the limitation of choice caused by age difference. The closer the research is to the human scale, the more scientific the planning may be.