Impacts of Urban Green Spaces on Environmental Perceptions and Social Life

Editorial

20 October 2022

Editorial: Impacts of urban green spaces on environmental perceptions and social life

Farshid Aram

Sina Shahab

and

Ebrahim Solgi

2,243 views

4 citations

Editors

Farshid Aram

Department of Urban Planning, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

Sina Shahab

Cardiff University

Ebrahim Solgi

Griffith Sciences, Griffith University

Impact

Methods

14 September 2022

The Park city perspective study: Revealing the park accessibility influenced by experiences of visitors under different travel modes

Renhua Tan

, 5 more and

Xiangchun Wang

With social media platforms becoming popular in recent years, Big Data has become an effective way to explore human-oriented service capability of parks. In this research, the spatial accessibility of urban parks under four different travel modes (driving, transiting, biking, and walking) and multiple modes was analyzed by integrating the actual experiences of visitors and real travel time. We took the built-up area of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China as the research area and drew conclusions as follows: 1) park accessibility of Chengdu still has a large space for promotion. 2) Residents living in the east region of Qingyang District and Wuhou District, north area of Jinniu District, and Chenghua District are more convenient to visit parks, as well as the population center of Longquanyi District, Shuangliu District, and Pidu District. In addition, riders and walkers are more likely to go to the nearest park. 3) Accessibility of parks would be affected significantly during peak hours and weekends by driving and multiple modes, while the other travel modes had little influence. 4) Spatial aggregation was more obvious during the peak hours of weekdays under driving modes, while there were obvious cold spot areas distributed continuously for riders. 5) Park desert was found in Yongquan Subdistrict, Jitouqiao Subdistrict, and Chenglonglu Subdistrict, which were near the downtown. Overall, Chengdu must make rational use of small and micro spaces in the city to add greenery to the corners of the city and integrate parks with other surrounding industries to inspire the entertainment, economy, and tourism function of parks. Through the modified 2SFCA method, this study provide a more realistic and human-oriented way to demonstrate the accessibility. Also, the results can guide cities to understand what reasonable and appropriate parks they need to build to achieve the equalization of park recreation services.

2,891 views

14 citations

Original Research

12 September 2022

Supporting biodiversity: Structures of participatory actions in urban green spaces

Dörte Martens

, 4 more and

Heike Molitor

Biodiversity loss is an important topic considering climate change, global warming, and even the reasoning of current and future animal-related diseases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Urban biodiversity is also important because of the ecosystem services they provide, restorative benefits for well-being, and physical health of the people who live in urban areas. Each city has its own strategies to cope with this issue, and these strategies do not function without the contribution of habitants of the cities. We developed an index (BBS) of the existing possibilities to support urban biodiversity in Berlin to measure the awareness and willingness of the Berliners to participate and support urban biodiversity. A survey was conducted in a face-to-face situation in four districts of Berlin with 431 urban residents, measuring preference for three different levels of biodiversity, connectedness to residential greenspace, neighborhood and city, nature relatedness, and willingness in participatory actions around greenspace. The results show that the high biodiversity condition in a photo scenario was preferred by most residents, indicating the appreciation for urban biodiversity. The connectedness to the residential greenspace was high (and higher than the connectedness to neighborhood and city), showing large potential for quality of life. While the overall willingness to participate in actions to support urban greenspace was rather high, our index shows substantial differences in activities, which are perceived more or less. This is a key result for urban park management to increase urban biodiversity participation processes.

5,162 views

9 citations

Spatial distribution of MGWR greenway use intensity coefficients at the subdistrict scale.

Original Research

13 September 2022

What causes the spatiotemporal disparities in greenway use intensity? evidence from the central urban area of Beijing, China

Cailin Qiu

, 1 more and

Tianjie Zhang

2,847 views

7 citations

Original Research

22 August 2022

Ecological networks and corridors development in urban areas: An example of Tabriz, Iran

Hassan Mahmoudzadeh

, 4 more and

Amir Mosavi

Landscape fragmentation and the elimination of urban green spaces are the results of human activities which put significant pressure on urban sustainability. The planning and developing of urban ecological networks and corridors as an effective approach is a response to rapid urbanization and fragmentation of natural areas. The Tabriz metropolitan as the fourth-largest city in Iran was selected as a case study that has grown rapidly over the past few decades. This study presents a practical approach and framework for assessing and enhancing ecological connectivity of landscape. The framework was developed based on the landscape metrics, graph theory, least-cost modeling, and geographic information system tools during three different periods (1984-2000-2020). The results using the values of landscape metrics such as CA, Edge Distance, Mean Patch Size, Mean Shape Index, large patch index, NP, Landscape shape index, and COHESION indicate that the urban landscape of Tabriz has been more fragmented over the past 3 decades and has lost its connectivity. To reduce the effects of fragmentation and enhance landscape connectivity in study area, we proposed a network of ecological corridors that passes through the core ecological patches. Our results also indicate that the core patches and the least-cost created corridors are mainly located in the suburbs of Tabriz and the central part of the city cannot be suitable for ecological development. Therefore, using the above-mentioned methods could be an effective approach to develop ecological networks and improve landscape connectivity that can encourage urban planners and managers to protect and develop green networks.

4,725 views

8 citations

Original Research

01 June 2022

Policy Compliance and Ritual Maintenance Dilemma: Can Chinese Folk Temples’ Air Pollution Control Measures Ensure Visitor Satisfaction?

Kuo-Yan Wang

and

Jing Yu

2,047 views

4 citations

Original Research

10 May 2022

What Influences Shifts in Urban Nature Site Visitation During COVID-19? A Case Study in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

Michelle L. Talal

and

Michal Gruntman

Urban nature sites are crucial places for the promotion of human health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are few interdisciplinary studies that simultaneously investigate the impact of a range of social and environmental factors on potential shifts in urban nature site visitation. We sought to do this by analyzing both geospatial data of the amenities and environmental features of urban nature sites with a web-based survey of urban nature site visitation in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. We found that 53% of surveyed participants decreased visitation during the pandemic, while 26% increased visitation, 21% had no change, and only 1.7% were first-time visitors of urban nature sites. We developed a multiple linear regression model for shifts in visitation frequency during the pandemic, and found that a relative increase in visitation was positively associated with higher ratings of the physical and mental health contribution of the urban nature sites, higher nature maintenance and accessibility ratings, and visiting with a spouse, but negatively associated with variables such as car transportation, visit length, shrub habitat, age, and visiting alone or for romantic dates. Our results suggest that the perceived health benefits and accessibility of urban nature sites could be key in motivating visitation during the pandemic more than the specific environmental features or amenities of these sites. Given the on-going threats of the pandemic and other environmental crises, it is imperative to continue supporting the creation, maintenance, and monitoring of urban nature sites for not only urban ecosystems and biodiversity, but also so that they can contribute to the health of all urban residents.

6,368 views

10 citations

Original Research

28 April 2022

Urban Resilience and Transportation Infrastructure Level in the Yangtze River Delta

Jian Wang

, 2 more and

Naveed Akhtar Qureshi

The development of urban resilience is inseparable from the construction of urban infrastructure. As an important lifeline of the city, transportation infrastructure is an important part of improving urban resilience. Studying the coordinated development degree of urban resilience and transportation infrastructure level is related to the future development of the city. On the basis of measuring the urban resilience and transportation infrastructure level in the Yangtze River Delta, this study uses the coupling coordination model and spatial autocorrelation model to explore the spatiotemporal evolution trend of the coupling coordination between urban resilience and transportation infrastructure level. The results show that first, the average development levels of urban resilience and transportation infrastructure are at the middle and lower levels, showing a spatial pattern of “high in the southeast and low in the northwest.” Second, the degree of coupling coordination fluctuates and rises and is in the transition stage from mild imbalance to primary coordination. Finally, the degree of coupling coordination is spatially positively autocorrelated, and the degree of agglomeration shows a stable development trend, but the difference of coordinated agglomeration between cities is expanding. To enhance the security and sustainable competitiveness of the Yangtze River Delta, this study argues that it is urgent to establish the concept of resilient urban development and promote the integration of urban agglomeration transportation infrastructure to promote the coordinated development of urban safety systems and infrastructure. Suggestions were recommended to efficiently improve the urban resilience and transportation infrastructure level in the Yangtze River Delta.

4,078 views

13 citations

Open for submission