Evaluating The Equity Of Spatial Distribution Of Urban Parks Based On Improved Accessibility

The increasing environmental degradation problems faced by cities,such as the heat island effect,noise and air pollution,can be mitigated by urban parks.Urban parks are also important social resources that can promote the physical and mental health of visitors.Therefore,concerns over the equitable distribution of park resources,which affect the well-being of residents,are increasing throughout society.In recent years,China has experienced rapid urbanisation,but has been using area ratio indicators like urban green space per capita as the main indicators to guide the construction of urban parks,which focus on quantitative allocation and lack the effectiveness of guiding spatial patterns.Many studies have begun to use park accessibility to address this environmental equity issue.Therefore,based on the analysis and summary of previous studies,this study improves the accessibility evaluation,taking the Shanghai’s central city as an example,and reveals whether the layout of urban parks is scientific and reasonable and whether urban residents can effectively and fairly enjoy urban park public services through a multi-faceted evaluation of the equity of urban park spatial layout.The main work and findings of the thesis are divided into three aspects as follows:(1)Drawing on the concept of ecosystem services,the thesis establishes a classification system for urban park benefits and combines the buffer zone method,network analysis,Gaussian 2SFCA and Spearman analysis methods by improving the accessibility calculation conditions to evaluate the equity of urban park layout from the perspective of urban park benefits acquisition.This study divides urban park benefits into four categories,i.e.,park entry benefits,small space benefits,medium space benefits,and size-determined benefits.We investigate the acquisition levels of these four urban park benefit categories in Shanghai’s central city by park accessibility indices,integrating spatial and social dimensions.The results show that regardless of the type of urban park benefits,there are significant differences in accessibility between the core and peripheral areas,with highly accessible sub-districts mainly located near or within the middle ring road,and more highly accessible sub-districts in Puxi than in Pudong.The results of the correlation analysis show that urban park benefits are more likely to be available to groups with higher socio-economic status.Fortunately,the elderly and the unemployed are also more likely to receive urban park benefits.Children,on the other hand,may face inequitable access to urban park benefits.(2)With reference to relevant studies,the thesis establishes a scoring system for urban park quality based on three dimensions: aesthetic features,facilities for recreation and facilities for convenience.By adjusting the parameters in Gaussian2 SFCA,the park quality is integrated into the accessibility calculation,and the accessibility calculation method is improved to evaluate the equity of urban park layout from the perspective of integrated urban park quality.The index obtained by this method can reflect both park quality and accessibility,reveal the level of urban park services available to residents,and effectively analyse the inequities caused by differences in urban park layout and quality among different groups of residents by combining it with Spearman’s analysis method.The results show that urban parks in Shanghai’s central city have the highest level of convenience services,followed by aesthetic services,while the construction of recreational facilities services is deficient.The accessibility index in Shanghai’s central city shows a low-high-low trend from the core to the peripheral areas.The sub-districts with high accessibility are mainly located between the inner and middle ring roads.The differences in the results of park accessibility and quality evaluations suggest that park quality can effectively influence the effectiveness of park services while ensuring good park accessibility.And the results of the correlation analysis show that the higher the number of children in the sub-districts,the less likely it is to receive a high level of urban park services.(3)By improving the accessibility evaluation index and using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the share index method,the thesis introduces a difference significance index and a share index index index to reveal more clearly the gap in the level of access to urban park resources by different groups,and delves into the social inequities caused by the layout of urban parks at sub-district and regional scales from the perspective of group differences.It also identifies the disadvantaged groups in terms of access to urban park resources.The results show that at the sub-district scale in Shanghai’s central city,the sub-districts with a higher proportion of higher education groups,higher occupation groups,elderly people and unemployed groups have more access to urban park resources.Among them,the unemployed group is more favoured by urban park services than the high socio-economic group,while the higher occupation group,the elderly and the higher education group have about the same level of access to urban park resources.Conversely,sub-districts with a higher proportion of children have less access to urban park resources,with children having the lowest levels of access to urban park resources and a significant gap with other groups,making children a relatively disadvantaged group.At the regional scale in Shanghai’s central city,the higher education,higher occupation,elderly and unemployed groups have access to urban park resources above the average for the entire residents,with the highest share of urban park resources held by the higher socio-economic groups.Children,on the other hand,have a lower level of access to urban park resources than the average residents,making them a socially disadvantaged group in terms of access to urban park resources.