Greener urbanization? Changing accessibility to parks in China: Fid-Bau Portal

Greener urbanization? Changing accessibility to parks in China

PhD Wei, Fang

Highlights•The accessibility of parks for the study area has improved overall.•Intra-urban inequalities of park access and changes of park access have been identified.•Significant differences among socioeconomic groups in terms of park access and changes in that access have not been detected.•The analysis of changes in park access is a key indicator to measure the effectiveness of urban policies.

AbstractAs important city and community assets, parks provide ideal open spaces for public recreation, outdoor activities, and residents’ socialization. Using the Gaussian-based 2SFCA method, this study evaluates park accessibility by two thresholds across the 41 sub-districts in Hangzhou and highlights the issue of the changing accessibility of parks over the past decade. The results of this study show that more parks were provided from 2000 to 2010, the accessibility of parks for the study area has improved overall, and significant differences among socioeconomic groups in terms of park access and changes in that access have not been detected. However, intra-urban spatial inequalities have been identified. By situating park access within different cultural and geographical contexts in China, this study enriches the current equity theory framework by introducing equity as a process and equity as a synchronic phenomenon, and introduces an effective approach to the evaluation of the validity of current policies or planning to other cities both in China and the United States.