Characterizing User Groups in Beijing Parks
-
Graphical Abstract
-
Abstract
Urban parks are important places for the public to carry out recreational activities. How to understand the needs of different users and then improve the parks’ recreational service capabilities is one of the focuses of future urban park renewal and management. However, existing researches on urban park users largely underscore the differences of park users from the single factor perspective, and lack a systematic description of the types of urban park users by integrating multiple demographic and behavioral characteristics. Citing 11 urban parks in Beijing as the objects, this research, using the questionnaire survey and SPSS statistical analysis methods, comprehensively considers users’ demographic characteristics, visit-related behaviors and recreation purposes to integrally characterize the user groups. The research finds: 1) The typology of urban park users can be summed up as “personal health type (elder, high frequency, short-time stay)”, “social leisure type (youth, mid frequency, medium-time stay)” and “family outing type (middle age, low frequency, long-time stay)”; 2) The three user groups are diversified in the selection and preference of the parks; 3) The three types of users vary in the satisfaction with using the parks. The user satisfaction of the “family outing type” is the lowest, that of the “social leisure type” is the moderate, and that of the “personal health type” is the highest. The research provides direct suggestions for the detailed design and management of urban parks, which are to segment the recreation functions of the parks from the three user types, and to strengthen the design strategy for the needs of the “family outing type” and “social leisure type” users.
-
-