LOUD published research findings on exploring environmental equity and visitation disparities in peri-urban parks in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urban Design and Urban Science (LOUD) published a paper titled "Exploring Environmental Equity and Visitation Disparities in Peri-Urban Parks: A Mobile Phone Data-Driven Analysis in Tokyo" in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.

Peri-urban parks play a crucial role in enhancing urban living conditions and promoting human-nature interactions. However, existing research has been insufficient in assessing the environmental equity and visitor behavior disparities of these parks. To address this gap, this study utilized mobile phone data from over 40,000 visitors to Tokyo's peri-urban parks. By applying various methods such as Local Moran’s I, Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and K-means clustering, the study explored accessibility and visitation behavior disparities among residents of Tokyo's 23 special wards as well as different visitor groups.The findings first revealed significant differences based on mobile device metrics, emphasizing the importance of human activity in assessing the accessibility of peri-urban parks and highlighting the necessity of using multidimensional methods. Additionally, Gini coefficient analysis of mobile phone data and the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) metrics indicated that expanding the service radius beyond 10 km can effectively mitigate environmental inequalities. Furthermore, visitor grouping based on mobile phone data better explained visitation behavior differences compared to groupings based solely on age demographics.These findings provide new information and perspectives for urban park planning policymakers, aiding in the development of strategies to address accessibility inequalities. Moreover, the study offers a solid basis for classifying visitors to peri-urban parks.

Figure: Study area and the locations of peri-urban parks

Figure: Comparison of mobile data-driven metrics and two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) metrics

Dr. Yichun Zhou, one of the authors, pointed out that peri-urban parks play a key role in optimizing the spatial structure of metropolitan areas and enhancing urban ecosystem services, making them a hot topic in urban science research. He hopes that future research will integrate remote sensing, street view data, social media analysis, and mobile signaling to further explore the service functions of peri-urban parks and their interactions with residents' behaviors.

Professor ChengHe Guan stated that the study of peri-urban parks is a crucial part of the laboratory's project, "Planning and Design of Green-Blue Infrastructure Supported by Urban Perception AI Technology." This research is part of the laboratory's practical exploration of the digitalization of urban parks in Shanghai and forms the theoretical basis of "climate urban park studies" generated by global climate change. He expressed the hope that more scholars and experts, both domestic and international, will join in researching and designing future urban blue-green infrastructure.

Paper Link:

Guan, C., and Zhou, Y. (2024). Exploring environmental equity and visitation disparities in peri-urban parks: A mobile phone data-driven analysis in Tokyo. Landscape and Urban Planning, 248, 105104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2024.105104