What remains and what changes? Longitudinal associations between urban park spatial characteristics and visitation from 2019 and 2024
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24227221 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Junnan Chen, Longxu Yan (0000-0002-9520-027X), Penghui Qu, Yang Xiao (0000-0001-9237-8913), Xiang Liu (0000-0002-9541-0541) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 179 |
| Pages | 107661 |
| Publication date | 2026-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0264-2751 • E-ISSN: 1873-6084 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.cities.2026.107661 |
| OpenAlex | W7220904866 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 46 |
Urban parks are critical recreational spaces in cities, yet it remains unclear which park spatial characteristics consistently shape visitation and whether their effects remain stable over time. Using mobile phone signalling data for 144 urban parks in Shanghai in 2019 and 2024, this study applies XGBoost and SHAP to examine longitudinal changes in the importance and nonlinear effects of internal and external park characteristics. The results show that (1) the associations between most spatial characteristics and park visitation vary substantially over time, suggesting that findings from single cross-sectional analyses should be interpreted with caution; (2) park size, internal road density, and surrounding residential density remain the three most influential characteristics across both periods, with several nonlinear threshold effects remaining comparatively stable; and (3) the importance of proximity to the city centre increases markedly by 2024, indicating growing spatial differentiation in park visitation. These findings distinguish between temporally persistent and changing influences on park use and suggest that, even under increasing land constraints, maintaining adequate park size and internal accessibility remains important for sustaining urban park visitation.
longitudinal change · park use · park visitation · Urban green space · urban parks · Urban Green Space and Health · Urban Planning and Landscape Design · Urban Transport and Accessibility
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| Highly cited | No |
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