Impact of Land-Use Mixing on the Vitality of Urban Parks: Evidence from Big Data Analysis in Suzhou, Yangtze River Delta Region, China

As increasing attention is given to the impact of the built environment on citizens’ well-being and health, the role and performance of urban parks have to be carefully considered. The research presented in this paper focuses on the efficiency of urban parks concerning their visitor flow and explores an aspect that has not been studied so far: the impact of the built environment surrounding urban parks in attracting visitors to parks. To assess the visitor flow, the research took advantage of the large amount of accessible and accurate data connecting users and spaces: points of interest data (POI) data and Weibo check-in data. The research correlated them to investigate how the land uses and their mix in a buffer area of 400 m around each park affect the quantity of visitor flow into the parks of the city of Suzhou, China. The research first quantified the POI mixed degree of land uses and the visitor quantity based on the Hill Number Index and the social media data; then, it analyzed the sensitivity of different types of parks to different types of POI. After clarifying the quadratic function between visitor intensity and the POI mixed degree, the research found: (1) a clear correlation between the visitor intensity and the land-use mix around the parks; and (2) that different kinds of parks are affected by different groups of uses. Specifically, in the case of community parks, the visitor flow is affected by the land use for daily activities, while the visitor flow of comprehensive parks is affected by uses such as offices and services. These findings provide clear indications for improving urban parks and land-use efficiency.