Ethnography for Accessibility to Public Open Spaces

The access to public open spaces (POSs) has been catching the attention of urban planners and architects alike to inject dynamism into their design so as to bring life back into the static structures they have or about to create. POSs are not just green spaces existing between buildings, but spaces to host events, grounds for physical exercise, as well as rehabilitation workout places for patients discharged from the hospitals. In China, 44.6% of the country, mostly located in high latitude and altitude areas, accessibility to POSs is often hampered by bad weather. In this paper, we reported on an ethnography process from the point of view of pedestrians walking in the cold to experience the accessibility to POSs using Global Position System (GPS) mobile phones carried in their pockets, as a biosensor, to study the behaviors of pedestrians on the move, so as to identify the access points for possible urban redevelopment, where weatherproof linkways could be put in place to facilitate and encourage people to venture out into the open during winter months. In the course of our research, we undertook a case study in the central districts of Harbin that includes Nangang, Daoli, Daowai and Xiangfang districts, during the winter months (from December 2015 to June 2016), enduring an average monthly temperature of -14 degrees C, to ethnography, the pattern of pedestrians walking in the cold. The results conform our hypothesis that harsh cold environment and the extreme climate conditions have discouraged the access to POSs. At the same time, the data collected have also helped us to pinpoint access points where weatherproof link way could be provided to facilitate and encourage people to travel by foot during winter months.