Recreational Attractiveness of Urban Parks and Implications for Their Management: A Case Study in Changchun, China

Urban parks are an important part of urban ecosystems and also provide recreational services for urban residents. However, it is still unclear how the recreational attractiveness of urban parks can be evaluated. In this study, 12 typical parks in Changchun, China were selected for evaluation of their recreational attractiveness. We built a recreational attractiveness evaluation system based on the analytical hierarchy process(AHP) to produce a composite evaluation index. This method included : 1) the landscape quality of the parks; 2) the recreational facilities; 3) the conditions of the area; and 4) the accessibility of the parks. Our results showed that Nanhu Park, Children’s Park, Shengli Park, and Jingyuetan Forest Park had high recreational attractiveness, whereas Linyuan Park had the lowest attractiveness among the 12 parks. These results agreed with the information obtained from a field survey of the actual recreational and revisit rates, which showed that the evaluation index is reliable. Correlation analysis showed that the landscape quality and recreational facilities of parks had a direct effect on their recreational attractiveness. A negative correlation was found between the accessibility of a park and its recreational attractiveness. We conclude that if the scenery and facilities are not as good as a visitor expects, then they may choose to visit a different park, even if it takes a longer time to reach.