Equity to Urban Parks for Elderly Residents: Perspectives of Balance between Supply and Demand

Abstract

As population ages, ensuring that the elderly get their due rights has become a common concern of scholars in many fields. However, as an important public service facility in daily life of elderly, the research on the equity of urban parks is mostly based on the evaluation of accessibility. The equity of the elderly's access to urban parks services has been rarely discussed from the perspective of supply and demand balance. In the context of the concept of spatial equity, we used urban parks in the main city of Harbin as a case study, the actual travel mode of the elderly was considered in the evaluation, adopted an Integrated Spatial Equity Evaluation (ISEE) framework, quantitative evaluation of the equity of different levels of urban park under multiple traffic modes. In this study, the results showed that under the three modes of travel, the degree of spatial equity was higher for non-motorized trips than for the other two modes. In terms of urban parks hierarchy, the spatial equity of urban parks at district level were much higher than those at the neighborhood level and street level. The inequity between supply and demand for urban park for elderly people was significant and varies between administrative districts. The empirical evidence in this research may provide references and suggestions for urban parks planning and decision-making. In cities where the scale of land use is basically stable, such as Harbin, we can start from the spatial configuration of park green space system and public transportation system to improve the efficiency of urban parks provision. Thereby promoting the construction and development of an “old age-friendly” society.

Evaluation of Public Service Facilities in 19 Large Cities in China from the Perspective of Supply and Demand

“…Demographic factors, such as socioeconomic status [30] and race [31], are also included to explore the matching of supply and demand of public service facilities. For example, some studies examined the matching of supply and demand of different types of urban parks and considered the actual travel mode of the elderly [32]. In addition, some studies also put forward the matching index of supply and demand to explore the coupling relationship between the index and urban development factors.…”

Spatial Equity of Public Parks: A Case Study of Kabul City, Afghanistan

“…Urban settings in different countries have significant inequalities in the distribution of physical infrastructure that affect residents' quality of life; for example, residents in historic quarters of Changting in China, Glasgow in the UK and Berlin in Germany suffer from lack of access to basic services such as transportation, health care, and green space [1,3,[13][14][15][16][17].…”

“…When looking at deprived urban areas within a city, it is easy to conclude that residents are at greater health risks from natural and manmade hazards, including natural disasters, pollution, noise, and traffic toxicity [20]. In these deprived areas, access to the natural ecosystem is limited, especially in terms of access to natural landscapes, and there is a disparity between high population density and the low coverage of green space [3,5,7,13,15].…”

“…For cities to attain spatial equity of their public parks, first and foremost, there must be enough parks, and sufficient land must be allocated for their provision [2,3,27,28]. In terms of accessibility and distribution within the wider city area, each resident must have equitable access [6][7][8]15,18,26,28]. With the abovementioned research progression in mind, this study was devised with the aim of exploring and assessing the spatial equity of public parks in the context of an expanding city.…”

A Study On Inter- Relationship Of Open Space And Social Cohesion For Wellbeing Of Elderly: A Systematic Literature Review

“…According to the United Nations survey report, it has been observed that the world population has risen annually and that the proportion of the global population over 60 is expected to exceed 23 percent by 2050. (Guo et al, 2020). Increasing recognition of the challenge of active aging is greatly affected by the role of the elderly in society, as demonstrated in the United Nations report.…”