Links between the pandemic and urban green spaces, a perspective on spatial indices of landscape garden cities in China

Anqi Ding; Jeremy Cenci; Jiazhen Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2022.104046

Links between the pandemic and urban green spaces, a perspective on spatial indices of landscape garden cities in China

Sustain Cities Soc. 2022 Oct:85:104046. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2022.104046. Epub 2022 Jul 7.

Authors

Anqi Ding¹, Jeremy Cenci², Jiazhen Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Architecture and Design, Nanchang University, Institute Avenue, 999, 330031 Nanchang, China.
² Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Mons, Rue d'Havre, 88, 7000 Mons, Belgium.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably changed people's lifestyles and demands for urban green space and public open space. The National Landscape Garden Cities in China (NLGCC) policy is one of the key development models in China aimed at building sustainable cities and society. In this paper, the development of the study's selection criteria and the significance and benefits of the NLGCC policy are first summarised. 391 cities were chosen from the NLGCC list to analyse the spatial distribution and construction of driving factors. The results show that the NLGCC's selection criteria have shifted from a focus on quantity to overall habitat quality. During the COVID-19 pandemic, city resilience has been examined more closely. The NLGCC policies have boosted to address ecological and environmental crises and enhanced urban disaster preparedness. The spatial distribution analysis shows that the NLGCC is spatially unevenly distributed and has a clustering trend. A total of 54.96% of the NLGCC is concentrated in China's eastern and central regions. The natural environment and socioeconomics are two main categories of driving factors. This study provides significant value to the understanding of the spatial pattern of the NLGCC offers a reference for decision-making about the construction of urban environments worldwide.

Keywords: National landscape garden city; city resilience; human settlements environment; public open space; spatial distribution characteristics; urban green space.