title: What Attracts People to Visit Community Open Spaces? A Case Study of the Overseas Chinese Town Community in Shenzhen, China.
abstract: A well-designed open space that encourages outdoor activity and social communication is a community asset that could potentially contribute to the health of local residents and social harmony of the community. Numerous factors may influence the use of each single space and may result in a variety of visitors. Compared with previous studies that focused on accessibility, this study highlights the relationship between the utilization and characteristics of community open spaces in China. The Overseas Chinese Town community in Shenzhen is regarded as an example. The association between the number of visitors and space characteristics is examined with multivariate regression models. Results show that large areas with accessible lawns, well-maintained footpaths, seats, commercial facilities, and water landscapes are important characteristics that could increase the use of community open spaces. However, adding green vegetation, sculptures, and landscape accessories in open spaces has limited effects on increasing the outdoor activities of residents. Thus, to increase the use of community open spaces, landscape designers should focus more on creating user-oriented spaces with facilities that encourage active use than on improving ornamental vegetation and accessories.
authors.affiliation: School of Architecture &amp; Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, China. chenyiy@szu.edu.cn.|Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Built Environment Optimization, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, China. chenyiy@szu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yiyong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Population and Development Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. liutaopku@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Architecture &amp; Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, China. xiexiaohuan@szu.edu.cn.|Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Built Environment Optimization, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, China. xiexiaohuan@szu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaohuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana SI 1000, Slovenia. barbara.golicnik-marusic@uirs.si.
authors.forename: Barbara Goličnik
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Marušić
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D000068316:Parks, Recreational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012931:Social Environment
keywords: Overseas Chinese Town of Shenzhen; community; open space; outdoor activity; use