title: Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Use of Urban Green Spaces and External Factors Contributing to Their Use in Central Beijing.
abstract: Urban green spaces encourage outdoor activity and social communication that contribute to the health of local residents. Examining the relationship between the use of urban green spaces and factors influencing their utilization can provide essential references for green space site selection in urban planning. In contrast to previous studies that focused on internal factors, this study highlights the external factors (traffic convenience, population density and commercial facilities) contributing to the use of urban green spaces. We conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of the distribution of visitors in 208 selected green spaces in central Beijing. We examined the relationship between the spatial pattern of visitor distribution within urban green spaces and external factors, using the Gini coefficient, kernel density estimation, and geographical detectors. The results of the study were as follows. The spatial distribution of visitors within central Beijing's green spaces was concentrated, forming different agglomerations. The three examined external factors are all associated with the use of green spaces. Among them, commercial facilities are the important external factor associated with the use of green spaces. For the selection of sites for urban green spaces, we recommend consideration of external factors in order to balance urban green space utilization.
authors.affiliation: School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. fangzhengli@bjfu.edu.cn.|Beijing Laboratory of Urban and Rural Ecological Environment, Beijing 100083, China. fangzhengli@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fangzheng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. fenzhang@bjfu.edu.cn.|Beijing Laboratory of Urban and Rural Ecological Environment, Beijing 100083, China. fenzhang@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. lixiong@bjfu.edu.cn.|Beijing Laboratory of Urban and Rural Ecological Environment, Beijing 100083, China. lixiong@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute, Beijing 100085, China. wangpeng@thupdi.com.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute, Beijing 100085, China. liangjunhui@thupdi.com.
authors.forename: Junhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. yutingmei@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.affiliation: Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77840, USA. cheng1989@tamu.edu.
authors.forename: Wenwen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. Qianyun@bjfu.edu.cn.|Beijing Laboratory of Urban and Rural Ecological Environment, Beijing 100083, China. Qianyun@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian
mesh_terms: D000068476:Beijing; D002958:City Planning; D006801:Humans; D000068316:Parks, Recreational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: external contributing factors; geographical detectors; spatiotemporal patterns; urban green spaces; visitor distribution