Does supply match demand? Assessing the relationship between urban parks and residents from the perspective of equity and efficiency

The supply-demand relationship between urban parks and residents is a hot topic for promoting sustainable and efficient cities. Most studies have focused on the assessment of spatial equity, while ignoring the evaluation of park use efficiency. Taking Nanjing as an example, we developed specific indicators, namely, the supply intensity of urban park (UPSI), per capita park area (PCPA), usage ratio (UR), and demand satisfaction ratio (DSR), to measure equity and efficiency on the basis mobile phone signalling data. The results show that the service areas of urban parks cover only approximately 4/5 of the urban residences, and that the PCPAs of urban residences were divergent. In addition, most urban parks had unsuitable URs, and the DSRs indicated that most residents’ demand could not be satisfied by the surrounding parks. A spatial lag model (SLM) was introduced to explore the factors influencing residents’ demand. In combination with the literature, we concluded that the disparity between urban park supply and resident demand resulted from the spatial distribution of physical geographic factors, changes in urban planning and development strategies, and the diverse and dynamic demands of urban residents. On the basis of the above results, we further made recommendations for the management and planning of urban parks.