Abstract
The Yangtze River Delta (YRD), as a globally significant megacity region, faces intense land constraints and growing demands for equitable access to high-quality urban parks. However, traditional planning often prioritizes physical proximity while overlooking the sensory experience, leading to a disconnect between where residents can “reach” and what they can “see.” To bridge this gap, this study develops an integrated framework that couples pedestrian potential with visual perception. By integrating GIS-based pedestrian network analysis and FCN-driven semantic segmentation of street-view image, we evaluated the central parks of 27 cities across the YRD. The results demonstrate that: (1) Urban scale is closely linked to service equity, with 37% of cities exhibiting a distinct accessibility disadvantage relative to the regional average. (2) Large cities tend to dominate in green perception (GVI), whereas small and medium-sized cities are characterized by stronger blue perception (BVI). (3) A significant spatial divergence exists between physical walkability and blue-green perception, manifesting into four distinct spatial typologies at the urban scale. (4) Areas theoretically expected to have high accessibility and perception—such as waterfronts or park edges—underperform in reality. These findings suggest that theoretical attractiveness does not naturally translate into functional accessibility without intentional street-level integration. Achieving park equity requires a dual focus on both sensory experience and physical access. Consequently, this study proposes a targeted urban renewal framework to assist managers in implementing type-specific micro-interventions, providing a scalable model for achieving sensory-physical synergy in land-constrained megacity regions.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Pearsall, H. & Eller, J. K. Locating the green space paradox: A study of gentrification and public green space accessibility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Landsc. Urban Plan. 195, 103708 (2020).
Qin, X., Wei, Y. D., Wu, Y. & Huang, X. Regional development and inequality within city regions: A study of the Yangtze River Delta, China. Geogr. Rev. 113(3), 359–385 (2023).
Mukherjee, M. & Takara, K. Urban green space as a countermeasure to increasing urban risk and the UGS-3CC resilience framework. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 28, 854–861 (2018).
Rigolon, A. A complex landscape of inequity in access to urban parks: A literature review. Landsc. Urban Plan. 153, 160–169 (2016).
Peters, K. Being together in urban parks: Connecting public space, leisure, and diversity. Leis. Sci. 32(5), 418–433 (2010).
Whyte, W. H. City: Rediscovering the Center (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012).
Zhang, J. & Tan, P. Y. Demand for parks and perceived accessibility as key determinants of urban park use behavior. Urban For. Urban Green. 44, 126420 (2019).
Biernacka, M., Łaszkiewicz, E. & Kronenberg, J. Park availability, accessibility, and attractiveness in relation to the least and most vulnerable inhabitants. Urban For. Urban Green. 73, 127585 (2022).
Chen, L., Lu, Y., Ye, Y., Xiao, Y. & Yang, L. Examining the association between the built environment and pedestrian volume using street view images. Cities 127, 103734 (2022).
Chen, J. et al. Rethinking urban park accessibility in the context of demographic change: A population structure perspective. Urban For. Urban Green. 96, 128334 (2024).
Zhou, S., Chen, F. & Xu, Z. Evaluating the accessibility of urban parks and waterfronts through online map services: A case study of Shaoxing, China. Urban For. Urban Green. 77, 127731 (2022).
Kenyon, G. E. et al. Intra-urban house prices in Madrid following the financial crisis: An exploration of spatial inequality. npj Urban Sustain. 4(1), 26 (2024).
Yang, H., Jin, C. & Li, T. A paradox of economic benefit and social equity of green space in megacity: Evidence from Tianjin in China. Sustain. Cities Soc. 109, 105530 (2024).
Zhang, K. & Chen, M. Multi-method analysis of urban green space accessibility: Influences of land use, greenery types, and individual characteristics factors. Urban For. Urban Green. 96, 128366 (2024).
Shelhamer, E., Long, J. & Darrell, T. Fully convolutional networks for semantic segmentation. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 39(4), 640–651 (2016).
Ma, G. et al. Impact of land-use mixing on the vitality of urban parks: Evidence from big data analysis in Suzhou, Yangtze River Delta region, China. J. Urban Plan. Dev. 149(4), 04023045 (2023).
Fuller, R. A., Irvine, K. N., & Gaston, K. J. Interactions between people and nature in urban environments. Urban Ecology. 134–171 (2010).
Fan, P. et al. Walkability in urban landscapes: A comparative study of four large cities in China. Landscape Ecol. 33, 323–340 (2018).
Basu, S. & Nagendra, H. Perceptions of park visitors on access to urban parks and benefits of green spaces. Urban For. Urban Green. 57, 126959 (2021).
Wang, Y. et al. Exploring recreational ecosystem services and influencing factors in megaparks using mobile phone data—Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta region. Ecol. Indic. 165, 112195 (2024).
Na, L., Huang, Y. & Chen, S. How different indicators of internal and external greenness impact street crime? A comparative study in high-density urban areas. Habitat Int. 171, 103759 (2026).
Yu, P. et al. Capturing open space fragmentation in high–density cities: Towards sustainable open space planning. Appl. Geogr. 154, 102927 (2023).
Boakye-Dankwa, E. et al. Walking behaviour and patterns of perceived access to neighbourhood destinations in older adults from a low-density (Brisbane, Australia) and an ultra-dense city (Hong Kong, China). Cities 84, 23–33 (2019).
Li, M., Xue, F. & Yeh, A. G. Bi-objective analytics of 3D visual-physical nature exposures in high-rise high-density cities for landscape and urban planning. Landsc. Urban Plan. 233, 104714 (2023).
Wang, L., Wong, C. & Duan, X. Urban growth and spatial restructuring patterns: The case of Yangtze River Delta Region, China. Environ. Plan. B Plan. Des. 43(3), 515–539 (2016).
Völker, S. & Kistemann, T. The impact of blue space on human health and well-being–Salutogenetic health effects of inland surface waters: A review. Int. J. Hyg. Environ. Health 214(6), 449–460 (2011).
Ruiz-Padillo, A. et al. Weighted assessment of barriers to walking in small cities: A Brazilian case. Transp. Res. D Transp. Environ. 109, 103392 (2022).
Chen, Y., Zhu, M., Lu, J., Zhou, Q. & Ma, W. Evaluation of ecological city and analysis of obstacle factors under the background of high-quality development: Taking cities in the Yellow River Basin as examples. Ecol. Indic. 118, 106771 (2020).
Ma, X. et al. Measuring human perceptions of streetscapes to better inform urban renewal: A perspective of scene semantic parsing. Cities 110, 103086 (2021).
Low, S., Taplin, D. & Scheld, S. Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity (University of Texas Press, 2005).
De Chiara, J., & Koppelman, L. Urban planning and design criteria. (No Title). (1975).
Xiao, Y., Wang, Z., Li, Z. & Tang, Z. An assessment of urban park access in Shanghai-implications for the social equity in urban China. Landsc. Urban Plan. 157, 383–393 (2017).
Larkin, A. & Hystad, P. Evaluating street view exposure measures of visible green space for health research. J. Expo. Sci. Environ. Epidemiol. 29(4), 447–456 (2019).
Long, Y. & Liu, L. How green are the streets? An analysis for central areas of Chinese cities using Tencent Street View. PLoS ONE 12(2), e0171110 (2017).
Luo, S., Xie, J. & Furuya, K. Assessing the preference and restorative potential of urban park blue space. Land 10(11), 1233 (2021).
Hess, P. M. Measures of connectivity [Streets: Old paradigm, new investment]. Places. 11(2) (1997).
Ewing, R. & Handy, S. Measuring the unmeasurable: Urban design qualities related to walkability. J. Urban Des. 14(1), 65–84 (2009).
Stangl, P. The US pedestrian plan: Linking practice and research. Plan. Pract. Res. 26(3), 289–305 (2011).
Dill, J. Measuring network connectivity for bicycling and walking. In 83rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, 11–15 (2004).
Forman, R. T. T. Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Wolch, J. R., Byrne, J. & Newell, J. P. Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’. Landsc. Urban Plan. 125, 234–244 (2014).
Siegel, F. R. Cities and mega-cities: problems and solution strategies (Springer, 2019).
Tonkiss, F. Cities by Design: The Social Life of Urban Form (Wiley, 2014).
Baobeid, A., Koç, M. & Al-Ghamdi, S. G. Walkability and its relationships with health, sustainability, and livability: Elements of physical environment and evaluation frameworks. Front. Built Environ. 7, 721218 (2021).
Xu, J., Wang, J., Zuo, X. & Han, X. Spatial quality optimization analysis of streets in historical urban areas based on street view perception and multisource data. J. Urban Plan. Dev. 150(4), 05024036 (2024).
Li, W., Cai, Z. & Jin, L. Urban green land use efficiency of resource-based cities in China: Multidimensional measurements, spatial-temporal changes, and driving factors. Sustain. Cities Soc. 104, 105299 (2024).
Funding
This work was supported by the following projects: Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province [Project No. KYCX25_1465], and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52078254).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Z.L. wrote the main manuscript text, carried out the technical implementation and formal analysis, and prepared all figures. L.W. contributed to data curation, investigation, and discussion of the results, and assisted with manuscript revision and proofreading. Z.X. conceived the study, developed the research framework and methodology, contributed to the sampling design and provided the preliminary data, and offered substantial guidance on the Introduction and Discussion. Z.X. also supervised the research, provided resources, and acquired funding. All authors reviewed the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, Z., Wang, L. & Zhen, X. Multiple dimension equity assessment of walking for visual and physical access to central parks across 27 Yangtze River Delta cities. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-47920-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-47920-w
