Study of Factors Influencing Quality of Life through Matches between Demand and Satisfaction of Cultural Services in Urban Parks
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 146, Issue 3
Abstract
Quality of life is increasingly a concern for city dwellers, and it is widely accepted that it can bring benefits to urban developments. As the only natural element in modern cities, urban parks can provide cultural services that are directly connected with aspects related to quality of life. As a result, studying the cultural services provided by parks could be meaningful for research into quality of life for better urban developments, and China should be a particular area of concern as it largely lacks related academic research. In this study, multiple influential factors are treated as the research objects, and the mechanisms through which these factors act are studied by looking at the matches between demand and satisfaction for cultural services. It is hypothesized that both factors relating to the physical environment and individual human factors need to be considered. Cultural services are classified into psychological, leisure, exercise, and general visit services, and are quantitatively assessed for six typical parks in central Shanghai. From the case study results and the ways in which demand and satisfaction are matched, it turns out that all features of a park, the objectives of visiting a park, and personal characteristics play important role in the evaluation of quality of life, but how visitors understand parks and the financial condition of the park are, in summary, the crucial factors. Besides this, methodologies for the evaluation and theories of the quality of life are discussed, and it is discovered that a subjective questionnaire could be implemented but that it needs to be combined with place-based situations.
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Acknowledgments
I thank Ms. Simone Zippel and Ms. Ramona Müller of Dresden University of Technology for their participation in questionnaire designs and electronic data inputs, and the expert interview opportunity that Ms. Claudia Nicolai of Dresden University of Technology provided is also appreciated. Professor Jürgen Breuste from Salzburg University and Professor Junxiang Li from East China Normal University are also thanked for their efforts in project supervisions. Besides all of these, Professor Jinliao He from East China Normal University is especially thanked here for his efforts in manuscript writing suggestions.
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Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 146 • Issue 3 • September 2020
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© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 19, 2019
Accepted: Oct 25, 2019
Published online: Apr 17, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 17, 2020
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