Large parks play a key role in the identity of urban public spaces and as destinations for residents’ urban walks, with the social benefits they provide being irreplaceable by other types of green spaces. This study examines the accessibility of large urban parks in Rizhao, China, focusing on spatial distribution, service equity, and optimization strategies. Using GIS-based walking route proximity analysis, the study identifies significant accessibility gaps in high-density urban areas. Rizhao is a typical coastal tourist city, selected as the study area due to its low level of urbanization and the underutilization of its natural resources. This study uses online map data to evaluate the service efficiency and supply–demand heterogeneity of large parks from multiple perspectives, proposing targeted, practical, and micro-intervention-based spatial measures based on typical case analysis. The results show that 70.52% of the population in the study area is served by park entrances within a 1500 m walking distance, indicating that a considerable portion of residents remain beyond a reasonable walking distance. In the context of urban renewal and sustainable development, this study proposes practical improvements to park accessibility, including suggestions for determining suitable locations for new large parks as a long-term goal, alongside low-cost interventions such as increasing park entrances to maximize the use of existing resources and optimizing pedestrian routes (including opening gated communities and adding crossing facilities) to improve park walking service catchment in smaller environments. This study provides insights for urban park renewal, retrofitting, and expansion, supporting accessibility measures in planning practices, and is expected to provide valuable references for urban managers and policymakers. Furthermore, the study suggests that policy adjustments are necessary to integrate green spaces into urban development more effectively, particularly in rapidly urbanizing areas.

In high-density cities, limited land availability constrains the expansion of new public sports facilities, increasing the importance of activating existing spatial resources. School sports facilities, which are widely distributed across urban residential areas, may provide supplementary opportunities for community physical activity during non-teaching periods. Using Nanjing, China, as a case study, this study adopts a four-phase research design comprising spatial assessment, stakeholder salience analysis, empirical investigation, and governance strategy development. First, GIS-based analysis was used to examine the spatial distribution of non-school sports facilities and school campuses and to compare 15-min walking accessibility under a baseline scenario and a hypothetical school-sharing scenario. Modeled population coverage increased from 62.93% to 71.67%, while approximately 147.37 km² and 605,700 residents were additionally covered, indicating substantial potential for spatial supplementation. Second, six stakeholder groups were assessed using the Mitchell Salience Model based on power, legitimacy, and urgency. Third, 32 semi-structured interviews and a resident questionnaire survey (N = 216) were used to examine stakeholder concerns, residents’ perceived needs and attitudes, and major implementation conflicts. The findings indicate that the principal barriers to joint use are concentrated around safety responsibility, cost sharing, and use priorities. Based on these findings, four governance strategies are proposed: spatio-temporal decoupling, risk hedging, embedded negotiation, and digital supervision. Overall, school sports facilities show considerable potential to supplement existing urban sports provision, but their effective joint use depends on appropriate arrangements for stakeholder coordination, risk management, and operational implementation.

An important aspect of a well-designed urban form is supporting active school travel by adolescents, as it has positive effects on physical activity, healthy lifestyles, and reducing vehicle-related carbon emissions. To achieve this, it is necessary to provide sufficient shading and fewer detours on home–school routes, especially in an era of frequent heatwaves. Analyzing the school travel environment at the city scale is essential for identifying practical solutions and informing comprehensive urban policy-making. This study proposes a framework for investigating, assessing, and intervening in home–school routes in Nanjing, China, emphasizing a dual assessment of commuting routes based on the pedestrian detour ratio and shading ratio. This work reveals that approximately 34% of middle school households in Nanjing face challenges in walking to and from school, with only 24.18% of walking routes offering fewer detours and sufficient shade. We advocate reengineering urban forms by reducing barriers to facilitate shortcuts, thereby providing school-age students with better access to cooler and healthier environments, aiming to promote walking and reduce car dependence. The findings may encourage more families to engage in active commuting and serve as a lever to drive school decarbonization and combat climate warming. Our work, with transferability to other cities, can assist urban designers in piloting urban (re)form incrementally and pragmatically to promote sustainable urban agendas.