Parks can offer varied services to human well-being, including recreational services (RS); however, there is insufficient understanding of park differences concerning the actual performance of their varied RS. To fill this gap, this study aimed to develop a set of performance indicators as a tool for comparing the functional efficacy of RS among different parks. The indicators covered three aspects of RS: recreational usage of various physical activities, their recreational satisfaction level and the collective performance rating. These indicators were applied in a case study of four parks in Guangzhou, China, based upon on-site observation and a questionnaire survey. The functional difference of these indicators was compared and the collective indicator was found to be able to effectively capture different efficacies of urban parks in supporting varied RS. Results show all the parks were far from reaching the maximum performance of designed RS, so it is worthy of consideration by urban managers to further improve their RS efficacy. In addition, the overall spatial design and configuration were inferred to be essential for improving the RS efficacy of urban parks, but not park size nor ornamental vegetation. The findings offered valuable evidence for the optimal spatial design and management of urban parks.

The community greenway is a kind of greenway that goes through high-density residential areas in the city and is closely related to residents’ life. However, few scholars focus on how this type of greenways serves the everyday life of the community as an integrated resource. This aspect is important because the everyday life in the public space involves multiple activities. How to coordinate and satisfy these activities relates to the benefits of community greenways. Therefore, this paper takes a representative community greenway in Haizhu District of Guangzhou as an example, to study whether community greenways match the needs of necessary activities, optional activities and social activities. The usage patterns, the evaluation of the current status, the impact on everyday activities, and the importance of different construction factors were surveyed. The applied methods include site observation, questionnaires and interviews. The results show that more than 90% of users are from communities within 1 mile from the community greenway. More than half of the users (55%) are satisfied with the community greenways. Furthermore, the community greenways benefit the everyday activities of residents, such as transportation, recreation, social interaction and also other minor but important everyday activities. However, from the perspective of residents’ requirements for construction factors, the status of service facilities needs to be improved. The characteristics, overall benefits, and construction implications of community greenways are therefore discussed. Community greenways can be important open space for residents and this paper is significant on community greenways meeting the needs of residents’ everyday activities, thus, to provide a better community living environment and to build a better urban open space system.

In the last decades, rapid agricultural commercialization has led to landscape simplification, posing threats to the social and ecological values of agroecosystems worldwide. This paper draws upon the landscape commons concept, advocating for an institutional perspective to comprehensively understand the local governance concerning landscape simplification. We contributed to commons research by expanding the scope into holistic and multifunctional landscape systems, and particularly concentrate on pond landscapes. We select the case of a dike-pond system in the Pearl River Delta, China, to scrutinize the local institutional arrangements and their interplay with landscape simplification. This study utilizes the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework in conjunction with Ostrom’s Design Principles (DPs). Findings from the study reveal that an emphasis on ponds exhibiting comparative profit advantages over dikes and rivers, coupled with a preference for intensive fish production in collective decision-making, has resulted in land cover simplification and erosion of the system’s multifunctionality. To address this issue, we recommend considering multiple biophysical elements and functions in the governance of landscape commons while identifying avenues to reinforce local institutions, in alignment with Ostrom’s DPs.