In this study, four types of urban gardens, namely modern commercial, cultural heritage, historical preservation, and natural and ecological areas, were comprehensively described and analyzed based on soundscape and landscape differences, and a multinomial logit model was used to explore potential influencing factors shaping residents’ preferences regarding urban gardens. The results suggest that variations in soundscape are closely related to the characteristics of the garden areas and the timing of residents’ activities; the noise level measurements at different observation points varied considerably according to the time of day and displayed different trends. Residents strongly preferred natural sounds, and traffic noise was the most disliked category of sound. Further, a negative correlation was found between residents’ subjective perception of loudness and the favorability of the area, while a clear positive correlation existed between the degree of favorability and the degree of landscape-soundscape coordination. Regarding landscape differences, residents generally preferred urban gardens without artificial transformation and prioritized the maintenance of natural landscaping and the historical and cultural heritage of urban gardens. In particular, residents’ preferences reflected the trade-offs between natural and artificial forms of urban gardens. These results offer useful information for planners, developers, and governmental organizations related to urban gardens by providing data to design urban gardens with increased practical value and natural benefits.

Urban greenways improve green coverage rates in urban environments and transform these environments in a people-oriented manner. This study adopted semantic differential (SD) methods and an importance–performance analysis (IPA) model to evaluate resident perceptions and preferences of riverside greenways. A survey of 588 residents was conducted on typical natural greenways, built greenways, and mixed greenways along the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The results showed that resident perceptions of style, space, and distance differed markedly, whereas their perceptions of environmental and psychological characteristics were relatively similar. There were strong correlations between residents’ characteristics and their perceptions, especially for their perceptions of greenway style, sense of order, and distance from the river. By comparison, most residents preferred mixed greenways. Additionally, respondents from areas with natural and mixed greenways believed that they benefited, whereas those from areas with built greenways displayed a potential sense of deprivation. The results of IPA analysis provide further support for the above conclusions. As a whole, the relatively simple methods demonstrated here could be useful to quantitatively analyze the subjective perceptions of urban residents.

Urban parks positively affect the life quality and health of urban residents as well as the environment where they live. When it comes to the design of a future urban forest park, it is necessary to consider the protection of ecological environment, landscape sustainability and practicability. This study explored residents’ spatial preference for urban forest parks based on preference survey data. According to the rating scores obtained for four urban forest park routes during physical activities, this study used cognitive maps and multinomial logit models to figure out the potential influencing factors affecting residents’ spatial preference while they engage in physical activities. The results suggest that forest routes are still the primary choice for urban residents. Although familiarity with the spatial image preference for urban forest parks varied from person to person, residents’ choice of route shows certain commonalities, which was reflected in the sequential cognitive maps obtained from them. In addition, residents’ route preference is influenced by their exercise habits, environmental preference and residential location. There is also a certain correlation between residents’ preference and their characteristics. This study provides additional information for planners, developers, engineers, architects and foresters in building a more suitable environment that is aesthetically appealing and ecologically sound for physical exercising.

Urban parks provide key ecosystem services and support everyday recreation, but their multifunctional use often creates mismatches between planned functions and diverse public demands. Taking Chaoyang Park in Beijing as the study area, this study applied Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGISs) to map landscape values and identify recreation conflicts. Boundary-based and inductive social landscape metrics were used to analyze the spatial patterns of six landscape values: aesthetic value, ecological value, recreational value, cultural value, healing value and economic value. Kernel density analysis was further used to identify recreation conflict hotspots and examine their spatial association with landscape value agglomeration. The results show that the landscape values in Chaoyang Park are characterized by multi-value agglomeration in core areas and functional differentiation in peripheral areas. Aesthetic value, recreational value and ecological value are the dominant value types, and their spatial distribution is highly consistent with the planning orientations of functional areas. Recreation conflicts are mainly manifested as activity disturbances and space contention, and are jointly associated with overlapping spatial functions, divergent activity characteristics and unbalanced facility allocation. This study demonstrates that PPGISs can support refined management and recreation conflict regulation in large urban parks, providing evidence for public participation planning and sustainable management of urban green spaces in high-density cities.