Analysis Of The Supply And Perception Of The Recreation Service From Urban Forests In Beijing

The recreation service of urban forests has caught wide attentions in China along with social-economic development, improvement of living standards, and urban residents’ desires for better human habitats. Traditionally the planning and management of urban forests is conducted under the framework of the urban planning by experts and administrative staff. The old practices focus mainly on the supply of places while neglect the real use of these places by residents and their satisfaction toward these spaces. The disassociation between the supply and demand impedes the utilization of the recreation service of urban forests in full. Therefore to study the recreation service of urban forests from both the supply and demand sides can improve the management of urban forests to fully realize its potential in supplying recreation service.In this thesis, the supply of recreational opportunities by urban forests in Beijing and the demand and perception of recreation service by Beijing’s residents were analyzed. The main factors that affected the generation of recreation service by urban forests were summarized. The main content and major findings are listed below.1. The patch size and accessibility of urban forests inside the built-up area of Beijing was analyzed through interpreting remote sensing data and running spatial analysis. The result showed that patches of urban forest were generally in small sizes and fragment. Areas of most patches were less than one ha. About 15.08% of the built-up area did not have a patch of urban forest with a size larger than two ha in a 500 radius. The distribution of municipal parks outside of the fourth ring road was sparse.2. The perception of young urban residents on the recreation service provided by the urban forest inside the built-up area of Beijing was investigated using a web-based survey. The survey result was analyzed using Item Response Theory (IRT) method, Anselin Local Moran’s I Analysis (ALMI), and Logistic regression. The result showed that 87% of respondents indicated that the recreation service was at a good or acceptable level. They mainly conducted low-intensity activities inside the urban forest such as walking or sightseeing. The satisfaction level was significantly affected by housing prices, housing ages, travel time to the nearest park, types of available spaces, and the vegetation canopy cover.3. The supply of outdoor recreation spaces in suburban Beijing during 1990-2010 was analyzed using statistical method based on Wolfe’s outdoor recreation development theory. It was found that the number of suburban parks, forest parks, natural reserves, folk villages, recreation farms and ski resorts increased by 20.4% in this period, which was higher than the increase rate in the United States in 1960s. The increase was highly correlated with the increase of private car ownership, annual average income, the area of built-up, and the population of permanent residents. Also, the governmental regulations played an important role in promoting the increase of outdoor recreation spaces. Among different types of recreation spaces Beijing’s residents preferred to use recreation farms and suburban parks for recreation purposes. The lack of time and inconvenient traffic were cited as the main factors that affect the use of outdoor recreation spaces in suburban Beijing.4. Using the Baihuashan Natural Reserve as a case study, the perception of recreation service along with other ecosystem services by Beijing’s urban residents was investigated using face-to-face interview. The different perception between two groups, i.e. these who supported installing cable cars and these who opposed, was also analyzed by using the SolVES (Social Value for Ecosystem Service) software. The result showed that the public put the priority of maintaining biodiversity ahead of obtaining recreation service from the Baihuashan Natural Reserve. The general public was more willing to invest money to keep the aesthetic value of the place. The group who supported the use of cable cars had weaker perception of the recreation service than those who opposed the use.Major innovations of this thesis include the following:1. The recreation service generated by urban forests in Beijing’s built-up area and suburban areas was analyzed from the angels of supplying of spaces and demands by residents. The result revealed the main factors that affect residents’ satisfaction levels on the service. The finding can provide important information for Beijing to develop outdoor recreation based on urban forests.2. The web-based survey was used to investigate the perception of urban residents on recreation service of urban forests at a city scale. The method avoids the issues associated with traditional questionnaire surveys such as high costs, small coverage, and respondent bias. This provides a good example for applying the web-based survey in urban forestry studies.3. The use of SolVES in studying the value of recreation service in Baihuashan Natural Reserve was its first application in urban forestry studies in China.