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In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Understanding public experiences of urban parks is crucial for their sustainable and effective management. Using topic modeling, we identified four key themes: quality and maintenance, family and activities, costs and affordability, and natural environment. Sentiment analysis revealed that An in-depth content analysis validated these findings and added nuanced interpretation.
These findings demonstrated that online reviews can serve as a valuable indicator of park accessibility and attractiveness, thereby fostering more informed park management decisions. However, we also acknowledge their limitations, such as potential bias towards more tech-savvy users and the lack of detailed demographic information. Therefore, future research should combine social media data with traditional qualitative methods to capture the broader socio-cultural dynamics influencing park use.
Urban parks are essential public spaces that provide environmental, social, and recreational benefits to urban residents 1. Many previous studies associated accessibility with the ease of accessing parks from a particular location, offering a way to assess the relative opportunities for interaction or use 4 , Accordingly, accessibility is typically assessed based on spatial physical factors, such as physical proximity and the density of transportation facilities 20 , 21 , 22 , However, this objective assessment often differs from accessibility perceived by park users 4 , In this sense, the concept of accessibility extends beyond physical aspects to encompass the publicness of park spaces and the degree to which they are open, inclusive, and equitable for all social groups 6 , 24 , Attractiveness refers to the physical and aesthetic qualities e.
Previous studies suggest that well-designed public open spaces attract diverse users, enhancing their social and recreational value However, maintaining attractive and publicly accessible spaces in many cities and towns in the Global South is challenged by resource constraints, uneven urban development, and socio-political instability 33 , Few recent phenomena have been as acute in influencing the accessibility and attractiveness of parks as commercialization 6 , 26 , 35 , While commercialization can enhance perceived attractiveness for some users by introducing new commercial facilities e.
