Observations of physical activity in winter urban parks using UAVs: A case study of four city Parks, Harbin, China

Abstract

The supply and use of physical activity in urban parks are socially differentiated. The users’ activity type, age structure, and the use of time are closely related to them. UAVs have the technical advantage of capturing large and accurate image data, combined with GIS technology to analyze the population density data. This study taking four urban parks in Harbin as an example to conduct an observation of physical activity. It is found that winter physical activity population in winter city park has the characteristics of age, types of activities, activity intensity and spatial distribution of activities. This study focuses on the differences in users’ age, type of activity and spatial characteristics. This study basically determines the usability of UAV as a new method in the observation of park physical activity. Based on the data, the physical activity characteristics of the park can be compared to explore the different needs of people for the space and facilities of sports activities and to promote the construction of the sports space in cold city parks.