SPATIAL EQUITY OPTIMIZATION FOR PARK COOLING SERVICES AND ECOLOGICAL BENEFIT EVALUATION: A CASE STUDY OF GANZHOU, CHINA

Abstract

Urban parks, as critical green infrastructure for heat mitigation, necessitate equitable spatial accessibility to cooling services alongside thermal efficiency. This study develops a spatial equity-oriented framework integrating thermal regulation performance, accessibility justice, and urban development dynamics to evaluate and optimize park cooling services in Zhanggong District, Ganzhou City, China (33 parks were analyzed). Leveraging multisource geospatial data and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), three equity-related findings revealed: (1) Spatially uneven cooling benefits: Among effective parks (n = 25), cooling intensity ranges up to 2.95°C with service radii spanning 375.09 m, creating geographic disparities in heat relief accessibility; (2) Threshold-driven equity barriers: PLS-SEM identifies nonlinear landscape-cooling relationships, where green space coverage (+1.6065 path coefficient) and water body proportion exhibit critical thresholds beyond which marginalized communities gain diminishing accessibility benefits; (3) Systematic accessibility inequity: 43.48% of residential areas lack cooling access within a 15-min walk, while 52% of parks demonstrate supply-demand mismatches dominated by ‘low supply-high demand’ patterns. An equity-centric optimization matrix proposes: (a) high-demand urban cores require distributed pocket green spaces, and (b) peripheral areas need enhanced connectivity for existing park utilization. This framework advances spatial justice in urban heat resilience planning by synchronizing biophysical performance with human-centric accessibility needs.