Open space use Behaviour-mapping analysis

The project provides people with a large public space that is close to the wet-land wet-landscape. According to on-site behaviour-mapping analysis, people mainly walk in Cultural Center Wetland Park. The most active park use area is located along patches determined by paths, as shown in Figure 6.23 below.

Figure 6.23 Behaviour-mapping in Harbin Culture Center Wetland Park.

Four groups are divided according to gender, age, activity type, and gender mix activity type.

What typical activities can be seen? Where are these activities?

Walking was recorded mostly in the park, followed by photographing. The lo-cations of people walking or photographing were mostly along patches deter-mined by paths (see Figure 6.24), especially along the raised boardwalks.

Which visitor groups have the most recorded visits? Where are they?

In the areas of the paths and boardwalks, mainly male or female young visitors walk and take photographs. Senior visitors mostly walk on the path along the wetland area.

Figure 6.24 Typical use in Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park.

Note. 1–3. Walking along the raised boardwalks. 4. Taking wedding photos in the north of the park. 5. Photographing on the boardwalk. 6. Sitting on the platforms.

Evaluation of the five aspects of open space use

An evaluation of the five aspects of open space use found that the benefits of Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park are mainly reflected in features, aesthetics, and access (see Table 6.11). They specifically include increasing natural features, supporting recreation, providing beautiful scenery with nature and greenery, and improving access to open space.

Table 6.11 Potential effects and evidence of open space use of Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park

Open

space use Benefits and effects Evidence Source

Features • Increasing natural features

Large-area and various types of vegeta-tion

My field research

• Supporting

recre-ation Viewing platforms, walking trails and paths, resting groves

My field research

Aesthetics • Providing beautiful scenery with nature and greenery

Lush vegetation with wild animals;

opportunity to penetrate the groves and meadows

Features

The park has good natural resources, mainly composed of natural water systems and river beach oases, as well as intertwined trees and aquatic plants. In addi-tion to preserving trees, shrubs, ground cover plants, and aquatic plants in the original location, the park has replanted a large amount of native vegetation. In addition, viewing platforms, walking trails and paths, resting groves, and other facilities are available to support people’s access and activities.

Aesthetics

The park offers the opportunity for people to get in touch with nature and with green beauty. For example, lush vegetation attracts a variety of wild animals, with a network of walking trails and bridges above the wetlands, allowing visi-tors to come into contact with nature without disturbing animal activities. At the same time, the continuous walking network also leads people to penetrate the groves and meadows, providing a rich experience for visitors.

Access

The park has improved the accessibility of the open spaces of the surrounding residents. The completely barrier-free recreation system is designed to allow people of all physical conditions to enter and touch nature.

6.6.3 Ecological concerns

The ecological evaluation found that the benefits of Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park are mainly reflected in consideration of biodiversity, restoring the natural structure, and storm water retention (see Table 6.12). They specifically include increasing species diversity, improving water quality, and storing storm water.

Table 6.12 Potential effects and evidence of ecological aspects of Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park

Ecological aspects Benefits and effects Evidence Source Consideration of

biodi-versity • Increasing

spe-cies diversity Forest and grass cover area has increased;

structure • Improving water

quality The filter swales and pools

around the wetlands My field research;

(Turenscape, 2015) Storm water retention • Storm water

retention 20,000 cubic meters of water handled during the rainy season

My field research;

(Turenscape, 2015)

Consideration of biodiversity

After the park has been built, the number and types of vegetation has signifi-cantly increased. For example, according to the analysis of site GIS data and on-site field calculations by Liu (2016), the natural succession of plants has covered most of the bare soil, and the forest and grass cover area has increased by more than 120,000 m² from 2012 to 2016. In addition, the site has diverse habitats, as well as many aquatic animals and rare birds, such as Podiceps grisegena, a na-tional second-class protected species in China.

Restoring the natural structure

Before the rainwater flows into the centre of the wetland, the swales and pools around the wetlands can reduce the sediment and suspend solids and heavy metals from storm water. In addition, the 1,500 m³ of tail water discharged from the nearby waterworks first enters the wetland for purification and then flows into the river (Turenscape, 2015).

Storm water retention

This wetland park collects a large amount of storm water from the Southern Cul-tural Center and the Northern District of the city. The wetland system combines the surrounding pools and swales to handle 20,000 m³ of water during the rainy season (Turenscape, 2015).

6.6.4 Summary

The benefits of Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park are identified and summa-rized in this section (see Figure 6.25). Benefits in open space use mainly include increasing natural features, supporting recreation, providing beautiful scenery with nature and greenery, and improving access to open space. The ecological effects mainly include increasing species diversity, improving water quality, and storing storm water.

The design measures and effects have also been analysed and are summarized in Figure 6.25. Design measures such as ‘A1.1: Paths within the floodplain’, ‘A4.5:

Raised boardwalks and platforms’, and ‘A6.1: Boardwalks near banks’ support recreation. ‘A2.1: Reshaping the floodplain with more gently sloping banks’

also supports recreation, provides beautiful scenery, increases biodiversity, and stores storm water. ‘A2.2: Vernal pools’ helps to increase natural features and beautiful scenery, and serves to increase biodiversity, improve water quality and store storm water.

Figure 6.25 Design measures and benefits matrix in Harbin Cultural Central Park

Reflection

This project has basically achieved its design goals in terms of ecological consid-erations, such as flood control and water purification. In terms of open space use, there are slight deficiencies in terms of security enhancements and park conditions. Although the design team introduced a ranch project, with the intro-duction of livestock to control the length of natural plants to achieve low main-tenance, the effect is not particularly good. According to my on-site investiga-tion, the vegetation growth in some areas is very poor and the equipment lacks maintenance. In addition, there is little research and only a few studies have evaluated the Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park. Subsequent recommenda-tions may include appropriate maintenance measures and a regular assessment system to detect the growth and condition of park plants.

6.7 Summary

The summary results of the park benefits and design measures are shown in Figure 6.26. All parks have realised the benefits of open space use, including increasing natural features, supporting recreation, and improving access to open space, as well as the ecological benefits of increasing biodiversity and storm wa-ter retention. However, some of the potential benefits remain unrealised, such as the benefits of open space use, including providing education visits, providing a well-maintained environment, and enhancing safety concerns, as well as eco-logical benefits of integration with a green space network.

The analysis and summary of the design measure and the benefits of the park show that the selected design measures of these cases are largely consistent with the evaluation results of these parks (see Figure 6.26). For example, in Yan-weizhou Park and Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park, some design measures such as ‘A1.4: Submersible vegetation’, ‘A3.4: Plants embankment’, and ‘A5.2:

Terraced wetlands’ help to increase natural features. Some other measures such as ‘A1.1: Paths within the floodplain’, ‘A1.3: Social event grounds’, and ‘A4.3:

Bridge over the water’ are used to support recreation. Still others, such as ‘A3.1:

Terraced bank’ and ‘A2.2: Vernal pools’, are used to increase biodiversity, and

‘A1.2: Submersible platforms’ and ‘A2.1: Reshaping the floodplain with more gently sloping banks’ help to store storm water.

These design measures have basically achieved their intended purposes, and one design measure may carry multiple benefits. For example, design measure

‘A2.1: Reshaping the floodplain with more gently sloping banks’ helps to sup-port recreation, increase biodiversity, and store storm water. ‘A2.2: Vernal pools’

helps to increase natural features and serves to increase biodiversity, improve water quality, and store storm water.

As for the behaviour-mapping analysis and activity statistics of the six parks, as shown in Table 6.13, the results tell us that the number of people’s activities and the variety of types of activities in some parks are relatively high, for example, Qiaoyuan Park, Harbin Cultural Center Wetland Park, and Olympics Forest Park.

These parks have realised more benefits in terms of open space use and ecologi-cal aspects than other ones.

Table 6.13 Sum of number of people involved in activities for all six observed parks

Limitations and future direction

It should be noted that the results of the design strategy and benefit evaluation are not completely coincidental. For example, some effects are not reflected in existing design measures, which may be due to other factors such as park management, maintenance, the location of the park, or demographic factors. In addition, certain strategies and measures may have other potential benefits that are not fully considered in this study. Later evaluators and researchers can also combine these other factors and tap into more potential benefits in the assess-ment.