Descriptive and Network Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the Urban Public Space through Social Media: A Case Study of Bryant Park, NY

Bo Zhang, Yang Song, Dingyi Liu, Zhongzhong Zeng, Shuying Guo, Qiuyi Yang, Yuhan Wen, Wenji Wang () and Xiwei Shen ()
Additional contact information
Bo Zhang: Department of Landscape Architecture, Oklahoma State University, 107 Whitehurst, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Yang Song: Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas A&M University, 400 Bizzell St, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Dingyi Liu: School of Architecture, Beijing Jiao Tong University, Haidian District, Beijing 100044, China
Zhongzhong Zeng: School of Architecture, Beijing Jiao Tong University, Haidian District, Beijing 100044, China
Shuying Guo: Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning Group, Wageningen University and Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Qiuyi Yang: School for Environment and Suitability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Yuhan Wen: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China
Wenji Wang: Department of Landscape Architecture, Shanghai Academy of Landscape Architecture Science and Planning, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200232, China
Xiwei Shen: Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: In modern cities, urban public spaces, such as parks, gardens, plazas, and streets, play a big role in people’s social activities, physical activities, mental health, and overall well-being. However, the traditional post-occupancy evaluation (POE) process for public spaces such as large urban parks is extremely difficult, especially for long-term user experiences through observations, surveys, and interviews. On the other hand, social media has emerged as a major media outlet recording millions of user experiences to the public, which provides opportunities to inform how public space is used and perceived by users. Furthermore, unlike previous research that primarily presented descriptive characters of park programs, our study employs a network model to elucidate the interactive relationships and intensities among reported park elements, human activities, and experiences. This approach enables us to track the sources within the space that impact people’s perceptions, such as weather conditions, food options, and notable landmarks. The utilization of this network model opens avenues for future research to comprehensively investigate the factors shaping people’s perceptions in public open spaces. This study uses Bryant Park as an example and presents a new analytical framework, POSE (post-occupancy social media evaluation), to support long-term POE studies for large public spaces. Methods such as data automation, descriptive statistics, and social network analysis were used. The identification and quantification of meaningful park activities, scenes, and sentiments as well as their relationships will help optimize the design and management of park programs.

Keywords: public space; urban development; post-occupancy evaluation; landscape performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/7/1403/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/7/1403/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:1403-:d:1192934

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().