Using Public Participation Geographic Information System to Study Social Cohesion and Its Relationship with Activities and Specific Landscape Characteristics in Shanghai’s Modern Historic Parks

Evaluating the perceptions of social cohesion provides an elaborated understanding of the commemorative values of modern heritage. However, little attention has been paid to China’s modern historic parks (MHPs) due to the difficulty of capturing spatially explicit information. Utilizing a public participation GIS, we quantified four types of social cohesion in Shanghai’s existing MHPs, and analyzed their relationships with different types of activities and specific landscape features. The results show that the MHPs are rich in social cohesion, especially in belonging and place attachment. Social cohesion is spatially associated with leisure and sightseeing activities. The perception of different types of social cohesion varies across spaces with different landscape features. Our findings validate the composition of commemorative values of MHPs, and offer a reference for balancing the preservation and regeneration of modern heritage.