Which affects park satisfaction more, environmental features or spatial pattern?

Abstract Context Improving the quality of urban parks is important for effective planning and sustainable management, with resident satisfaction serving as a key indicator. Current research usually favours analyses focused on single environmental features while ignoring the influence of spatial composition and configuration. Objective This study aims to investigate the relationships among environmental features, spatial patterns and park satisfaction in urban parks. Methods We collected review texts and remote sensing data from Dianping and Google Earth to quantify the environmental features and spatial patterns of 114 parks in Chengdu, China, including comprehensive, community, pocket and specialised parks. Regression analysis was conducted to reveal their relationships with park satisfaction. Results (1) The effect of environmental features on park satisfaction is linear, while the effect of spatial pattern on satisfaction has an optimal range. In terms of environmental features, satisfaction with flowers, facilities, water quality and animals in the park is an important factor in improving satisfaction. With regard to spatial pattern, the largest patch of impervious surface in the park contributes the most to satisfaction, followed by the largest patch of water bodies, and patch density negatively impacts satisfaction. (2) Environmental features and spatial pattern are equally important to satisfaction, with contributions of 53% and 47%, respectively. Conclusions Spatial pattern significantly impacts park satisfaction, especially impervious surfaces and water bodies. These findings provide valuable insights for the sustainable planning, design and management of parks.