Existing studies on urban public space vitality predominantly focus on single temporal scales or macro-urban levels, lacking a systematic understanding of day–night and weekday–weekend differentiation patterns at the meso-scale. This study examines 149 public spaces in the Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, employing Baidu heatmap data and the geographically weighted random forest (GWRF) model to analyze built environment impacts across four temporal scenarios. The SHAP interaction analysis is incorporated to quantitatively evaluate factor interdependencies and their temporal variations. Findings reveal significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Building density shows greater night-time importance while residential density exhibits enhanced daytime importance, particularly on weekend. Weekday–weekend comparison demonstrates contrasting spatial reorganization patterns, with weekday showing divergence and weekend showing convergence in factor importance distributions. The factor interaction analysis highlights stable synergistic relationships between density and diversity, alongside temporal transitions in density–residential density interactions from competitive to synergistic during night-time. Low-vitality public spaces are concentrated in peripheral areas with high building density but insufficient commercial facilities and functional mix. These findings deepen our understanding of the spatiotemporal mechanisms underlying public space vitality generation and the interaction effects among built environment factors, thereby providing an empirical foundation for the formulation of temporally adaptive planning strategies.
Yang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.