The relationship between urban parks and demographic-sociological factors: focusing on spatial regression analysis

In contemporary urban environments, parks play a critical role in maintaining both physical and mental health, providing opportunities for relaxation and social interaction, thereby enhancing the quality of life and serving as a key strategy for sustainable urban development. This study aims to investigate whether urban parks are adequately supplied to citizens by examining them as public goods and analyzing the relationship between urban parks and demographic-sociological factors. The goal is to provide foundational data necessary for the expansion of urban parks and the establishment of related services. This study examined 228 cities and districts nationwide, utilizing spatial autocorrelation verification and spatial regression analysis, which assume spatial dependencies among key variables, rather than the traditional general regression analysis that presupposes the independence of variables. The findings are as follows. First, spatial autocorrelation among key variables was observed from both global and local perspectives, confirming the spatial dependency condition. From a global perspective, an increase in the per capita park area in a particular region also leads to an increase in adjacent regions, whereas local perspectives exhibit varying trends depending on the area. Second, an increase in the elderly population ratio, working-age population ratio, and poverty population ratio was found to decrease per capita park area, whereas an increase in the ratio of old housing increased per capita park area. These results suggest that demographic-sociological factors such as the working-age population, elderly population, poverty population, and old housing should be considered in the supply of urban parks. Additionally, the spatial effects between adjacent cities should be considered.