A Decision-Making Framework for Child-Friendly Renewal of Residential Outdoor Activity Spaces Based on Design-to-Use Efficiency

As child-friendly city initiatives expand, the need for better outdoor spaces in residential communities is growing. At the same time, urban development is shifting toward the renewal of existing areas, where limited resources and practical constraints make investment priorities especially important. Conventional spatial quality assessments can reveal design deficiencies, but they cannot show how efficiently spatial inputs translate into actual use under different site conditions, nor can they determine which spaces and design elements should be improved first. This study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to develop a decision-support framework that integrates spatial quality and efficiency from an input–output perspective. Drawing on environmental audits and 1540 observations of children’s activities across 31 residential outdoor activity spaces in Dalian, the study evaluates efficiency in two stages: from site conditions to design quality, and from design quality to children’s actual use. Assessing efficiency at both stages helps identify where inefficiencies occur. It also extends conventional outcome-oriented assessments of spatial quality to a process-oriented analysis of how spatial inputs translate into use. The resulting three-level decision-support framework helps identify renewal priorities and targeted interventions. It can also guide the allocation of limited resources to improve residential outdoor spaces.