Abstract:Urban parks have social, economic, ecological and health benefits. Scientific evaluation of urban park use potential is beneficial to improve the service level of urban public space and is of great significance to the improvement of residents' life quality. This paper reviews the development process of ParkIndex and its practice. The development of ParkIndex includes three processes, respectively, developing the prototype of ParkIndex, conducting key informant interviews and pilot tests. The resulting ParkIndex model contains three variables, namely, the number of parks, total park acreage, and average park quality score within 0.804 km (one half-mile). Then, a practice was carried out in a community in Brooklyn, New York, to study the influence of variable change on ParkIndex value. Its application field and future development direction are also discussed. Finally, the paper provides inspirations for the development of urban park use evaluation system in China: the combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods become a trend; establish perfect and scientific urban spatial database; the evaluation index system of urban park use should have high adaptability and effectiveness; the evaluation of urban park use should include many opinions and be people-oriented.
