Assessing the correlation between park view elements and exercise physiological indicators of walkers, joggers, and runners: a case study of Century Park in Shanghai.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the correlation between park view elements and their combinations on the heart rate (HR) and speed of walkers, joggers, and runners in different groups of people's profiles and walking types, provide suggestions for the planning and design of walking suitability of walking trails in parks, and guide people with different walking needs to scientifically choose walking trails in parks.

METHODS

Profile data and exercise data of users who recorded walking activities in Century Park are collected on Strava, and the park view images (PVIs) were taken and segmented semantically. Data are grouped according to gender, age, weight and exercise type, and the quantitative relationship between HR, speed and 17 park view elements is studied by Spearman correlation analysis.

RESULTS

(1) The influence of the same park view elements on the exercise physiological indicators of different genders is small; (2) Park view elements combination based on sky, grass-plant and tree can better stabilize the walking HR of the older adult; (3) Semi-enclosed trail dominated by tree can improve the walking HR and speed of people with larger body weight; (4) Natural routes dominated by sidewalk-path and supplemented by tree and sky elements are more suitable for walking, while the trails with larger sky area, no trees and wider trails are more suitable for running.