The Quality Inequity of the Ecosystem Services delivered by Green Spaces: Evidence from 226 Urban Parks in Hangzhou, China

The Quality Inequity of the Ecosystem Services delivered by Green Spaces: Evidence from 226 Urban Parks in Hangzhou, China | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Quality Inequity of the Ecosystem Services delivered by Green Spaces: Evidence from 226 Urban Parks in Hangzhou, China Jiajun Huang, Qinghai Guo, Gang Lian This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6475265/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 30 Jul, 2025 Read the published version in Urban Ecosystems → Version 1 posted 8 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Green spaces are vital for the urban ecosystem, providing urban residents with diverse ecosystem services. However, the heterogeneity in spatial locations and landscape configurations, caused the variousness of ecosystem services quality of green spaces. Previous studies mainly examined the spatial equity of ecosystem services based on quantitative factors like distance and scale. However, the quality equity of ecosystem service of green space remains unclear. We studied 226 urban park green spaces(UPGS) in Hangzhou and constructed the Ecosystem Service Quality Index (ESQI) to evaluate regional equity and analyze driving factors by the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve. Results showed that (1) 77.43% of urban parks had moderately low ESQIs (0.100–0.230), with spatially heterogeneous distribution. (2) There was a high degree of spatial unfairness regarding the park area, the number of points of interest of service facilities, the proportion of water bodies, the effective grid area, the number of patches, and the total edge length. (3) Heterogeneity in the spatial distribution and internal landscape patterns of UPGSs caused significant spatial unfairness in ecosystem service quality. (4) The main driving factors influencing the ecosystem services quality consisted with natural factors(green cover and impervious cove) and location factors(Park Cooling Index). The quantitative characteristics of urban green space cannot reflect the level of ecosystem service quality. Urban ecological construction should not simply focus on increasing the UPGSs quantity, rather it is more crucial to improve the ecosystem services quality of UPGS. Urban park Green space ecosystem Ecosystem services quality Inequity Gini coefficient Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterial.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 30 Jul, 2025 Read the published version in Urban Ecosystems → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 11 Jun, 2025 Reviews received at journal 12 May, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 May, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 30 Apr, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 28 Apr, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 24 Apr, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 22 Apr, 2025 First submitted to journal 17 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6475265","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":450037387,"identity":"26397540-3ea6-4368-862f-9d8180bd6054","order_by":0,"name":"Jiajun Huang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang Sci-Tech University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jiajun","middleName":"","lastName":"Huang","suffix":""},{"id":450037388,"identity":"73592e63-aa9e-47c7-b40d-dc437ed2c1c4","order_by":1,"name":"Qinghai Guo","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAw0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCRBRAeXwEK/lDFQ18VoY20jRwne7/ZrEx3l19vYSCYwP3rYxyJsT0iJ550yZ5MxtbIk9EgnMhnPbGAx3NhDQYnAjJ02adxtPAo9EAps0bxtDgsEBorTMkbAHamH/TaSW9GPSvA0GjECHsTETpUXyRg6z5YxjCYk9Zx42S845J2G4gZAWvhvpD298qKmzZ29PPvjhTZmNPEFbGA7wGEBZjA0M0JglpIX9ARGqRsEoGAWjYEQDAL4mO5gFTDkBAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang Sci-Tech University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qinghai","middleName":"","lastName":"Guo","suffix":""},{"id":450037389,"identity":"27b99d4d-11ce-4ce3-b66a-f35bc6486803","order_by":2,"name":"Gang Lian","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center of Zhejiang Province","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gang","middleName":"","lastName":"Lian","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-18 02:23:05","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6475265/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6475265/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-025-01780-w","type":"published","date":"2025-07-30T16:13:15+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":88268209,"identity":"a0994fa7-7f75-4c1e-9034-ca853717ad83","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-04 16:50:03","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1330077,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptincludingAuthorIdentifiers.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6475265/v1_covered_ee470415-bd18-4885-8b09-74eeecc1b01e.pdf"},{"id":81996995,"identity":"02b8a967-c077-4da3-aceb-61454fda5805","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-05 18:20:21","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":199746,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryMaterial.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6475265/v1/8fbf66a7b981cc55ac676534.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The Quality Inequity of the Ecosystem Services delivered by Green Spaces: Evidence from 226 Urban Parks in Hangzhou, China","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"urban-ecosystems","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"ueco","sideBox":"Learn more about [Urban Ecosystems](https://www.springer.com/journal/11252)","snPcode":"11252","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11252/3","title":"Urban Ecosystems","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Urban park, Green space ecosystem, Ecosystem services quality, Inequity, Gini coefficient","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6475265/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6475265/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eGreen spaces are vital for the urban ecosystem, providing urban residents with diverse ecosystem services. However, the heterogeneity in spatial locations and landscape configurations, caused the variousness of ecosystem services quality of green spaces. Previous studies mainly examined the spatial equity of ecosystem services based on quantitative factors like distance and scale. However, the quality equity of ecosystem service of green space remains unclear. We studied 226 urban park green spaces(UPGS) in Hangzhou and constructed the Ecosystem Service Quality Index (ESQI) to evaluate regional equity and analyze driving factors by the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve. Results showed that (1) 77.43% of urban parks had moderately low ESQIs (0.100\u0026ndash;0.230), with spatially heterogeneous distribution. (2) There was a high degree of spatial unfairness regarding the park area, the number of points of interest of service facilities, the proportion of water bodies, the effective grid area, the number of patches, and the total edge length. 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