What influenced the vitality of the waterfront open space? A case study of Huangpu River in Shanghai, China

Abstract Urban waterfront open spaces are important gateways that reflect the image and characteristics of the city, and assessing their vitality has become a priority of studies in recent years. However, the data traditionally used to quantify the vitality of waterfront open spaces are often subjective and costly and laborious to procure. A method involving big data - real-time Tencent user density - has been proposed and demonstrated using Shanghai as a case study. We investigated how the site design, traffic accessibility, surrounding population, and service facilities of open spaces affected the density and stability of waterfront open space users. We used structural equation model to test four hypotheses of the relationship about above four aspects and the vitality. The results showed that the site design, surrounding population, and service facilities had significantly positive effect; traffic accessibility showed a negative effect on the vitality. The study findings could offer insights that are relevant to planning and design of urban waterfronts.