Role of Urban Public Space and the Surrounding Environment in Promoting Sustainable Development from the Lens of Social Media

The development of mobile social network has shown the power to change the ways people gather and communicate in urban public spaces (UPSs). In this study, we utilized a check-in database collected from Instagram in 2016 and 2017 in two central districts of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to analyze the city dynamics and activities over the course of the day. By quantifying the popularity of contemporary UPSs, a comprehensive study was conducted on many attraction features spreading over the two central districts. Pearson’s correlation was used to explore the proximity and attractiveness associated with the surrounding environment of three types of UPSs. The results show that the lifetime of UPSs is very stable during weekdays and weekends. Within that, commercial UPSs are proved to play a dominant role in urban dynamics. This paper’s finding is at odds with the urban planning stereotype that public facilities often help people to get around. In the case of HCMC, it has proved the opposite: people are attracted to urban public spaces even though there are not many cultural and social specialties there. The results will contribute to enhancing the predictability of each UPS on socio-economic performance and to understanding of the role of urban facilities in urban sustainability.