Assessing cultural ecosystem services supply–demand balance of urban parks in the context of old and new urban districts

Rapid urbanization and people's growing spiritual demand make urban spaces face the problem of green space allocation, especially the mismatch between the supply and demand of cultural ecosystem services (CES). The matching degree of supply and demand of CESs is significantly related to the well-being of urban residents. However, few existing studies have compared the supply and demand of CES from the perspective of old and new urban districts. This study constructed a theoretical framework oriented to four functions (aesthetic appreciation, recreation and leisure, educational opportunities, history and culture) based on subjective and objective evaluation and spatial autocorrelation analysis in order to map the supply–demand matching pattern of CES in urban parks at the community scale. The Qinhuai district of Nanjing, where the division between old and new urban districts is relatively obvious, is used as the study area to explore the influence of old and new urban districts on the supply–demand balance. Results showed that: (1) the CES supply in urban parks had high spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the service supply capacity decreased radially centered on large and medium-sized comprehensive parks; (2) the CES demand took on an obvious trend of gradual decrease from the northwest to the southeast, with obvious spatial heterogeneity; (3) mismatches were found between service supply and demand at the community scale, the overall matching degree in new urban districts was better than in old urban districts. These findings can provide a valuable exploration for optimizing urban park configuration and improving service efficiency under the background of stock planning.