Exploring the Determinants and Consequences of Public Satisfaction with Urban Waterfronts: A Case Study of the Xuhui Waterfront in Shanghai, China

Waterfront redevelopment has become an effective catalyst to promote urban renewal and sustainable development. Typically, researchers have investigated this phenomenon from the perspective of the relationship between waterfronts and cities with less attention paid to public subjective well-being. Against this background, employing the customer satisfaction theory, this paper developed a waterfront public satisfaction index model to systematically investigate the crucial determinants and associated consequences of public satisfaction with waterfronts. Through structural equation modeling, an empirical analysis was performed on the questionnaire data of 240 visitors to the Xuhui Waterfront in Shanghai, China. The results reveal that service facility and public expectation are the most important factors determining public satisfaction, followed by spatial design and perceived value. However, public expectation does not have a remarkable direct impact on public satisfaction and only indirectly affects public satisfaction through service facility, spatial design, and perceived value. Moreover, it is ascertained that public satisfaction plays a crucial role in affecting public support and complaint toward waterfront redevelopment. These empirical results could provide new insights for city authorities and planners to design effective strategies to improve public satisfaction and promote urban waterfront revitalization.