Equity of cooling services of urban green spaces from the perspective of community life circles: Integrating cooling effects, service quality, and resident preferences

• Combining effect, quality, and preferences for green space cooling equity evaluation. • Cooling accessibility pronounced disparities at the urban-rural interface. • There is great inequity in the cooling service of green space in Fuzhou. Urban green spaces help mitigate urban heat, yet the equity of their cooling services remains insufficiently examined. Existing equity assessments often emphasize the quantity of green space while overlooking qualitative attributes and resident preferences. This study analyzes 52 green spaces in Fuzhou and develops an integrated framework to assess the equity of cooling services by combining cooling performance, service quality, and user preferences. The evaluation covers cooling intensity, accessibility, and spatial equity. The results show that: (1) cooling performance varies substantially across the city, with large peripheral parks providing strong cooling effects, whereas many small centrally located green spaces offer limited cooling; (2) cooling accessibility exhibits a “core clusters—peripheral gaps—local hotspots” pattern, indicating pronounced disparities at the urban–rural interface; and (3) overall cooling equity remains low as high-quality cooling services are unevenly allocated relative to population needs, and extending travel-time thresholds does little to correct this imbalance. The study’s primary contribution is integrating cooling effects, service quality, and resident preferences into a comprehensive equity assessment framework, offering valuable guidance for green space planning and promoting environmental justice.