Vitality Analysis and Improvement of Micro Urban Spaces in Cold Regions

Evidence from Harbin, China

Abstract

In the context of urban public spaces, which tend to be shrunk and humanistic, micro urban spaces (MUSs) might offer residents additional opportunities for public activities to occur because of their small scale, discrete distribution, and frequent interaction. Cold cities have severe climatic restrictions; thus, as the seasons change, MUSs in cold regions are more significant than medium- and large-scale public spaces. To investigate how MUSs in cold regions contribute to enhancing urban vitality during transition seasons, a system of indicators was developed for the measurement of the intensity of public activities and the environmental elements of MUSs in cold regions. Then, a typical cold city, namely Harbin, China, was selected for research, and 93 samples of independent and dependent MUSs were chosen for investigation. Based on the results of behavior mapping, multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationships between the vitality of various types of urban MUSs in cold cities and their environmental elements. The results show that function, greenery, and public facilities are three categories of environmental factors that significantly affect the vitality of urban MUSs, with greenery and function having stronger relationships with independent and dependent MUSs, respectively. Finally, according to the results, design and optimization suggestions for different types of MUSs in cold regions are put forward.