Quantifying the spatiality of urban leisure venues in Wuhan, Central China - GIS-based spatial pattern metrics

Due to the rapid socio-economic development, citizens are approaching a leisure era during which they are pursuing more psychological needs towards lifting the quality of life. Leisure venues act as the spatial carriers of leisure activities. The spatiality of leisure venues is closely linked with both cities' intelligent growth and citizens' life quality. We highlight the need for quantifying the leisure spatial configuration to guide citizens' healthy leisure lifestyle, to optimize urban planning and to promote people-centered urbanization transition. This article aims to quantitatively characterize the spatiality of leisure venues via a series of geospatial techniques for leisure spatial pattern metrics. The Metropolitan Development Zone (MDZ) of Wuhan City is selected as the study site. Research findings are concluded that: 1) A three-level urban polycentric structure is identified. 2) The gradient variation of leisure venues is found. That is, leisure venue gradient density decreases with the distance from urban centers increasing. 3) The gradient effects of the four sub-types of leisure venues (i.e., tourist, cultural, sportive and recreational sites) are all highly fitted to the power function. 4) A significant correlation exists between the leisure spatiality and the demographic distribution. The research facilitates political strategies-making of sustainable urban spatial development.