Association between relative surface temperature and urban park visits during excessive heat

Parks provide essential services for urban residents. In arid/semi-arid regions and urban areas in general, frequent extreme heat events and prolonged heat waves are threatening people’s visits and use of parks. A variety of heat indicators have been developed in the literature. Prior studies on the impact of thermal environments on park usage rarely examined the associations between site-level heat indicators and park visits and usage behaviors. In this study, we assess the impacts of heat on park visits and usage and identify site-level heat indicators that are significantly associated with individual park use behaviors. We combined in situ temperature measurements with observational data, employing a generalized linear mixed-effects model with a negative binomial distribution to identify associations between heat-related factors and park usage. The results show that relative surface temperature is negatively correlated with park visits in all seasons (coefficient −0.02, p <0.001) after controlling for other confounding factors. The study suggests that relative surface temperature may be a promising metric for assessing the microenvironments of parks exposed to heat and the impact of temperature on park visits and usage. This study provides valuable insights for guiding park design and management, with potential benefits for community health and well-being.