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• New town UHI intensity and extent exceed urban averages. • UHI morphology reflects new town development patterns. • Tailored policies can be formulated based on UHI form. • Promote mixed-use by integrating commercial with institutional. • Similar thermal mechanisms from proximity and shared patterns. New town developments aim to improve spatial layout and quality of human habitats in metropolitan areas. However, due to high-density compact development and inadequate long-term land use planning, new towns are vulnerable to urban heat island effects. This study addresses this concern by analyzing five new towns in Shanghai, using spatial pattern analysis to examine morphological conditions of urban heat island and Point-of-Interest datasets to derive functional characteristics. Geodetector is then used to detect the influence of land use function density on urban heat island. Findings reveal that new towns are more prone to urban heat island effects, with core-type dominant in suburban new towns, loop-type in sprawling new towns, and bridge-type in regional new towns. The study proposed targeted strategies based on morphological characteristics, including greenbelt transformations for core-types and using greenbelts to interrupt bridge-type connections. Findings also reveal strong thermal influence from public services, interactive effects of parks with other functions, and lower thermal influence from mixed education and commercial developments. Similar thermal mechanisms stem from spatial proximity and similar development patterns in new towns. Incorporating these target strategies into planning practice enables urban planners and policymakers to develop effective interventions against urban heat island in new towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between dense urban development, often represented by high-rise buildings, and its location vis-à-vis metro stations reflects the connection between transportation infrastructure and land use intensity. Existing literature on high-rise buildings has focused either on developed countries or on cities where urban and public transit developments have occurred in an uncoordinated manner. This paper examines the following questions: What is the spatial proximity and spatial correlation between high-rise buildings and metro stations in different stages of development in various parts of the city? What were some of the factors that resulted in the observed patterns? The results suggest that buildings constructed after 2000 and buildings within the urban core/Shanghai Proper districts had a greater spatial proximity to the metro stations. However, the spatial correlation, measured by the number of high-rise buildings within a 500-m buffer from the nearest metro stations and the time-distance to these stations, is stronger in the outer districts than in the urban core. These differences can be accounted for by Shanghai's stages of urban development, the existence of metro infrastructure when high-rise development was undertaken, and the city's land use policies. This case study sheds light on the relationship between high-density developments and metro systems in other large cities in China and other developing countries where rapid urban development coincides with the establishment of a comprehensive public transit system. • Investigate the relationship between high-density development and its location vis-à-vis metro stations. • Understand the different spatial distribution patterns of high-rise buildings between suburban districts and urban core. • Application of the spatial proximity and spatial correlation measures between high-rise buildings and metro transit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equity of urban park access has received great attention from studies on public service provision. However, individuals' growing demands for recreational activities have brought diversity and complexity to park usages, drawing doubts on traditional measurements of park accessibility. To fill the gap, this study explores park equity issues with a dataset containing 12.03 million mobile phone users who accessed one of the 332 parks in Shanghai. We measured community-level park accessibility with two traditional place-based indicators – park area proportion and Gaussian-based 2SFCA accessibility, and three innovative activity-based indicators – park activity frequency, park activity trip length, and park activity duration. We then explored the geographic and social inequity by calculating Gini index and conducting correlation analysis. The results show that place-based and activity-based indicators presented citywide differences, indicating a significant impact of human activities on urban park accessibility. The geographic inequality of park distribution was undermined by people's actual park usages. However, residents in communities with higher quality of built-environment had higher park activity frequency while shorter trip length, and social inequity of park access among the total population was more obvious than the low-recreation-demand population. Therefore, policy-makers should rethink how to provide park resources to address the inequity issues brought by human activities. Our study contributes to the existing literature in the following ways: (1) compared place-based park accessibility and activity-based park accessibility in the same context, and (2) identified low-recreation-demand population as a comparison group to explore impacts of recreation demand on park equity. • Place-based and activity-based park accessibility presented a citywide difference. • Geographic unevenness of park distribution was undermined by people's actual park usages. • Park activity frequency of the low-mobility population demonstrates social inequity at the individual level. • The innovative park access inequity indicators can improve our understanding of park use injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]