ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1610497
Can Pocket Parks be Compared to Community Parks in the Restoration Effect of Physical and Mental Health for Young Adults? A Comparative Experiment in High-density Urban Green Spaces
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, Beijing, China
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Urban intensification limits the availability of green space, leading to the rise of pocket parks as a strategy approach to urban greening. Unlike conventional community parks, pocket parks are smaller in scale and function, necessitating further investigation into their capacity to support psychophysiological restoration. Specifically, understanding which landscape elements within pocket parks most effectively facilitate recovery in young adults is essential to determining whether these spaces can achieve restorative outcomes comparable to those of larger community parks. This study examines the restorative efficacy of pocket parks by comparing two pocket parks and two community parks in Nanjing, each representing distinct typologiesone prioritizing vegetation and the other prioritizing artificial environments, including hardscape activity zones. Eighty participants (aged 18-28) were randomly assigned to different park types, where their psychological and physiological responses were assessed using standardized surveys and biometric measurements. The findings indicate that, despite their smaller size, well-designed pocket parks with diverse landscape features significantly enhance users' psychological relaxation and emotional well-being, achieving restorative effects comparable to those of community parks. Notably, this research highlights the critical role of hardscape activity areas in promoting restoration among young adults, an overlooked aspect of park design. These results underscore the imperative of prioritizing "quality" in park design and renovations, advocating for integrating diverse landscape elements within limited spaces to optimize holistic recovery in urban environments 1
Keywords: pocket park, Community Park, Public Health, Restoration effect, Green space, Urban forest
Received: 15 Apr 2025; Accepted: 14 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Hu, Wei and Xie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yunhong Hu, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
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