Research on the Matching Relationship between the Supply of Urban Ecological Recreational Space and the Demand of Residents—A Case Study of an Urban Development Area in Wuhan

An urban ecological recreational space (UERS), which connects the natural environment with urban residents, is an important guarantee for developing a livable city and improving the well-being of residents. However, there is a serious imbalance between the supply of UERSs and the demand of residents in many big, rapidly developing cities. Previous studies usually used indicators such as scale or quantity to measure the supply level of UERS enjoyed by residents, ignoring its own quality differences. Therefore, taking the urban development area of Wuhan as the research object, we measured the quality of UERS from four dimensions using the entropy method and designed a method to measure the supply service level under the hierarchical travel threshold to analyze the supply level of UERSs based on a community unit. Finally, combined with the demand characteristics of different groups, the matching relationship between supply and demand of UERSs in each community is quantitatively analyzed. The results show the following: (1) The quality of UERS in urban development area of Wuhan varies greatly and its distribution is extremely uneven. (2) The level of supply services and the demand level vary greatly, and the overall performance has a trend of decreasing from the city center to the periphery. (3) The overall matching relationship between supply and demand of UERS is not ideal, and more than half of the communities are in supply deficit or without services. Our study provides a novel perspective on quantifying the supply–demand relationship of UERS. It can more accurately guide decision-makers and planners in determining areas with mismatches between the supply and demand of UERSs and in making targeted layouts of UERSs and relevant policies.