A Study on City Recreation Image Appraisal: A case study of Nanchang City

Appraisal of city recreation image is of importance to urban recreational environment planning.Based on questionnaires of residents' recreation image of Nanchang City,the author explored the characteristics and components of the recreation image appraisal of Nanchang using the structure(factor analysis and analysis of variance) and the non-structure(free talk and open questionnaires) methods.Furthermore,differences in the recreation image appraisal of Nanchang and its influencing factors were analyzed using the single factor variance analytic method.Results indicate that:1) Combination of structure and non-structure methods appears to be an effective way to assess city recreational image.The non-structural method can be used to define the integrity and uniqueness of city recreational image appraisal,whereas the structure method not only defines the components of city recreational image appraisal but also provides quantitative data.Characteristics of city recreational image appraisal can be generally derived by combing qualitative and quantitative methods.2) The recreation image appraisal from residents in Nanchang can be positive and negative.The sound natural environment is the first positive city image of Nanchang.Warm and comfortable feelings suggest close ties of residents and a sense of residential area,which reflect levels of city image appraisal.The negative evaluation concentrates mainly on the aspects of the urban construction environment,health status,traffic order,and the degree of congestion,which are of close correlation with residents' recreation and living environments.3) The total recreation image appraisal of Nanchang is ordinary.Heroic and ecologic city is the most attractive and competitive recreation image of Nanchang.Natural environments and historical culture characters are two key factors of recreation image.Natural environments can primarily be indicative of the space of the city and its lakes and a sound blend of the natural environment.Historical culture characters tend to show a long cultural history and the unique red revolution.4) Certain differences in recreation image appraisal of Nanchang City are incurred not only by the elements of economy,society,environment,recreation places,and representative local features of the city but also by factors of residents' type,gender,the length of inhabitant time,and inhabitant areas.