Responding to “city cooling action”: Assessing and visualizing community-level urban park cooling service performance in Nanjing, China

Although previous studies have confirmed the urban park cooling effects (UPCE), it is unclear how their cooling services are connected to and equitably distributed among users. In response to the "urban cooling action" in cities across China, this study links the cooling intensity and multimodal Ga2SFCA (MM-Ga2SFCA) to develop a methodology framework to assess the community-level urban park cooling service performance (UPCSP) per capita. Taking the highly urbanized Nanjing central districts (NCDs) as an example, the main conclusions are: (1) The average cooling magnitude of 200 parks on August 12, 2022, September 18, 2021 and October 4, 2021 was 2.22 °C; the average maximum cooling scale (MCS), maximum cooling efficiency (MCE), cumulative cooling intensity (CCI) and cumulative cooling gradient (CCG) were 41.29 ha, 2.99 times, 89.41 °C*m² and 0.70 °C, respectively. (2) The average comprehensive service performance of 545 communities within 5, 10, and 15 min were 117.97 °C*m², 212.04 °C*m², and 264.83 °C*m², respectively. (3) The spatial differences of UPCSP were mainly affected by the spatial layout of urban parks and their internal and external physical environments. These findings can provide useful implications for improving and balancing the UPCSP among communities.