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Evaluating low-carbon construction of urban green spaces in China through a process management perspective

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Abstract

Urban green spaces are vital carbon sinks and play a central role in low-carbon city development. However, traditional evaluations often focus on outcome indicators such as green space area and greening rate, neglecting the governance performance within the construction process. To bridge this gap, we introduce a five-process PDCOA (Plan–Do–Check–Outcome–Act) framework, applying Python-based web scraping and automated text mining to conduct an integrated assessment of 296 prefecture-level cities in China. Our results reveal a national average score of 44.10, with scores ranging from 10.42 to 92.81 (Beijing). Significant regional disparities emerge, with East China (mean score: 50.08) leading the nation, while regions like Southern China (38.25) lag considerably. The process evaluation uncovers a systemic imbalance: while cities perform relatively well in the P (59.81) and D (57.60) processes, they falter in the C (38.94), A (36.10) and O (31.21) processes. This study demonstrates that effective governance, not resource endowment, determines success in low-carbon green space development. It underscores the urgent need to shift from outcome-only metrics to process-driven continuous improvement, prioritizing adaptive feedback mechanisms and differentiated spatial strategies to strengthen urban green space governance.

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Data availability

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of China under a grant no. 42307594 and no.42407638.

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  1. Yang Guo and Yuanjing Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Spatial Planning and Design, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou, 310015, China

    Yang Guo, Xiangrui Xu, Peng Zhan, Zeyu Cao, Yu Bai & Linshen Jiao

  2. School of Spatial Planning and Design, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou, 310015, China

    Yang Guo, Xiangrui Xu, Peng Zhan, Zeyu Cao, Yu Bai & Linshen Jiao

  3. Zhejiang University Urban Planning & Design Institute Co., Ltd, Hangzhou, 311100, China

    Yuanjing Zhang

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  1. Yang Guo
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Contributions

Yang Guo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—Review and Editing, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition. Yuanjing Zhang: Writing—Review and Editing.Xiangrui Xu: Resources, Methodology, Writing—Review and Editing. Peng Zhan: Writing—Original Draft Preparation. Zeyu Cao: Visualization. Yu Bai: Writing—Review and Editing. Linshen Jiao: Writing—Review and Editing.

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Xiangrui Xu or Peng Zhan.

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Guo, Y., Zhang, Y., Xu, X. et al. Evaluating low-carbon construction of urban green spaces in China through a process management perspective.
Sci Rep (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-33575-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-33575-6

Keywords

  • Low-carbon construction
  • Low-carbon city
  • Performance assessment
  • Urban green space
  • Process management

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