Evaluation of Cultural Ecosystem Services in the Urban Parks of Macau from a Cultural Heritage Perspective

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) provided by 12 major urban parks on the Macau Peninsula were quantitatively evaluated using social media data. Furthermore, the potential implications of these findings for cultural heritage preservation and landscape design optimization were investigated. A CES evaluation framework consisting of six dimensions was established. User-generated content (UGC) was then collected using web-crawling techniques. A sentiment analysis based on natural language processing (NLP) and a spatial clustering analysis were subsequently performed on the collected data. Significant differences between CES dimensions were identified across Macau’s urban parks (F = 19.45, p < 0.01). Among the CES dimensions, esthetic appreciation (M = 76.04) and landscape experience (M = 72.47) received the highest scores. Moreover, landscape experience was found to have the strongest influence on visitors’ emotional evaluations (β = 0.95, p < 0.01). The spatial autocorrelation analysis indicated that the CES distribution did not exhibit significant clustering patterns (Z = 0.59). Based on these findings, it is recommended that educational functions be enhanced, public facilities upgraded, and local cultural heritage integrated into landscape and spatial planning. This research provides a novel CES quantification method based on social media data. It also offers theoretical and practical frameworks for urban planning and cultural heritage conservation in Macau.