Qu Jia-yan, Wang Kun, Luo Yao, and Li Kang-kang

College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China

Abstract: The types of urban-rural recreational greenways were summarized, based on bicycle tourism and their planning methodology was explored. Taking the urban and rural areas of Harbin City as the research objects, the current situation of urban-rural recreational greenway environment and tourism resources was investigated and the evaluation system of bicycle tourism resources was established and tourism resources were evaluated according to the AHP-fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to select suitable resources for bicycle tourism. Through the ArcGIS software, the currently available resources (rivers, wetlands, transportations and urban-layout) and suitable bicycle tourism resources were superimposed, and the spatial pattern planning and classification planning of urban-rural recreational greenway based on bicycle tourism were carried out. To the end, insights for the development of urbanrural recreational greenway in the future were provided.

Key words: bicycle tourism, urban-rural recreational greenway, planning and designing

Introduction

Greenway refers to the linear open space along such natural corridors as rivers, valleys, ridges, railways,boasting such functions as ecology, recreation, social culture display and so on. Some scholars think that in the planning and construction of greenway, whilst ecological protection earns more attention and is regarded as the main function, recreational function does not attain enough concern, not to mention enough researches on leisure greenway for bicycle tourism(Lindsey, 1999). It is necessary to explore its potential value for recreation and transportation on the basis of giving full play to the function of greenways, thereby upgrading the utilization rate of greenways utilized by tourists. Scholars at home and abroad focus on the researches of recreational greenway in built-up urban areas, i.e. urban downtown places (Zhang, 2008). With the development of urban-rural integration system,scholars gradually expand their researches to urban outskirts and rural areas (Huanget al., 2017).

Urban-rural recreational greenway refers to zones linking the urban and rural areas, particularly linear green open space, such as various scenic spots,cultural sites, historical sites and communities amongst the urban and rural areas. Urban-rural recreational greenway means linear recreational space for the development of recreation in urban and rural areas with natural landscape resources and human resources,etc (Hou, 2013). Integrating bicycle tourism (the active or passive use of cycling as the main travel purpose of people far from their living places) (Lamont,2009) with the construction of urban-rural recreational greenways can boost the participation of travelers, thus achieving the maximization of utilization, function and benefits and morphing into a new perspective of greenway planning in low carbon society (Liet al.,2017).

Therefore, taking Harbin City as a case study, the urban-rural tourism resources of Harbin City were integrated, the urban-rural recreational green thoroughfare characterized by ecological protection, leisure tourism, resource integration, etc., was constructed and recreational ways were increased by rolling out bicycle tourism, greenway tourism, rural tourism and other travel forms. This research could improve the structural layout of green space system in urban and rural areas in Harbin City, and provide guidance for the construction of urban-rural recreational greenways in other areas(Guanet al., 2019).

The positive roles of the combination of bicycle tourism development and greenway construction in the rational utilization of land resources and the improvement of ecological environment were discussed. In terms of elements, urban-rural recreational greenway and bicycle tourism have a strong correlation in their respective elements (Wanget al., 2015).They can complement and perfect each other as shown in Table 1. Regarding function, both have the functions of ecology, transportation, economy, cultural communication, etc., promoting and supporting each other, and thus developing steadily. As regards the market, the tourism industry drives economic development, and the tourist market of them is related to each other to a certain extent. With regard to products, urban-rural recreational greenways, as linear activity places, provide guidance for the development of bicycle tourism and become a part of bicycle tourism product system.

Table 1 Elements comparison between urban-rural recreational greenway and bicycle tourism

Multi-purposed feature of greenway gives it a diversified types, in which recreational greenway gradually develops from the initial recreational function to multiple functions, such as ecology, culture and economic benefits. According to its characteristics,some scholars divide it into traffic recreational greenway, waterfront recreational greenway, windbreak recreational greenway and so on. On the basis of the classification of recreational greenway by researchers(Luan, 2012) at home and abroad, the characteristics of regional environment in urban and rural areas were combined with recreational characteristics of urban and rural areas, dividing greenway into four categories: traffic recreational greenway, historical and cultural recreational greenway, waterfront recreational greenway and multiple recreational greenway.

Waterfront recreation greenway is built alongside river, lake and other water resources. Thanks to open space and beautiful environment, tourists are attracted here undoubtedly, and thus it is well worth more investments for better development. Moreover, waterfront recreation greenway can improve the natural environment around the river on a daily basis, purify the river water, and conserve water resources. It is crystal clear that the recreational function of waterfront greenway will be multiplied by building walkways and cycling lanes along riverside because that can appeal to more tourists and drive the economic development of waterfront areas.

Traffic recreational greenway refers to greenways built on the basis of the use of currently available roads. In order to reduce the investment and the damage to the surrounding ecological environment,common roads need to be transformed into traffic recreational greenways and the green corridor systems need to be enlarged roads through the design,transformation and route selection of national roads,provincial roads and other main arteries. Accordingly,the peripheral recreational resources are integrated,the construction of the walkway and cycling lane is bettered, and the infrastructure is ameliorated. This type of greenway can establish a green traffic system between cities and counties, thereby enhancing the recreational function of roads.

Historical and cultural recreational greenway is based on the integration of cultural resources scattered in urban and rural areas, including ancient city sites,historically protective buildings, historical remains and so on. Historical and cultural recreational greenway can be used as a platform for local culture display by exploring the cultural characteristics of urban and rural areas, i.e. using culture to decorate the greenway landscape to enhance the recreation of the greenway.By using the linear characteristics of greenways to construct a cultural corridor, tourists can understand and appreciate the local culture when they travel at leisure. In the process of construction, the relevant provisions of theCultural Relics Protection Lawmust be followed, and large-scale changes to the cultural relics are so strictly prohibited that they will not be damaged for the sake of the protection of historical and cultural resources.

Multiple recreational greenway refers to the multipurpose greenway with many functions, such as traffic,waterfront recreation, historical protection. It is an important component part of urban-rural recreational greenway because it combines all the characteristics of the greenways above-mentioned and thus meets the most needs of the travelers.

Materials and Methods

Through 3S technology and field study, the elements of urban-rural recreational greenway was surveyed and analyzed, concluding that it mainly included three aspects: natural system, artificial system and cultural system (Hu and Dai, 2013). The followings were achieved. First, according to the behavior preference of bicycle tourists, the suitability of bicycle tourism resources was evaluated. Second, this research integrated bicycle tourism oriented recreational greenways in counties and cities with all the available key elements, such as roads, rivers and residence distribution. On the premise of ensuring the functions of greenway landscape, ecology, recreation, culture,traffic, etc., the layout and classification planning of urban-rural recreational greenways were carried out effectively because scenic spots were interlinked one by one, counties and villages were well-organized,and transportation was ameliorated. Third, to offer the optimized planning, the research comprehensively considered the service radius, surrounding environment and transportation conditions according to the tour route selection scheme, as shown in Fig. 1.

Results and Discussion

Profile of research areas

This study included three districts: Hulan District,A'cheng District and Shuangcheng District; two county-level cities: Shangzhi City and Wuchang City;Seven counties: Yilan County, Fangzheng County,Binxian County, Bayan County, Mulan County,Tonghe County and Yanshou County ( Fig. 2.). There are Songhua River and many small inland rivers (A'shi River, Small Yellow River, Hejiagou and so on) in the urban area. The eastern area is mostly medium high and low hills with high terrain. With an average annual temperature of 3.2℃ and four distinct seasons,the western area is mostly plain, accounting for half of the city area. There abounds forestry, animals and mineral resources in the western area. Bordering on Russia in the north and to South Korea and Japan in the east, Harbin City boasts well-developed traffic and is an important traffic hub in Northeast Asia Economic Zone.

Current situation of urban-rural region environment in Harbin City

Status quo of land use type

The data of this paper were collected from the Landsat TM5 images in the years of 2000 and 2015. By applying 3S technology and related programs to those images, those images were classified and processed,and finally the landscape land use type maps of Harbin City of 2000 and 2015 was obtained (Fig. 3). By applying landscape ecology theory to obtain the relevant ecological indicators, an analysis on the changes of landscape land types and the fragmentation degrees of Harbin City in the past 10 years was made.

Fig. 1 Planning for bicycle tourism based urban-rural recreational greenway

Regional development was an important factor affecting ecological environment in urban and rural areas. Based on the results of landscape classification,the land use conversion matrix for 2000-2015 was created, as shown in Table 2. The conversion of landscape categories of Harbin City was concentrated in three landscape categories: arable land, waters and construction land. Forest land and construction land were converted or transformed more into arable land landscape whilst water landscape to arable land and unused or fallow land. Construction land gradually expanded with the ever-increasing urbanization, forming a sprawling cake-like urban pattern and reducing the ecological stability of urban and rural areas. In the face of the deteriorating ecological environment, the rational control of the ecological landscape layout in urban and rural areas and the construction of urbanrural recreational greenways were conducive to the delineation of the ecological protection red line, i.e.conducive to the ecological protection.

Fig. 2 Administrative map of Harbin City

Fig. 3 Distribution map of land use types of Harbin City of 2000 (left) and 2015 (right)

Table 2 Land use type conversion matrices of 2000-2015

Current situation of tourism resources of Harbin City

Harbin City is rich in natural landscape and humane landscape resources. According to the survey of the natural scenic spots, historical and cultural sites, rivers and wetlands in urban and rural areas of Harbin City,including three districts, two county-level cities and seven counties, a total of 148 natural resources and 87 historical and human resources were found at last. There existed not merely Songhua River and its tributaries, Lalin River, Feiketu River and other river basins, but also Guanmenshan Reservoir, Jiangwan Reservoir, Yongan Reservoir and other rivers. The distributions of rivers are shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 Distribution map of Harbin City river resources

Current situation of traffic facilities

As shown in Fig. 5, there were urban highway network and ordinary road network in Harbin City proper. The layout planning of urban highway network was as the followings: "two ring expressways, nine radiating roads and two linking roads"; and the layout planning of ordinary road network was as the followings: "one ring expressway, 13 radiating roads, three vertical roads and 11 linking roads".

Distribution of urban citizens

From Fig. 6, it could be seen that the distributions of urban-rural residents of Harbin City were mainly concentrated in the central area of Harbin City, and gradually spread to Songbei District and Hulan New District, forming a continuous development area. In other districts and counties, the population was mainly concentrated in the district center and the county center. In the planning and construction of greenways, the convenience for those residents and travelers should be taken into account, enhancing the convenient conditions for residents and travelers there.

Fig. 5 Harbin City road map

Fig. 6 Harbin City urban-rural residential layout map

Survey on bicycle tourism behavior of Harbin City

With the ever-increasing awareness of nationwide fitness campaign and green travel, residents' demands for venues for jogging, cycling and other sporting activities were increasing day by day. It was thus difficult to continue to meet the needs of people in the inner city. At the same time, the popularity of bicyclesharing in China had stimulated the cycling enthusiasm of people in Harbin City. A total of 180 questionnaires were conducted among people who participated in bicycle tourism in Harbin City. The results showed that cycling was suitable for all walks of life, albeit the participants were mainly young and middle-aged people with better educational background. With greater popularity and higher suitability, bicycle tourism had permeated through people's life as people's consumption concept had been gradually changed. From Figs. 7 and 8, it could be seen that the purpose of bicycle tourism was a combination of body-building and relaxation in scenic spots. Notwithstanding a mixed purpose of bodybuilding and relaxation in scenic spots, the popularity of the scenic spot remained the main influencing factor of the tourism route. The distance of bicycle tourism mainly ranged from 30 km to 60 km and from 60 km to 120 km, which corresponded to the distribution of scenic spots of Harbin City, indicating that the shortdistance bicycle tourism had been basically formed in Harbin City. The number of both bicycle tourists of Harbin City and its surrounding areas and the consumption investment had an unprecedented increase,which had promoted the demand of bicycle tourists for recreational greenways in urban and rural areas.

Fig. 7 Survey on travelling purpose of cycling tourists of Harbin City

Fig. 8 Top factors affecting cycling tourists' choice for riding destination

Steps for planning and designing of urbanrural recreational greenway of bicycle tourism of Harbin City

Evaluation of bicycle tourism resources

Based on the perspective of bicycle tourism, the comprehensive attraction of landscape, resources and environment conditions, the general situation of cycling service facilities and the development potential were considered comprehensively. Hence,this research was based on the evaluation index system of bicycle tourism resources (Wanget al., 2012).Under the guidance of the research theory, the research referred to the evaluation system of other tourism resources and combined with the typical functional characteristics of the bicycle tourism with those of recreational greenways, whereby the related factors affecting bicycle tourism resources were sorted out as comprehensively as possible. Through statistical analyses, the index factors with high frequency of use and high representativeness were selected. According to expert scoring, the weight value of each index was obtained by using analytic hierarchy process (AHP), as shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Development of suitability evaluation index system and its weight

The suitability of 148 natural scenic spots and 87 cultural sites in urban and rural areas of Harbin City was evaluated by fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method in order to select the resources suitable for the development of this bicycle tourism. The scoring criterion was determined by the characteristics of the evaluation index and the specific evaluation method.Different scholars had proposed different scoring criteria when applying different evaluation methods,and thus there was no certain standard to follow (Yang and Gao, 2016). As shown in Table 4, the evaluation standards of bicycle tourism resources on different levels were determined, according to the previous experience. The first-level tourism site was the most suitable landscape resource for the development of bicycle tourism, and thus should be given top priority when the greenway route selection started. The secondlevel tourism site also had high suitability for bicycle tourism development, and should be considered to be integrated, when the greenway route selection started.The third-level tourism site had certain development suitability and should be considered according to the specific situation of the site. The fourth-level tourism site should not be considered for the time being.

Table 4 Evaluation standard of bicycle tourism resources

Selection and optimization of routes for urbanrural recreational greenway

As shown in Fig. 9, the current map of the bicycle tourism resources was combined with the distribution map of the road facilities, rivers and counties to form a comprehensive distribution map of the tourism resources. According to the five principles of tourism route selection, the primary tourism route selection of the greenways was carried out. The route was mainly based on the on-site visual analysis method, and the service radius and the surrounding environment were analyzed. The tourism route was compared and selected to form the best greenway network at last, as shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10 Final layout map of urban-rural recreational greenway of Harbin City

Optimization of spatial pattern of urban-rural recreational greenways

By making the preliminary selection of greenway through the integration of recreational resources in urban and rural areas, it could finally be concluded that the overall planning structure of urban-rural recreational greenway network of Harbin City was a layout of "one ring expressway, six radiating roads,three vertical roads and multiple-roads", as shown in Fig. 11. Taking linear rivers and road green corridors as the basic framework, the scattered landscape patches and recreational resources in urban and rural areas were connected together to build the urban-rural greenway network system of Harbin City. In terms of overall layout, the establishment of circular greenway in the main urban area was the core of urban-rural recreational greenway of Harbin City. "Six radiating roads" meant that with the central urban area of Harbin City as the core, building six green roads running through the urban and rural areas of Harbin City,which were the key links for the communication and interaction between the city and the countryside, and had the functions of ecological protection, recreation,culture, material exchange and so on. Three vertical roads referred to three green roads which intersected vertically, which was an important part of urban-rural recreational greenway of Harbin City. And "multipleroads" referred to many green roads designed to strengthen the connectivity of urban-rural greenway network of Harbin City, playing a key role in normal use of urban-rural greenway network of Harbin City.

Types planning for urban-rural recreational greenway

Based on the classification of recreational greenways at home and abroad, the regional environment of urban and rural areas of Harbin City was combined with recreational characteristics of Harbin City, dividing 13 greenways into four types: waterfront recreation greenway, traffic recreational greenway, historical and cultural recreational greenway and multiple recreational greenway, as shown in Fig. 12.

Waterfront recreational greenway was greenway No. 2, which was built alongside Songhua River, Ant River and their tributaries. The infrastructure of greenway No. 2 was better and more attractive to tourists,and accordingly the control of rain water and flood should be strengthened and the sewage treatment facilities should be improved.

Fig. 11 Overall planning structure of urban-rural recreational greenway network of Harbin City

Traffic recreational greenway included greenway No.1, No.3, No.4, No.5 and No.6. Most of them were based on the currently available traffic facilities in urban and rural areas of Harbin City, and these five traffic recreational greenways constituted the framework of urban-rural recreation greenway network of Harbin City.

Historical and cultural recreational greenway included greenway No.7, No.9, No.10, No.11and No.12.Built upon humane resources, historical and cultural recreational greenway could protect excellent historical and humane sites, expand greening space among those sites and display local culture of greenway.

The multiple greenway included Greenway No. 8 and Greenway No. 13. Greenway No. 8 linked many residential areas, scenic spots, and thus provided a connection corridor for the city and the countryside.The link among scenic spots also enhanced the recreational function of the greenway. Greenway No.13 took Harbin Ring Expressway as the framework,which exerted a certain inhibitory effect on the disorderly development of the city.

Conclusions

Based on urban and rural tourism resources, bicycle tourism was integrated with green land system planning to improve the urban and rural ecological environment and to provide people with a brand-new low carbon, environment-friendly, healthy and green lifestyle. This research, under the guidance of urbanrural recreational greenway planning methodology of bicycle tourism, explored how to apply the theory to cases in reality, thereby giving insights to recreational greenway planning in urban and rural areas and giving new ideas and new methods. Nevertheless, this was only a preliminary attempt to integrate bicycle tourism with recreational greenways, and there were still some deficiencies. Limited by the basic data, the evaluation factors remained to be improved. It was necessary to make effective planning according to specific sites,if people aimed to achieve the dual goal of rural revitalization and effective connection of recreational greenway network. It should be pointed out that the city in case study was cold in winter and its road was easy to freeze, and thus not suitable for winter bicycle tourism. Hence, the tourism seasons for greenway planning were mainly spring, summer and autumn.When building urban-rural recreational greenway for different cities, it was necessary to coordinate the regional environment and other factors in order to achieve the urban-rural tourist leisure greenways in accordance with urban characteristics, which was also a subject to be considered in the future.