Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ufug

Review

Pocket parks in English and Chinese literature: A review

Hanyan Zhang a, *, Mingxi Han b
a
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
b
Renmin University of China, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Wendy Chen Pocket parks have the characteristics of being small in size, low in expenditure, easy to access and flexible in
shapes and location. Several studies have explored the environmental and social benefits as well as the design
Keywords: principles of pocket parks. However, a meta-analysis of research on pocket park is lacking. There is also no
Minipark previous comparison of Chinese and English language research papers on pocket parks. This paper aims to
Pocket park
systematically review 32 key English publications and 33 key Chinese publications from 4 databases (i.e. Google
Small green space
Scholar, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang Data). The results show that the definition of pocket park is only
Systematic review
different in size when comparing English and Chinese papers. Moreover, the review highlighted the needs of
exploring pocket parks in the areas of Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. The summary of research topics
and trends provides a useful knowledge for future studies on pocket parks.

1. Introduction and costly, especially in developing countries with rapid urbanization

Today, with global population growth and the rapid increase in
urban sprawl, over half of the world’s population is living in urban areas
(UN, 2018). In developing countries such as China, people’s migration
from rural to urban areas has rapidly increased from 2008 to 2018
(Statista, 2020). The rapid urbanization not only influences the envi­
ronment by causing an increase in local air temperature leading to heat
island effect (Zhang et al., 2010), but it also changes people’s social and
cultural lives,(Aziz et al., 2012). Moreover, with rapid urbanization, the
green spaces are being gradually occupied by facilities such as housing
and workplaces. Therefore, it becomes more and more difficult for cit­
izens to access green spaces.
Urban parks are a significant part of cities, as they provide important
ecosystem services. They provide regulating ecosystem services such as
climate adaptation (Foster et al., 2011; Demuzere et al., 2014),
storm-water management (Keeley et al., 2013; Ellis, 2013), and air
quality improvement (Jayasooriya et al., 2017). In addition, they also
provide provisioning ecosystem services, benefitting social ties (Cohen
et al., 2014), protecting against diabetes (Dalton et al., 2016), and
people who frequent urban parks have reduced stress levels (Berg et al.,
2010). Due to its ecological, economic and social benefits, blue-green
infrastructure plays a significant role in big cities.
However, blue-green infrastructure in the city centre is a luxury. The
establishment of large-scale urban blue-green infrastructure is difficult
and a booming population. Therefore, small scale blue-green infra­
structure such as pocket parks is becoming a trend in urban design.
Previous papers on this topic show that pocket parks improve people’s
physical activities, which in turn benefits human health (Cohen et al.,
2014), and promotes quality of life (Zawya and Hamra, 2019). Besides,
some papers investigate the potential of building pocket parks in
high-density areas (Abd-al-Aziz, 2015) and designing a more useful
pocket park (Nordh and Østby, 2013). Pocket parks not only provide
ecosystem services as other forms of urban green infrastructure do but
also work as a low-cost green infrastructure that is suitable for
high-density cities.
It appears that previous papers mainly focussed on investigating the
benefits and design principles of pocket parks. There is no paper that
summarises and analyses the definition and research trends about
pocket parks, which include publication numbers according to years;
study locations in different countries; and research disciplines. Also, no
study exists that makes comparisons on the above criteria and discusses
development trends from the year of the first pocket park appeared in
1967 to the current year (2020). The aim of this paper is not only to
summarize the definition, study location, research topic and trends of
pocket park studies, but also to compare the existing research in English
and Chinese languages on pocket parks. A clear definition of pocket
parks can help improving our shared understanding of the characteris­
tics and functions of pocket parks. The exploration and comparison of

* Corresponding author at: Geoscience and Natural Resources Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
E-mail address: hzh@ign.ku.dk (H. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127080
Received 13 August 2020; Received in revised form 1 March 2021; Accepted 5 March 2021
Available online 13 March 2021
1618-8667/© 2021 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
H. Zhang and M. Han Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

pocket parks from western countries and China will facilitate a wider geographical locations, disciplinary orientations and publication years.
understanding of the research trends and development, and provide When analysing the study location in China, we included all the case
non-Chinese speaking researchers a better research overview. Moreover, study papers – 36 out of 138.
the paper aims to lay the groundwork for Chinese pocket park research, Papers were summarised according to the following five categories:
broaden horizons for future research on green infrastructure and pro­ publication year, publication numbers, study location, research topic
vide the necessary guidance to urban designers. and disciplinary orientation. We categorised summarised definitions
using five classification metrics based on similarities and differences in
2. Methods: a systematic review each definition: spatial, typological, organizational, locational and
functional. Disciplinary orientation includes natural science, social sci­
According to Piper (2013), through a systematic literature review, it ence, planning and review. The former three are derived from Horte and
is possible to identify the limitations, potential, and quality of current Eisenman (2020). We added category ‘review’ as a separate category in
research as well as potentially answer our research questions. order to emphasize the number of existing review papers.
In this research, we have used the protocols of the “Preferred Finally, we summarised the limitations of the papers and concluded
Reporting Items for Systematic Review Recommendations” (PRISMA) on the research trends and changes in topics over the past decades, both
Statement from Moher et al. (2009) to systematically review existing in western countries and in China. In addition, we explored potential
papers that contain the following keywords: pocket park, minipark, vest research gaps.
pocket park, green space, small urban park and small green space for
English publications; 小型公园, 迷你公园, 口袋公园, 社区公园, 小区游 3. Result
园, 游园 for Chinese publications. Keywords such as vest-pocket park
and minipark appear in different publications related to pocket parks. 3.1. Publication year and numbers
We used the Google Translate software to deal with language translation
issues. A search of English-language, peer-reviewed academic literature Findings regarding publication frequency is shown in Fig. 2.
and government posters and reports using widely recognised databases:
Google Scholar and Web of Science for English publications, CNKI and
Wanfang databases for Chinese publications. They provide the latest
research papers as well. Using of two different databases in order to
make sure all the related paper are included. The review was experi­
enced a double screening by two authors between April 2020 and August
2020 by searching for key words within the title, keywords, abstract and
full text content of publications. 324 records were screened before
excluding records that were duplicates and grey literature. The
remaining 70 records were further screened, and 5 records were
excluded on the basis that the full text were not addressing the pocket
parks (Fig. 1). The definition part included definitions from Wikipedia as
well. The papers were published during the years 1980–2020. The full
text could be retrieved from these selected publications. Papers where
only part of the text could be retrieved (e.g. abstract, introduction) from
these four databases were omitted. We fully retrieved 33 Chinese pub­
lications out of 138 publications which summarised the research defi­
Fig. 2. Number of Publications in English and Chinese.
nition and topics. The selected papers were based on different

Fig. 1. PRISMA Flowchart.

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H. Zhang and M. Han Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

English papers: According to Google Scholar and Web of Science, Table 1

there are 32 publications that include the keyword ‘pocket park’ or Definition of Pocket Parks in English Papers.
‘minipark’ or ‘small green space’. There was only one publication before Year Author/Source Definition
2003 (published in 1981). From 2003 to 2020 there were between nine
1988 Hajime A minipark may be considered as a ‘pocket’
and four papers per year. The majority of papers were published be­ of a cloth which creates a small oasis for
tween 2011 and April 2020. people in the cold winter, also bringing them
Chinese papers: According to Wanfang Data and CNKI databases, the comfort and relaxation.
total number of publications which include the keywords ‘口袋公园 1996 Lin He called ‘vest-pocket’ parks
‘neighbourhood commons’. Adults and
(pocket park)’ or ‘迷你公园 (minipark)’ or ‘小型绿地 (small green teenagers helped build the playgrounds
space)’ from 2007 to April 2020 is 138. The publication number from using tonewood and other salvaged material
2007 to 2013 is 24, which accounts for 17.39 % of the total number of from old building sites.
publications. The number of publications from 2014 to April 2020 is 114 2004 Tate The book concluded that pocket park has
numerous benefits, including that it ‘creates
which accounts for 82.61 % of the total. The first was published in 2007.
the optimal micro-climate’ and ‘obscures
The highest number of publications was in 2019 with 33 publications, street noise’ etc. It was also renamed ‘Great
followed by the years 2018 and 2017 with 24 and 19 publications, Public Space’ by the Project for Public
respectively. The publication number increased dramatically from 2014 Spaces.
to 2015, from 4 to 12. Thereafter, the number of publications per year 2005 Forsyth and Musacchio Small parks are a key part of most
neighbourhoods, but they typically provide
increased steadily from 2015 to 2019. mostly recreational benefits. They have
Fig. 2 compares the number of publications in English and Chinese limited areas, so they cannot meet all the
by year. From the graph, we can see that the English publications on potential demands for space for varied
pocket parks appeared earlier than Chinese ones. The development human activities and multiple natural
processes.
period is after 2010 for English research and post 2011 for Chinese
2007 Zhang Pocket parks are also called miniparks or
research. However, after 2007, the number of Chinese publications has vest-pocket parks. It refers to the small open
far exceeded that of the English publications. spaces in cities. They are often scattered,
spread or hidden in the urban landscape,
3.2. Summary of definitions directly serving the residents.
2010 Babalis A ‘vest-pocket park’ is described as an open
public space placed within an urban block
English papers: Of the 32 reviewed papers in English, there are 14 and defined as a minipark with natural
articles/publications related to the definition of ‘pocket park’ in the elements.
English language papers. These definitions are summarized in chrono­ 2011 Waldman He called the park ‘a hidden oasis in
midtown’, which defines the underlying
logical order in Table 1. We distilled the most frequent words mentioned
purpose of the park, to create a haven within
in the definition part and produced a ‘word cloud’ as shown in Fig. 3. the city. The park appears to be an extension
Chinese papers: Of the 33 reviewed papers in Chinese, there are 9 of its midtown surroundings while
publications that defined ‘pocket park’ in the Chinese language papers. simultaneously transporting you away from
We summarised them according to citation frequency. The word ‘pocket the hustle and bustle.
2012 Little Pocket parks are green spaces owned and
park’ is replaced by ‘…’ in the following table. We distilled the most managed by local people (volunteers). They
frequent words mentioned in the definition part and produced a ‘word provide free open access to the countryside
cloud’ as shown in Fig. 4 and Table 2. for everyone at all times.
2013 Babalis Pocket parks are described as urban spaces of
a very small size that should be distributed
3.3. Definition classification
and embedded in the public urban fabric,
accessible to people and suitable to different
The definition can be classified into several categories. See Table 3. local needs.
2013 Sinou and Kenton Urban pocket parks are urban open spaces at
3.3.1. Spatial a small scale of 0.125 acres. These spaces
have the potential to provide relief from the
Until now, there has been no clear definition for the scale of a pocket city, contribute to a sense of place, provide
park. Chinese researcher Wang (2009) defined pocket park as an area comfort and a sense of well-being to the user
that is less than 8,000 m2. Yu (2016) defined it as an area between 400 and contribute positively to the urban
and 10,000 m2, while Fang and Ma (2020) defined it as an area up to10, microclimate. Pocket parks can be defined as
greens or quiet enclaves.
000 m2. However, Sinou and Kenton (2013) defined pocket parks at a
2019 Labuz The concept of a pocket park (also called
small scale of 0.125 acres (about 506 m2). National Recreation and Park vest-pocket or minipark) emerged from the
Association defined pocket parks as small areas that are less than 0.4 ha need to improve the quality of urban life in
(4,000 m2). This is also mentioned by the Mayor of London. the aspect of accessibility of public spaces,
including green areas.
Unknown Mayor of London Pocket parks are small areas (less than 0.4
3.3.2. Typological ha) of inviting public spaces for all people to
The researchers, Zhang (2007), Liu (2011), Fang and Ma (2020), enjoy, providing relief from the hustle and
Wang (2019) and Sinou and Kenton (2013), defined pocket park as an bustle of the city.
‘open space’ in urban/city area. In the book Urban heritage in times of Unknown National Recreation Pocket parks are small areas (less than 0.4
and Park Association ha) of inviting public spaces for all people to
uncertainty: Complexity, Sensitivity, and Protection, a pocket park is
enjoy, providing relief from the hustle and
described as an ‘open public space’. Similarly, in the book Great City bustle of the city. They should be open and
Parks, the pocket park is also re-named as ‘Great Public Space’. Ke accessible to all; they should have places to
(2011a) defined pocket park as a ‘green space’ in urban areas in his two sit and relax and for people to come together;
papers. And the Northamptonshire city council also considered pocket and they should contribute to making the
city friendlier, greener and more resilient.
park as a ‘green space’. Unknown WIKI A pocket park (also known as a parkette,
minipark, vest-pocket park or vest park) is a
3.3.3. Organizational (continued on next page)
Yu (2016) described pocket parks as those that can be used by

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H. Zhang and M. Han Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

Table 1 (continued ) Table 2

Year Author/Source Definition
Definitions of Pocket Parks in Chinese Papers.
Author (year) Citation Definition
small park accessible to the general public.
Pocket parks are frequently created on a Zhang (2007) 202 …is also called Minipark or Vest-Pocket Park. It refers
single vacant building lot or small, irregular to the small open spaces of cities. They are often
pieces of land. scattered spread-out or hidden in the urban landscape,
directly serving the local residents.
Wang (2009) 72 …is a small open space located in high-density urban
areas. It is of easily to reach and get access. It is with a
suitable size. In this paper, the case selection area is
less than 8000m2.
Ke (2011a) 40 Broadly speaking, … is any small area in the city open
space. It can be a small size green space. In the narrow
sense, … is located in the high-density central area of
the city.
Ke (2011b) 27 …belongs to the urban park and it is a part of an urban
green space. It is distributed along the route of daily
activities.
Liu (2011) 23 …is located in high-density urban agglomeration
areas, serving the surrounding citizens. The scale is
suitable and it is a small city open space with certain
greening service functions.
Jia (2015) 3 …is a small public green system with certain urban
park model and is located in the urban area.
Yu (2016) 6 …is an area between 400 and 10000m2 and flexibly
scattered in the city. It characterized by a high
greening rate, being convenient to reach, and easy to
enter. It is an urban outdoor small space that can be
used by anyone and can provide a good place for
people to relax and communicate.
Fang and Ma 0 …is a small outside public open space that satisfies
Fig. 3. Word Cloud of Common Terms about Pocket Park’s Definition Based on (2020) people’s needs for relaxation and communication. The
area is between 0–10000 m2.
15 Papers in English.
Wang (2019) 0 …is located near a high-density city block or
commercial centre or transportation hub. The layout is
flexible and changeable, easy to get access and the
scale is humanized. It is a small open space that meets
the daily life of the residents, provides a space for
social activities.

Table 3
Definition Classification.
Category Chinese paper English paper

Spatial Wang (2009), Yu (2016), Sinou and Kenton (2013), NRPA

Fang and Ma (2020)
Typological Zhang (2007), Ke (2011a), Babalis (2010), Little (2012),
Liu (2011), Fang and Ma Sinou and Kenton (2013), Tate
(2020), Wang (2019) (2004)
Organizational Yu (2016) Lin (1996), Little (2012), Mayor
of London, NRPA, WIKI
Locational Wang (2009), Ke (2011a, Labuz (2019), Babalis (2010,
2011b), Liu (2011), Wang 2013), Waldman (2011), WIKI
(2019)
Functional Liu (2011), Yu (2016), Fang Hajime (1988), Tate (2004),
Fig. 4. Word Cloud of Common Terms about Pocket Park Definitions in 9 Papers in and Ma (2020), Wang Forsyth and Musacchio (2005),
(2019) Sinou and Kenton (2013), Labuz
Chinese.
(2019), Mayor of London, NRPA
Translation: high-density area (高密度地区), open public area (开放公共场所),
accessibility (易进入), local resident (当地居民), social activity (社交活动),
minipark (迷你公园), suitable (合适的), relax (放松的), communicate (交流). 3.3.4. Locational
According to Wang (2009), Ke (2011a), Liu (2011) and Wang (2019),
anyone, which also meant that pocket parks are owned by everyone. pocket parks are usually located in high-density urban areas. In Ke’s
Similarly, the Mayor of London, National Recreation and Park Associ­ (2011b) second paper, he added that pocket parks are distributed along
ation and WIKI described pocket parks as a place that serves everyone. the route of daily activities. The book Urban heritage in times of uncer­
Another category is community/neighbourhood based. In the Congres­ tainty: Complexity, Sensitivity and Protection, Babalis (2010, 2013),
sional Record, Lin (1996) defined pocket parks as ‘neighbourhood Waldman (2011) mentioned that pocket parks are located in urban
commons’. It is similar to the definition by the Northamptonshire city areas. Labuz (2019) emphasised that pocket parks are in the city centre.
council, which described pocket parks as those owned and managed by
local people. There is only one Chinese definition for pocket parks ac­ 3.3.5. Functional
cording to this classification, where Yu (2016) compared it to overseas Pocket parks provide environmental functions such as providing
definitions. greenings (Liu, 2011), mitigating climate change and reducing street
noise (Lin, 1996). Yu (2016), Fang and Ma (2020), Wang (2019) and
Hajime (1988), the book Designing Small Parks, Mayor of London and

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H. Zhang and M. Han Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

NRPA mentioned that pocket parks provide social functions such as Table 5
relaxation, communication and recreation. Sinou and Kenton (2013) Summary of English Research Themes.
mentioned both environmental and social functions of pocket parks. Year Author Research Topic Disciplinary
To conclude, the definitions of pocket parks are similar in Chinese Orientation
and English publications except when it comes to the spatial size. 1981 Kaplan Case study using a survey to Social science
investigate the use and
3.4. Research summary satisfaction of Liberty Plaza
pocket park
2003 Nichols and Case study to survey the residents Social science
English papers: An overview of findings regarding study location is Freestone living near the internal reverse
provided in Table 4. and to see how they value pocket
park
3.4.1. Study locations 2004 Ito To clarify the relationship Planning
between a landowner and a
Most research on pocket parks has been conducted in the United
conversion method in the
States with 8 published papers, followed by Scandinavian countries with conversion process of the un-
7. The majority of study sites are in the US and European cities. The intensive and unused land into a
mapped study locations exclude mainland China, which is shown in pocket park
detail in the following segment. 2006 Edwards To investigate selected pocket Social science
parks and to design better pocket
parks that promote positive
3.4.2. Research topic interaction among people
We summarised 32 English language papers published from 1981 to regardless of their social and
April 2020. Table 5 shows an overview of the research themes of the economic background. Marginal
groups’ welfare
individual papers. The conclusion of the research topic mainly focusses
2009 Nordh et al. To assess the extent to which Natural science
on the main research objective and research methodology. hardscape, grass, lower ground
Chinese papers: An overview of findings regarding study location in vegetation and so on predicted
mainland China is provided in Fig. 5. the judged possibility for
restoration in small urban green
spaces in Scandinavian cities
3.4.3. Study locations
2010 Baur & Tynon To explore the benefits to health Social science
There is a total of 36 case studies on pocket parks in China based on and well-being that pocket parks
138 publications. Fieldwork was conducted in 13 provinces, which can contribute
included 21 cities (19 cities and 2 municipalities, Shanghai and Beijing). 2011 Nordh, Alalouch To investigate the relative Natural science
and Hartig importance of environmental
Shanghai and Jiangsu provinces ranked first with 6 case studies
components, in small urban parks
respectively, followed by Zhejiang province and Guangdong province in Oslo, for people looking for
with 4 case studies each. Beijing ranked fourth with 3 case studies. somewhere to sit down and rest
Anhui province, Hebei province and Shandong province each had 2 case 2011 Özgüner To understand how different Social science
studies respectively. The rest of the cities had done 1 case study each. cultural and ethnic groups value
and use urban parks and how it is
There have been 18 case studies each done in northern and southern
crucial in developing appropriate
cities. design and management
strategies.
2012 Lau, Lin and Qin The reports of the results of an Natural science
empirical study on summertime
environmental performances of a
Table 4
pocket park
Numbers of Publications according to Study Location City. 2012 Mutiara and Isami To clarify, through field work and Planning
Country Total City case study, that Jakarta needs to
number improve the parks by involving
the community and providing a
USA 8 Michigan (Kaplan, 1981), Pennsylvania (Edwards, communal space for participation
2006), Los Angeles (Cohen et al., 2014), Stapleton 2012 Peschardt, To investigate how nine urban Social science
Denver (Gibson and Canfield, 2016), Boston (Danford Schipperjin and small green spaces in
et al., 2018), Illinois (Sinha, 2018), New York (2) ( Stigsdotter Copenhagen are used by the
Patel et al., 2016), (Han et al., 2013) citizens through survey and
Denmark 4 Copenhagen (4) (Peschardt et al., 2012), (Peschardt questionnaires
and Stigsdotter, 2013), (Peschardt and Stigsdotter, 2013 Sinou and Kenton To identify some key design Planning
2014), (Peschardt et al., 2016) parameters for the creation of a
Norway 2 Oslo (2) (Nordh et al., 2011), (Nordh and Østby, 2013) successful pocket park through
Egypt 2 Cairo (2) (Abd-al-Aziz, 2015), (Mokhtar and Rehim, two case studies
2017) 2013 Nordh and Østby To explore how pocket parks Social science
Japan 2 Tokyo (2) (Ito, 2004), (Patel et al., 2016) should be designed to promote
Hongkong 2 Hong Kong (2) (Lau et al., 2012), (Lin et al., 2017) their potential for psychological
Australia 1 Melbourne (Nichols and Freestone, 2003) restoration and to imagine what
Turkey 1 Isparta (Özgüner, 2011) activities people could do in
Indonesia 1 Jakarta and Yokohama (Mutiara and Isami, 2012) pocket parks
Malaysia 1 Kuala Lumpur (Kerishnan et al., 2020) 2013 Han, Cohen and To quantify the contribution of U. Social science
Greece 1 Athens (Sinou and Kenton, 2013) McKenzie S. neighbourhood parks to the
UK 1 London (Sinou and Kenton, 2013) time spent in moderate-to-
Iran 1 Qazvin (Chokami et al., 2014) vigorous physical activity by the
Scandinavia 1 Unknown (Nordh et al., 2009) local population through
Peru 1 Lima (Patel et al., 2016) observation and a model-
Spain 1 Madrid (Lorenzo et al., 2016) averaging approach
South Korea 1 Seoul (Park et al., 2017) 2013 Social science
Poland 1 Kraków (Labuz, 2019)
(continued on next page)
Brazil 1 São Paulo (Almeida, 2019)

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H. Zhang and M. Han
Table 5 (continued )
Year Author Research Topic
Peschardt and To test whether park
Stigsdotter characteristics are associated
with the perceived restrictiveness
of nine small public urban green
spaces
2014 Cohen et al. To assess the use of new pocket
parks in low-income
neighbourhoods in Los Angeles
through the System of Observing
Play and Recreation in
Communities tool
2014 Peschardt and To focus on the health-promoting
Stigsdotter potential of pocket parks in the
dense city area of Copenhagen
through natural experiments and
interviews
2014 Gibson and To assess resident perceptions of
Canfield pocket parks as an alternative to
private yards and investigate
pocket parks as places that foster
community interaction
2014 Chokami et al. To define pocket parks using
some important criteria such as
locations on the side streets, local
use, easy access for local people,
applied freely for the public of all
ages
2015 Abd-al-Aziz To evaluate the possibility of
creating pocket parks with
community participation through
questionnaires and observations
2016 Peschardt, To identify features in pocket
Stigsdotter and parks that may support the use of
Schipperrijin ‘rest and restitution’ and
‘socializing’
2016 Patel, Gandhi and To discuss the health aspects in
Bhatt an urban area for the citizens
followed by the basics of and
some of the cases related to novel
efforts in developing mini-parks
2016 Lorenzo et al. To evaluate the role of small
urban spaces in cities as an
opportunity to access nature and
restrictiveness
2017 Armato To emphasize the importance of
pocket parks and its development
history and origin
2017 Lin et al. To conduct in situ climate
measurements and
morphological analyses of 12
cities in Hong Kong
2017 Mokhtar and To achieve sustainability in
Rehim designing spaces between
residential units and to recognize
remarkable local and
international experiences to
comprehend and discover the
advantages and disadvantages
2017 Park et al. To determine the types and
structures of small green spaces
that effectively reduce the air
temperature in urban blocks
2018 Danford et al. To explore the actual use of
informal small green spaces by
using behavioural measures
2018 Sinha To combine pocket parks with
social study and explore the use
of pocket parks in both
neighbourhoods and
communities
2019 Labuz To presents general principles of
the idea of creating pocket parks
by investigating two pocket parks
2019 Almeida To understand the viability of
pocket parks in the context of
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080
Table 5 (continued )
Disciplinary Year Author Research Topic Disciplinary
Orientation Orientation
smart cities in order to
reterritorialize small urban
spaces that allow improvement in
the quality of people’s lives and
appreciation of the local
Social science community
2020 Kerishnan et al. To provide an overview of the Planning
pocket parks in Kuala Lumpur
while identifying the
characteristics of the pocket
parks associated with the
Planning visitation and usage
3.4.4. Research topic
We distilled 33 papers from 138 publications and summarised them
Social science
according to the year of publication. The research content section in the
table below includes between one and four significant points. The new/
special point(s) section is the summary that contains new views in each
paper (Table 6).
Planning
3.5. Summary of research topics
English papers: The idea of the pocket park came from Europe after
the Second World War. The pocket park was brought into America after
Planning
the 1950s. The concept of ‘vest-pocket park’ was first introduced in 1967
by Robert Zion, who designed the first pocket park Paley Park in New
York. However, the first publication about pocket parks came out in
Natural science 1981 (Kaplan, 1981). In the following 20 years, related publications
appeared only rarely. From 2003, the number of publications gradually
increased, although research topics remained simple. After 2010, there
Social science were more and more researchers who began focusing on exploring
pocket parks. The topics included investigating the uses of pocket parks
(Peschardt et al., 2012) and the health function of pocket parks
(Peschardt and Stigsdotter, 2013). Several more studies emerged
Social science combining the consideration of physical and psychological health ben­
efits of pocket parks.
Chinese papers: The concept of ‘Pocket park’ was first introduced by
Professor Wenying Zhang in 2007. From 2007 to 2014, the number of
Planning
publications per year was very low but steadily increased. Researchers
started to gradually explore and investigate pocket parks, although the
Natural science process was very slow. Then research topics mainly focused on the
design principles and political points of view (Peng, 2009). The case
study on megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai started to appear
Planning (Shen, 2011), which meant that researchers realised that pocket parks
were a significant part of green infrastructure in high-density urban
areas.
After 2014, the number of publications increased every year. The
topics became more varied and detailed. Cultural elements such as
‘Chinese Taoist’ started to be integrated into pocket park designing (Tian
Natural science and Chen, 2015a, 2015b). Researchers applied the concept of pocket
parks in different kinds of cities, e.g. sponge city (Su, 2015) and ancient
town (Chen et al., 2017).
Planning The first summary paper about the current status of pocket parks in
China appeared in 2017 (Wang et al., 2017). This paper only analysed
the status and problems of Chinese pocket parks in general, which not
Social science
include definition analysis and case study analysis. The first review
paper about overseas pocket park research appeared in 2019 (Duan
et al., 2019). This paper only reviews overseas pocket park and sum­
marize the research frontiers which provides guideline to designing of
Planning Chinese pocket parks. Besides, the above two papers only analyse either
Chinese or oversea pocket park study without comparison.
Social science
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H. Zhang and M. Han
Fig. 5. Bubble Map according to Publication Study Locations-Provinces (from Google Maps).
3.6. Discipline orientation comparison
There are 16 English papers that fall under ‘social science’. These
account for 50 % of the total selected papers. In Chinese publications,
the ‘social science’ papers only account for 12.1 % of the total number of
selected papers. However, there are 22 publications in Chinese, which
can be categorised as ‘planning’ papers, which account for 66.6 % of the
33 papers in the selected sample. In English publications, 34.4 % of the
total number of selected papers fall under ‘planning’. There are 4 English
publications in ‘natural science’ and no ‘review’ papers. Only 3 Chinese
publications are falling under ‘natural science’, and 3 are ‘review’ pa­
pers. To conclude, the English publications tend to focus on ‘social sci­
ence’ study of pocket parks. However, the Chinese publications tend to
focus on ‘planning’ study.
3.7. Summary of research trends
The time-flow graph in Fig. 6 is based on the development of research
trends according to time, from 1967 (the year that the first pocket park
has been established) for English papers and 2007 for Chinese papers. In
the English literature, the notation of pocket parks underwent a very
long and slow exploration and development period over 1967–2010.
Chinese researchers only used 7 years to explore pocket parks and reach
a fast development period.
4. Discussion
This systematic review has focused specifically on pocket parks.
Various reviews on topics of urban green spaces and urban parks have
7
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080
been carried out but these tended to be focused on the benefits, uses and
functions of urban parks or green spaces (Sadeghian and Vardanyan,
2013; Bosch et al., 2013; McCormack et al., 2010). There are reviews
about other types of green infrastructures such as urban greenways
(Horte and Eisenman, 2020) as well, which summarised the types and
terminology of greenways, and green roofs (Vijayaraghavan, 2016),
which summarised the benefits and components of green roof. The
findings of the current review have not only summarised the study
location and research trends of existing studies on pocket parks and
distinguished the definitions of each research but have also compared
the studies on pocket parks between English and Chinese language pa­
pers and found the research gaps for further studies.
This literature review has considered both English and Chinese lan­
guage research papers on pocket parks. It has demonstrated that the
research on pocket parks is geographically limited. The study locations
mainly focus on American and European countries, indicating a lack of
studies in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. One of the expla­
nations would be the rapid urbanisation with lack of consideration to
green spaces (Mensah, 2014); or poor social conditions and economic
and environmental deterioration (Said and Mansor, 2011). In China, a
majority of the case studies were done in the east. Moreover, a majority
of the case study cities are located in provinces that are near the sea,
where the population density is high and thus the demand for small
urban green spaces is expected to be higher.
In contrast to the narrow geographic distribution of research, pocket
parks have attracted scholarly research interest from a wide range of
study disciplines, including natural and social sciences, and the aspects
of planning and reviewing. The diverse disciplines within pocket park
studies also indicate why researchers use different methods in different
H. Zhang and M. Han Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

Table 6 Table 6 (continued )

Summary of Chinese Research Themes. Year Author Content New/special point Disciplinary
Year Author Content New/special point Disciplinary (s) Orientation
(s) Orientation
waterfront landscapes.
2007 Zhang (1)Defined and Introduced ‘pocket Planning (2)Combined pocket
introduced ‘pocket park’ in China, and parks with rural
park’ in the Chinese defined it resources and the use
context (2)Analysed of natural elements
the design and such as ‘soil, water,
construction of pocket tea, wood’ (3)Aimed
parks in America (3) to create residential
Made suggestions to pocket parks with
establish pocket parks local characteristics
in China and functions
2008 Wang (1)Emphasised the Made comparison Planning 2011 Li (1)Brought forward Integrated Planning
and importance of pocket of Chinese and the concept and ‘economical design’
Guo parks (2)Compared American pocket characteristics of with pocket parks
Chinese pocket parks parks urban pocket parks
with American pocket and economical design
parks (3)Made for the same (2)
suggestions to choose Identified problems in
the right place and the economical design
focus on human needs of urban pocket parks
2009 Wang (1)Analysed 12 Mentioned Planning in China (3)Proposed
overseas pocket parks integrated ‘public that pocket parks are
and 11 Chinese pocket participation’ with expected to make the
parks (2)Found design pocket park design ‘depressed’ space
deficiencies in Chinese but not in much ‘reactive’ (4)Promoted
pocket parks and detail the importance of
provided guidance (3) public participation in
Conducted an the construction of
innovative design pocket parks
method study on 2011 Shen (1)Applied on-site Started to analyse Planning
public facilities, water classified pocket parks in big
features and so on investigation, cities in China as
2009 Peng (1)Introduced the Integrated design Planning analysed three big well as more factors
definition, with local rules and cities: Shanghai, for pocket park
characteristics, law Beijing, Nanjing (2) designing
function and Combined with the
development of pocket design case in Huzhou,
parks (2)Described the empirically explored
use of pocket parks in the relationship
modern city areas (3) between pocket parks
Explained design and urban space,
models and principles transportation,
according to rules and architecture, urban
law natural environment,
2010 Chen (1)Suggested that Started to notice Social historical context, and
community parks are that pocket park is science urban life
important to physical significant to both 2012 Ge (1)Reviewed and Review
and mental health (2) physical and mental discussed pocket parks
Compared the health in western academia
similarities between (2)Summarized the
community parks and new value standard
pocket parks (3) under the era
Analysed the theory background,
and practice of foreign emphasised ‘small’ as
pocket parks and good
expounded the 2012 Yang (1)Described the Focused on the Planning
significance of foreign development of construction of
pocket parks in theory American vest-pocket pocket parks in
and practice in the parks (2)Analysed the high-density core
construction of profound significance areas in China
community parks in of pocket parks, which
China can enhance
2011 Ke(b) (1)Investigated pocket Integrated Natural understanding in
parks in cold cities environmental science China on construction
according to seasons psychology and urban recreation
(2)Integrated behavioural environment in high-
environmental psychology theories density core areas
psychology and 2013 Li (1)Analysed 6 pocket Trail design of Planning
behavioural parks in cold cities in pocket parks
psychology theories America and Japan,
and gave guidance conducting surveys in
2011 Xu (1)Analysed Combined pocket Natural 6 pocket parks in
characteristics of parks with local science Harbin (2)Designed
pocket parks in natural elements trialism: material
form, psychological
(continued on next page)

8
H. Zhang and M. Han Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

Table 6 (continued ) Table 6 (continued )

Year Author Content New/special point Disciplinary Year Author Content New/special point Disciplinary
(s) Orientation (s) Orientation

environment, cultural colours, types and

connotation quantities of natural
2013 Hou, (1)Summarized the Started to combine Planning landscapes have a very
Wen characteristics of the ‘art’ into pocket high value in the
and Lin city pocket parks and park designing evaluation of the
the existing problems stress-relieving effect
of the city pocket of the park
parks in China (2) 2017 Chen Proposed two stages of Provided detailed Review
Analysed the aesthetic et al. pocket park explanation and
characteristics of development: the summary of current
Suzhou Art Garden (3) initial stage from 1991 Chinese research on
Provided a new way of to 2009 and rapid pocket parks; it is
thinking to solve the development from the first paper
blind ‘copying’ and 2009 providing an
stereotyped situations overview of pocket
2014 Jiang (1)Analysed pocket Focused on the Planning parks in China.
parks in the old city. pocket park in old 2017 Lan (1)Analysed 6 Focused on mega- Planning
(2)Discussed the cities commercial district cities
design of pocket parks pocket parks in the
from design principles megacities of Beijing
and content aspects and Shanghai (2)Put
2015 Tian (1)Analysed the design Residential pocket Planning forward design
and points of the new and parks in traditional principles and main
Chen traditional residential and new-built areas points
(a) areas of the pocket 2017 Wang, (1)Analysed the Pocket parks in Planning
park, combined with Xu and difficulties of building ancient towns
humanities, beauty Wu pocket parks in the
and cultural ancient town (2)
characteristics (2) Planned and analysed
Proposed economic the layout
measures to reduce 2018 Zhao (1)Classified urban Pocket parks in Planning
maintenance costs pocket parks, ‘shared cities’
2015 Tian Combined the Combined Planning proposed to
and traditional Chinese traditional culture implement pocket
Chen Taoist aesthetics with with the pocket parks through ‘flexible
(b) the pocket park park space mechanism’,
2015 Yu (1)Identified the Mentioned ‘vertical Planning ‘communication
following problems: greening’ in pocket sharing platform’, and
blind site selection, parks ‘public participation
poor practicality and model’ (2)Discussed
blindly planting a the flexible
large number of development strategy
plants; leading to no of pocket parks from
space for people to do ‘traffic accessibility’,
activities (2)Put ‘infrastructure
forward volume’, ‘inter-S
corresponding elasticity value’ and
countermeasures, ‘public participation’
clarified the service 2018 Yu Combined small ruins Pocket parks and Planning
radius of the pocket and pocket parks to small ruins
park, determined the promote the
demand, increased the advantages, enrich the
vertical greening rate, cultural connotation
and rationally of pocket parks, meet
arranged the cultural needs of
2015 Su Combined the Sponge city and Natural the public and
characteristics of a pocket parks science stimulate citizens’
pocket park with a awareness of cultural
sponge city to provide protection
water storage 2018 Li et al. Summarized user Social
2016 Gao Suggested that the Detailed and Planning behaviour science
and Cui design of pocket parks introduced the characteristics, needs
should be a combined importance of and an evaluation of
effort between the public participation the same
government, designers 2018 Deng (1)Provided analysis Integrated Social
and users of overseas cases, horticultural science
2016 Tan (1)Analysed principal Detailed how Social which involved therapy into pocket
and component method to pocket parks science gardening therapy, park designing
Peng investigate and alleviate human environmental
analyse the mental stress treatment, play
influencing factors of treatment, gardening
alleviating mental treatment and other
stress (2)Highlighted methods to improve
that studies have the environment of the
shown that the pocket parks, and
(continued on next page)

9
H. Zhang and M. Han Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 61 (2021) 127080

Table 6 (continued ) Freestone, 2003; Peschardt et al., 2012), and those based on natural
Year Author Content New/special point Disciplinary sciences include GIS (see, e.g., Fang & Ma, 2020). Regarding the types of
(s) Orientation sample, the majority of researchers choose pocket parks in big/capital
improve the physical
cities. This is because of the establishment of pocket parks becoming a
and mental health of gradual trend in big cities due to its multiple environmental, social and
users (2)Designed the economic functions (Ge, 2012). This review also found that there is still
layout of the pocket no unified definition for pocket parks. The above potential questions
park based on the five
must be answered by further research.
senses to meet user
needs According to Figs. 2 and 6, the 1st English publication appeared 26
2018 Song (1)Combined pocket Started to integrate Planning years earlier than the 1st Chinese publication. The numbers of publi­
and parks with the urban ‘micro-renewal’ cation in English are stable, while in Chinese is gradually increased, the
Zhang micro-update concept into pocket park reason is, most of the English language paper are from European or the
(2)Conducted in-depth designing
research on the
United States, where the pocket parks origin. It is not a new-type park in
renewal of public those countries. However, in China, especially in recent 5 years, the
spaces in old urban rapid urbanization and increased population, the government gradually
communities from aware of the construction of pocket parks. There are several goals made
three aspects:
by government (e.g., According to Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau
‘community space,
community function (Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau, 2021), Beijing has an aim to
and community build 41 urban leisure parks, 13 urban forests, and 50 new pocket parks
vitality’ in 2020). Thus, more and more researchers start and involve in pocket
2019 Wang (1)Explored pocket Explored the Natural park research. Compared to English language research, pocket park
parks’ low-carbon, importance of science
energy-saving and environmental
research in Chinese experienced a short exploration period. During
environmental services in pocket exploration period, both language research is focusing on investigate the
protection functions parks function, characteristics, design and planning of pocket parks. After
and benefits in terms exploration period, more topics have integrated with pocket park
of purifying the air,
research, e.g., in English language research, human health have
regulating the
temperature, and involved; in Chinese language research, more case studies in different
reducing city noise (2) cities were involved. In the meantime, pocket parks play an essential
Highlighted the role in urban renewal, e.g. the abandoned lands and illegal building can
importance of the be rebuilt to pocket parks.
borderless design of
the park
2019 Li (1)Combined the Combined pocket Planning 5. Conclusion
development history park designing of a
and characteristics of western city with This paper systematically reviewed and compared 32 English and 33
Western pocket parks, that of a Chinese
Chinese publications that use the terms ‘pocket park’, ‘minipark’ and
to plan Guangzhou city
Pocket Park (2) ‘small green space’ in the title, abstract or keywords and summarised
Proposed the use of them using the following categories: publication numbers, year, study
small public spaces, location, disciplinary orientation, definition, study topics and trends.
and turning The review finds that there is an increased number of publications on
demolished buildings
pocket parks in the recent 10 years; that over half of the Chinese papers
into pocket parks, as
well as the concept of belong to ‘planning’, whereas half of English papers belong to ‘social
the central super-block sciences’; that the study locations mainly focus on the US and European
concept countries and China; that there is only a difference in the size of pocket
2019 Liu Summarized features Focused on traffic Planning
parks when comparing definition in Chinese and English papers. In
located at traffic pocket park
nodes, with large and designing
China, the development of pocket parks not only integrated cultural
small-scale mobility elements, but also tend to integrate new concept such as ‘urban micro-
2019 Duan Used co-word analysis The first Chinese Review renewal’-changing the city from the small public spaces, to adapt rapid
reviews to research review paper about development of the cities. The identified research gaps show that future
overseas studies on western pocket
studies can focus on the literature review of pocket parks in Latin
pocket parks from parks
2007 to 2017, which America, Africa and Southeast Asia according to different languages,
are indexed by Web of which will replenish the current knowledge about pocket park globally.
Science, and As a part of urban green spaces, pocket parks reflect continuous devel­
summarized the
opment of landscape planning and design concepts, as well as oppor­
research frontiers
2020 Fang (1)Analysed the Used GIS Planning
tunities for related scholarships and practice for the future.
and Ma distribution
characteristics of Authorship contributions
pocket parks in core
areas using GIS (2)
Conception and design of study: H. Zhang.
Summarized problems
and gave suggestions Acquisition of data: H. Zhang.
Analysis and/or interpretation of data: H. Zhang, M. Han.
Drafting the manuscript: H. Zhang.
studies. Papers related to the discipline of social science have dominated Revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content:
the English language studies, while those related to ‘planning’ have H. Zhang, M. Han.
dominated Chinese language studies. The choice of research methods in Approval of the version of the manuscript to be published (the names
these papers vary due to disciplinary orientation. Studies based on social of all authors must be listed): H. Zhang, M. Han.
sciences include questionnaires and surveys (see, e.g., Nichols and

10
H. Zhang and M. Han
Fig. 6. Research Trend according to Time.
Declaration of Competing Interest
There is no competing financial interests or personal relationships
that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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