Users’ Perceptions of Public Space Quality in Urban Waterfront Regeneration: A Case Study of the South Bank of the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, China

Urban waterfront regeneration driven by mega-events has played a key role in shaping contemporary public open spaces, particularly in newly developed areas within the Chinese context. However, public perceptions and their influence on the use of newly built open spaces created through mega-event-led regeneration have not been examined in existing research. To address this gap, this study establishes an integrated assess-ment framework to evaluate the quality of urban waterfront open spaces. A mixed methods approach was adopted, including direct observations and 770 online ques-tionnaires collected between July and October 2024 around core nodes along the South Bank of the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, China. Spatial analysis and Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) were employed to determine priority improvement areas that should inform future waterfront regeneration strategies. The results indicate that inclusiveness emerged as the most important factor for enhancing waterfront open space quality, while spatial aesthetics ranked the lowest. Among the sub-sub factors, elements related to improving water accessibility, enhancing natural surveillance, providing artificial shelters and diverse seating options and shaping collective memory through digital technologies received the highest ratings. Finally, the study highlights that the intangible legacies of the Asian Games have the potential to reshape a distinc-tive new city image and collective memory, even in the lack of tangible heritage build-ings.