Perception and Evaluation of Cultural Heritage Value in Historic Urban Public Parks Based on Social Media Data: A Case Study of Shanghai

Historic urban public parks have evolved into multifunctional spaces that integrate cultural heritage and contemporary urban life. Understanding public perception of their heritage value is crucial for sustainable management. This study proposes a novel method combining grounded theory with Python-based analysis of textual and visual social media data to evaluate public perception of cultural heritage value in 12 historic urban public parks in Shanghai. The constructed system includes four dimensions, eleven criteria, and thirty-five indicators. Results show significant differences in perceived values: social and ecological values gain the highest recognition, while historical and spiritual values are underappreciated due to limited narrative continuity and static displays. Parks such as Luxun, Changfeng, and Zhongshan demonstrate outstanding comprehensive value, whereas Nanyuan and Jing’an show weaker performance. Based on perception indices, the parks were classified into four hierarchical management tiers, guiding targeted conservation and renewal strategies. The findings highlight the potential of social media data for revealing public attitudes toward cultural heritage and offer a replicable framework for adaptive management of historic urban parks in Shanghai and other metropolitan contexts.