A Scoping Review of the Role of Facilities in Enhancing Urban Green Space Vitality

Urban green space vitality—the intensity and diversity of human activities—is crucial for delivering public health benefits. While the provision of facilities is widely acknowledged as a key determinant of urban green space vitality, the empirical evidence remains fragmented, obscuring a coherent understanding of how and under what conditions these features influence use. This scoping review systematically maps and synthesises this body of evidence to clarify the functional typology, operative mechanisms, and contextual moderators linking facilities to urban green space vitality. Following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, we analyzed 79 empirical studies identified from 8,748 screened records across four databases between 2000 and 2025. The review synthesizes a functional typology of facilities, spanning activity-enabling facility, facility for comfort and socialization, aesthetic and natural feature, and supporting and access infrastructure. It further elucidates five key mechanisms through which facilities influence vitality: attraction and drawing power, enabling specific activities, prolonging stay and encouraging duration, facilitating social interaction, and shaping user perceptions. The findings reveal that facility impact is not universal but is moderated by population heterogeneity and geographical context, a relationship integrated into the proposed Facility–Mechanism–Population–Context (FMPC) framework. While substantial evidence confirms facilities as central to urban green space success, the field is constrained by a reliance on cross-sectional designs and significant geographical biases. Critical knowledge gaps are identified, including a need for robust causal evidence, fine-grained spatial analysis, and focused research on under-represented populations and regions in the Global South. This review provides a foundational resource for future research, evidence-based design, and equitable policy aimed at maximising the health and social value of urban green spaces.