Associations of Spatial Aggregation between Neighborhood Facilities and the Population of Age Groups Based on Points-of-Interest Data

Yuqiu Jia,Zhenhua Zheng,Min Li,Xiaofang Liu,Qi Zhang

doi:10.3390/su12041692

Abstract

By actively adapting urban planning to identified social needs, residential areas tend to be more people-oriented, fairer, resource-saving, and sustainable. The emergence of big data has provided new opportunities for the planning of residential urban areas. Since the quantity and age-appropriateness of neighborhood facilities are important criteria when developing the ideal neighborhood, this study investigated the associations of the number of neighborhood facilities and the age groups within those neighborhoods by using the Wuhan metropolitan area in China as a case study and by applying a Geodetector and regression analysis to points-of-interest data. In terms of age groups, the neighborhood facilities of kindergartens, pharmacies, and bus stations were found to be highly associated with population size, regardless of the age difference. It was also found that convenience stores were closely related to the adult population, and that convenience stores, community hospitals or clinics, and vegetable markets or fresh supermarkets were associated with the elderly population. Facilities without significant correlations were equally important, but it was found that there was no statistical correlation between the number of facilities and the distribution of the population. The weak association of key educational resources and medical resources with the population indicates a concentrated distribution of educational resources and medical resources, and the latent insufficiency of schools, community hospitals, or clinics at some neighborhoods. It concludes that planning of neighborhood facilities for residential areas in Wuhan requires optimization in terms of matching the provision of facilities with population size and social structure. Furthermore, more efforts should be put into supplementing important facilities and building differentiated residential area programs based on age structure.

Highlights

The theory and practice of urban planning in Europe and North America have been developing for more than one hundred years [1], throughout which time there has been a recognition of residential areas as the basic unit of planning and that the daily behavior of urban residents, the use of labor markets, and urban facilities are the reasons that make a city what it is [2,3]
Facilities closely related to the total population are Convenience store (CS), Bus station (BS), PHA, and KIN; facilities related to the children population are BS, KIN, CS and PHA; facilities related to the adult population are CS, BS, KIN, and PHA; and facilities related to the elderly population are CS, PHA, BS, KIN, and Vegetable market or fresh supermarket (VM/FRS)
The elderly population has a larger demand for PHA, Community hospital or clinic (CH/CL), and VM/FRS, while on the other hand, it may be that the concentrated distribution of the elderly and the neighborhoods where they live are habitable

Summary

Introduction

The theory and practice of urban planning in Europe and North America have been developing for more than one hundred years [1], throughout which time there has been a recognition of residential areas as the basic unit of planning and that the daily behavior of urban residents, the use of labor markets, and urban facilities are the reasons that make a city what it is [2,3]. Neighborhood facilities within walking distance would largely meet the basic needs of education, health care, and food, while other social activities that could be reached by effective public transport would achieve an orderly utilization of facilities and improve the livability of the residential area [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. In the past two decades, people have been exploring the spatial equity of public facilities allocation, focusing on solving the mismatch between population needs and accessible facilities [17]. The location of small-size neighborhood facilities is adjustable, but there should be an adequate number of facilities within 15-min walking distance to match the population [23]. Research into the associations focusing on the number of facilities and the population in residential areas is concerned with whether there is a quantitative basis and how to stimulate the population indices (Per thousand persons or Population size) of facilities in residential area planning

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion