Creating a Healthy Environment for Elderly People in Urban Public Activity Space

Chunliang Xiu,Weiting Shan,Rui Ji

doi:10.3390/ijerph17197301

Chunliang Xiu, Weiting Shan + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197301

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Abstract

According to statistics, the global, population aging problem is severe and growing rapidly. The aging problem is most obvious in some European countries, and most of them are developed countries, such as Japan, Italy, Germany, France, etc. The current internal and external environments of parks in China are complex. The inefficient utilization of space in urban parks is a prominent problem. The design of public spaces that only considers the visual experience is incomplete. Based on the optimization of urban park space planning principle, this study examined a new measure of the acoustic environment in elderly public activity space and designed a new elderly healthy urban park environment. Methods: Using the main parks in Shenyang (Zhongshan Park, Nanhu Park, Youth Park, and Labor park) as the study sites, this study analyzed problems in the acoustic environmental data through on-site inspection, questionnaire survey, and physical data collection. By using general linear regression and multiple regression methods, this study analyzed the impacts of plant density, site elevation, structure enclosure, functional mixing degree on the acoustic environment, and elderly population activities. Based on the acoustic environment, we propose improvements and construction ideas, as well as technical methods, for urban elderly public activity space planning. The utility of the “elderly public activity space planning principle” was also considered. Results: Elderly activity space in urban parks was affected by three main factors—plant density, degree of structural enclosure, and function mixing degree. These factors should be optimized to construct healthy acoustic environments and attract different types of people. Discussion: Compared to past studies, the new influencing factors of the planning principle for elderly public activity space found in this study, would benefit the urban park environment for the elderly and support sustainable development of cities. Conclusions: This study proposes three optimizations to the elderly urban park space planning principle and builds four healthy models of elderly urban space activity.

Highlights

In the acoustic sensitivity model, the aggregation of the two groups under the influence of sound intensity is shown in Figure 4, and the relationship between population distribution and sound pressure level is discussed through mathematical equations
The results showed that when the sound was louder, fewer people were present who did not engage in music activities; the more people who participated in music activities, the louder the sounds were, suggesting that music activities affect sound and indirectly affect park use by other users
In terms of the absolute value of the standardized coefficient Beta, degree of structural enclosure was more important than plant density and functional mixing degree

Summary

Introduction

Arguments are commonly made that sustainability challenges cannot be addressed effectively using conventional approaches to policy and planning. The development of inhabited centers was the basis of the urbanization process of the city territory, with the creation of new cities and the expansion of existing ones, in a process that continues today and is likely to continue into the future [1,2]. These changes are having a serious effect. Sustainable urban development is closely related to urban ecology.

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