Exploring the relationship between urban residents' emotional changes and built environment before and during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of resilience

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the emotion of urban residents has been largely affected, resulting in different levels of stress and negative emotions. Emotion is an indispensable component of urban resilience, especially in the post COVID-19 period. The changes in residents' moods have the potential to reflect the degree of resilience of urban space as a carrier of daily urban life. This study used machine learning to analyze residents' emotion changes revealed by their posts in Sina Weibo mobile application, and analyzed urban resilience through exploring the relationship between urban built environment and emotional changes before and during the pandemic, using Shenzhen as an example. Our results illustrated the spatial pattern of emotional changes in Shenzhen, and we found that built environments could enhance urban resilience in two approaches. On one hand, catering, retail and sports facilities are supportive to emotional stability and thus contribute to the relatively steady emotional changes. On the other hand, proximity to open space is related with positive emotion, and thus contributes to higher levels of restoration. In contrast, industrial and urban village land uses are associated with lower levels of emotional resilience. This study explored to assess urban resilience from the perspective of emotional changes, which would provide insights for environmental interventions in the post-pandemic era.