Impacts of Built Environment on Urban Vitality: Regression Analyses of Beijing and Chengdu, China

Shiwei Lu,Chaoyang Shi,Xiping Yang

doi:10.3390/ijerph16234592

Abstract

The loss of urban vitality is an important problem in the development of urban central areas. Analyzing the correlation between urban built environment and urban vitality supports urban planning and design. However, current research excludes the study of how consistent built environment factors affect urban vitality of cities with different development situations. Therefore, using social media check-in data, this paper measures neighborhood vibrancy in urban central areas in Beijing and Chengdu, China. Four levels of spatial information were used to measure the built environment: regulatory planning management unit (RPMU), land use, road network, and building. Regression model is used to quantify the correlation between urban vitality and the built environment of these two cities. The study found a strong correlation between built environment factors and urban vitality. Among the built environment factors, points of interest (POI) diversity and public transport accessibility indicators were strongly positively correlated with neighborhood vibrancy. However, the density indicators had totally different effects on urban vitality of cities with different development situations, which is excluded in existing studies. This research strengthens the practical understanding of the compact city concept, and can support the design and planning of urban built environment.

Highlights

Creating continuous urban vitality is critically important for developing urban central areas [1], which could contribute to high concentrations of people, information, and capital flow to urban central areas
Urban central areas have experienced the significant problem of having a lack of vitality, which can increase the risk of night crimes [3]
In model 1, both thetwo regression results for the two citieswere showed that socio-economic indicators neighborhood vibrancy, sets of linear regression analysis conducted for the two cities

Summary

Introduction

Creating continuous urban vitality is critically important for developing urban central areas [1], which could contribute to high concentrations of people, information, and capital flow to urban central areas. When the use of high-quality urban infrastructure and resources is not maximized, the urban space can become monotonous and undifferentiated, leading to a ghost city phenomenon [2]. It is important to understand the current dynamic of urban vitality and to explore the creation and internal mechanisms of urban vitality. This understanding can help improve the quality of urban space during the practice of urban planning and construction. This paper analyzes the relationship between built environment and the neighborhood vibrancy of cities

Methods

Results

Conclusion