Abstract
Urban residential greening provides opportunities for social integration and physical exercise. These activities are beneficial to promoting citizens’ mental health, relieving stress, and reducing obesity and violent crimes. However, how to measure the distribution and spatial difference of green resources in urban residential areas have been controversial. This study takes the greening of urban residential units in Shenzhen City as its research object, measures the various greening index values of each residential unit, and analyses the spatial distribution characteristics of residential greening, regional differences, and influencing factors. A large sample of street view pictures, urban land use and high-resolution remote sensing image data are employed to establish an urban residential greening database containing 14,196 residential units. This study proposes three greening indicators, namely, green coverage index, green view index, and accessible public green land index, for measuring the green coverage of residential units, the visible greening of surrounding street space and the public green land around, respectively. Results show that (1) the greening level of residential units in Shenzhen City is generally high, with the three indicators averaging 32.7%, 30.5%, and 15.1%, respectively; (2) the types of residential greening differ per area; and (3) the level of residential greening is affected by development intensity, location, elevation and residential type. Such findings can serve as a reference for improving the greening level of residential units. This study argues that one indicator alone cannot measure the greenness of a residential community. It proposes an accessible public green land index as a measure for the spatial relationship between residential units and green lands. It suggests that future green space planning should pay more attention to the spatial distribution of green land, and introduce quantitative indicators to ensure sufficient green lands around the walking range of residential areas.
Highlights
Urban greening, such as woodlands, shrubs, grasslands, and other green spaces, is a widely recognized element of urban landscapes [1,2]
Even though urban greening has some positive impact on human health, excess pollen leads to respiratory allergies [7], yet it is undisputed that contact with nature and urban green space can have various positive impacts on human health and well-being
Street greening can reduce mental and physical stress and increase the perceived safety of urban streets [10]; street trees are associated with lowering asthma risk in children; green walking environments can prolong the life of the elderly; the presence of trees can affect people’s behavior, such as encouraging children to walk to school and people to walk and cycle [9]
Summary
Urban greening, such as woodlands, shrubs, grasslands, and other green spaces, is a widely recognized element of urban landscapes [1,2]. China’s planning management system evaluated urban greening on the basis of green rate, green coverage index, and park land per capita [13] These indicators can evaluate intuitively and quantitatively the total amount of urban green space [14]. This study employs a large sample of street view images and other data to build a green database integrated b2y.1.mCualstei-Sseoluecrtcieongeographic data combined with existing urban greening indicators. It explores methTohdissfsotrumdyeasseulercintegdgSrheeennzinhgenle,voenle, sopfatthiaelgdairsdtreinbuctiitoiens, iannCdhreingaio, nasalitdsirffeesreeanrccehssaumbjoenctg.sLtoucrabtaend riensisdoeunthtiearlnunCihtsi.na, Shenzhen is one of the most developed cities in the country and is China’s first special economic zone (SEZ). It is selected to explore the difference in green resource supply of urban residential space
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