Urban Form, Air Quality, and Cardiorespiratory Mortality: A Path Analysis.

Chaosu Li,Li Tian,Yan Song,Wei Ouyang

doi:10.3390/ijerph17041202

Abstract

With the unprecedented urbanization during the past three decades, air quality in many Chinese cities has been a serious issue which poses great challenges for urban sustainability. This study examines the health consequences of development patterns in China by establishing the linkage between urban form, air pollution level, and cardiorespiratory mortality rate. We assembled a dataset by compiling a series of variables from multiple sources, including China’s Disease Surveillance Points (DSP) system, which forms a nationally representative sample of mortality for the year 2005, Chinese census, satellite imagery, and the Chinese National Land Use Database. After controlling for local climate, demography, socioeconomics, and other pollution factors, this study finds that urban form elements (e.g., urban density, fragmentation level, forest/green space ratio) have significant influences on PM2.5 (atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers) concentration, thus influencing the incidence of cardiorespiratory mortality at the county level. These results may help explain how the type and pattern of development shape public health by influencing air quality and form an evidence-based land use policy to improve environmental quality and public health.

Highlights

During recent decades, with the unprecedented urbanization, rapid economic growth, and increased usage of automobiles, air quality in many Chinese cities has been extremely poor and has become an issue associated with increasing social unrest [1,2,3]
This study explored the causal pathways through which various urban form elements contribute to cardiorespiratory mortality by influencing PM2.5 concentration
We assembled a dataset by compiling a series of variables from disparate sources, including China’s Disease Surveillance Points (DSP) system, Chinese census, satellite Imagery, and the National Land Cover Database, and conducted a path analysis to quantify the indirect effects of urban form features on cardiorespiratory mortality based on a nationally representative sample of 158 counties in China

Summary

Introduction

With the unprecedented urbanization, rapid economic growth, and increased usage of automobiles, air quality in many Chinese cities has been extremely poor and has become an issue associated with increasing social unrest [1,2,3]. Excessive exposure to air pollutants can lead to several negative physical health outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory diseases, lung cancer, and stroke [6,7,8,9]. In the context of China, it is worthwhile to note cardiorespiratory diseases and lung cancer have been recorded as the leading cause of mortality in the recent decade [10]. Additional empirical evidence has been accumulated in the literature that exposure to air pollutants can cause mental health issues [11,12,13]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion