Well-being Of Urban Residents Research Articles

The Effect of Real Estate Ownership on Subjective Well-Being

This paper constructs an ordered probit model and analyzes the relation among urban residents’ owned housing area, property rights, and subjective well-being. The results indicate that from the perspective of property rights, the area of high property right housing has a significantly positive influence on the subjective well-being of urban residents, whereas the area of medium and low property right housing has no significant impact. From a spatial standpoint, in third- and fourth-tier cities, the influence of the self-owned housing area on the subjective well-being of urban residents is significantly positive. In the first-, second-, and fifth-tier cities, self-owned housing area has no significant influence on urban residents’ subjective well-being. Finally, although increasing housing area improves well-being up to a certain threshold, the relative inequality of housing area among residents has no significant impact on urban residents’ subjective well-being.

A new approach of urban livability in Tehran: Thermal comfort as a primitive indicator. Case study, district 22

The concept of urban livability is defined as the quality of life and wellbeing of urban residents. That is the interpolation of people, environment and built environment. Among the components of natural environment, climate is playing the most important and significant role. Two types of data were measured for calculating the thermal comfort in the study area. Subjective and objective evaluations which present qualitative and quantitative data. Objective data incudes micrometeorological and site measurements. Subjective data evaluates perceptual sensation vote of thermal comfort by people using the urban open spaces in three hot days of August 2018. The physiologically equivalent temperature, mean radiant temperature, sky view factor and aspect ratio are selected in this research for evaluating thermal comfort in the urban areas. Results showed extreme heat stress for all measuring points. In the deep streets the lowest value of PET were seen and confirmed the geometry of canyons in thermal comfort. This research proved that the climatic consideration for improving the quality of life and livability is missing and urban designers and planners should rethink and review the comprehensive plan of Tehran to make a livable and sustainable city in the future.

The roles of meteorological parameters in Shanghai’s nocturnal urban heat island from 1979 to 2013

Urban heat island (UHI) represents important human-induced alterations in local climate that has extensive impacts on urban environments and the well-being of urban residents. Under the background of global warming and rapid urbanization, UHI effects will be greatly enhanced, which will further aggravate urban heatwaves and increase health risks to people therein. Therefore, to take adaptive mitigation measures, it is essential to thoroughly understand the meteorological mechanism responsible for the formation of UHIs. Here, we elucidate the roles of the main meteorological parameters in Shanghai’s nocturnal UHI intensity (UHII) using long-term meteorological data from 1979 to 2013. The strongest mean nocturnal UHII values were found in autumn and winter, whereas the weakest UHII was found in summer. This seasonal pattern was associated with dense cloudiness, high relative humidity and precipitation, strong winds, and low atmospheric pressure. Negative relationships between the nocturnal UHII and the cloudiness, wind speed, relative humidity, and precipitation and a positive correlation between the UHII and atmospheric pressure were observed for Shanghai. The interactive effects of the wind speed, cloudiness, and relative humidity on the UHII indicate that a calm, dry, and clear-sky environment was optimal for maximum UHI formation. This study provides insights into the mechanisms governing the formation of UHIs and clarifies the key meteorological factors. In addition, our results support the accurate assessment of future climate change impacts on human health and societies by including the UHII as an important assessment index.

The street as workspace: Assessing street vendors’ rights to trees in Hyderabad, India

Urban street trees provide critical ecosystem services such as shade and contribute to the health and well-being of urban residents - especially those who spend much of the day outdoors. Our paper focusses on one of the most vulnerable groups in a city: street vendors, who spend much of their time on streets, with or without trees. Most contemporary visions for green cities ignore street vendors and fail to consider their uses and expectations of public green spaces. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 75 street vendors in 11 market streets in the hot Indian city of Hyderabad, we discuss their perceptions of the importance of trees for their daily work and livelihood and describe the challenges that street vendors face in accessing shade in a hot city. In several instances, “development” of urban areas has led to gentrification, with the felling of trees and displacement of street vendors, bringing into question their ‘right to the city’. We argue that street vendors are largely left out of considerations of urban ecological planning, despite being one of the groups most affected by the availability of wooded streets in cities. Ecologists, urban researchers, planners and landscape designers must explicitly consider greening strategies from the perspective of street vendors for inclusive, sustainable urban development.

Smart Cities as a New Quality of Life Standard

Over the past ten years, the creation of smart cities has become a priority in the development of the digital economy over the world. It is reflected not only in official documents of the leading international organisations including the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission but also in scientific research of many foreign scientists. There are several approaches to the definition of the term “smart city”. This article will overcome some theoretical gaps in a holistic research approach to the study of smart cities, especially in terms of the impact of information and telecommunication technologies on improving the quality of life and well-being of urban residents, because creating a comfortable living environment is one of the most essential tasks in the concept of a smart city. The author paid particular attention to the analysis of the literature on the problems of smart cities based on the international databases of scientific citing — Web of Science and Scopus; a resulting publication stream made it possible to assess the effectiveness of research in subject areas related to economics. The most significant number of projects to create smart cities were implemented in European cities. Researchers from the UK made a substantial contribution to the development of international standards. In Russian practice, this topic is just beginning its development, both in legal and regulatory documents and in economic research. An important step in solving this problem should be the implementation of the national program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” and the project “Smart City” in the framework of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment” in 2019.

Natural Landscape, Infrastructure, and Health: The Physical Activity Implications of Urban Green Space Composition among the Elderly.

Urban green spaces (UGS) have been linked with a series of benefits for the environment, and for the physical health and well-being of urban residents. This is of great importance in the context of the aging of modern societies. However, UGS have different forms and characteristics that can determine their utilization. Common elements in UGS such as the type of vegetation and the type of surface are surprisingly understudied in regard to their relationship with the type of activity undertaken in UGS. This paper aims to explore the relationship between landscape diversity and the type of surface with the time spent and the physical activity intensity performed by seniors. To do so, this study uses GPS tracking data in combination with accelerometer data gathered from 63 seniors residing in Barcelona, Spain. Results showed that senior participants spent little time inside the analyzed UGS and sedentary behaviors (SBs) were more common than physical activities (PAs). The presence of pavement surfaces positively influenced the total time spent in UGS while gravel surfaces were negatively associated with time spent in active behaviors. The provision of well-defined and maintained paved areas and paths are some key infrastructures to be considered when designing UGS for overall urban residents and, especially, when aiming to potentiate the access for senior visitors.

Understanding the Spatial Distribution of Urban Forests in China Using Sentinel-2 Images with Google Earth Engine

Urban forests are vitally important for sustainable urban development and the well-being of urban residents. However, there is, as yet, no country-level urban forest spatial dataset of sufficient quality for the scientific management of, and correlative studies on, urban forests in China. At present, China attaches great importance to the construction of urban forests, and it is necessary to map a high-resolution and high-accuracy dataset of urban forests in China. The open-access Sentinel images and the Google Earth Engine platform provide a significant opportunity for the realization of this work. This study used eight bands (B2–B8, B11) and three indices of Sentinel-2 in 2016 to map the urban forests of China using the Random Forest machine learning algorithms at the pixel scale with the support of Google Earth Engine (GEE). The 7317 sample points for training and testing were collected from field visits and very high resolution images from Google Earth. The overall accuracy, producer’s accuracy of urban forest, and user’s accuracy of urban forest assessed by independent validation samples in this study were 92.30%, 92.27%, and 92.18%, respectively. In 2016, the percentage of urban forest cover was 19.2%. Nearly half of the cities had an urban forest cover between 10% and 20%, and the average percentage of large cities whose urban populations were over 5 million was 24.8%. Cities with less than half of the average were mainly distributed in northern and western parts of China, which should be focused on in urban greening planning.

Urban Scale, Environmental Pollution and Subjective Well-Being of Urban Residents

Based on the micro-data of China’s household income survey and urban macro-data, this paper uses two-stage least squares (2SLS) to explore the impact of urban scale and environmental pollution on the subjective well-being of urban residents. The study found that there is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between urban scale and subjective well-being of urban residents. Environmental pollution has a positive impact on the subjective well-being of urban residents. Due to the existence of urban scale thresholds, only 46 small cities such as Qingyuan, Jincheng, Shangqiu, Fuxin, Changde and Qujing are not sensitive to environmental pollution. For first-tier and second-tier cities, urban scale and subjective well-being of urban residents are significantly positive. U-type relationship, environmental pollution has a significant negative impact on residents’ subjective well-being, but due to the “urban scale threshold” effect, urban residents in big cities such as Beijing and Chongqing are not sensitive to environmental pollution caused by urban expansion.

A review of urban landscape adaptation to the challenge of climate change

PurposeUrban landscapes play a significant role in supporting municipal, ecological and social systems. Besides, valuable environmental services and urban green spaces provide social and psychological services, very important for the liveability of modern cities and the well-being of urban residents. It is clear that the area of green space in a city, the method of designing urban landscape and access to urban green space potentially affect the health, happiness, comfort, safety and security of urban dwellers. Urban landscape plays a significant role in providing habitats for wildlife, and an important vegetation type in doing this is species-rich herbaceous vegetation that provides pollen and nectar plus physical habitat for native fauna. Any factor that makes an impression on the urban landscape (such as climate change) will affect people’s lives directly or indirectly. There is a universal consensus that the temperature has increased in most of the world over the past century the investigation of climate change impacts on the urban landscape is the purpose of this study.FindingsUnderstanding the process of climate change adaptation is necessary to design plant communities for use in public landscapes. Increased CO2 and air temperature in conjunction with the changing rainfall conditions, as the three important factors of climate change, potentially alter almost all world ecosystems. Climate change provides new opportunities, and in some cases, an obligate need to use non-native plant species in conjunction with native plant species, not only to reduce the side effects of climate change but also to increase the species diversity and aesthetic value in meadow-like naturalistic planting design.Originality/valueThe authors confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere. In this paper, the authors report on the effects of climate change on urban landscape and suggest different kind of solutions to reduce the effects. The paper should be of interest to readers in the areas of landscape architecture, landscape ecologist, landscape planner, landscape managers and environmental designer.

Private Gardens as Urban Greenspaces: Can They Compensate for Poor Greenspace Access in Lower Socioeconomic Neighbourhoods?

The increasing process of urbanisation has major implications for the environment, biodiversity, and health and well-being of urban residents. Empirical evidence for urban greening benefits suggests that it is an appropriate planning and policy approach for tackling some of the problems associated with urbanisation, including biodiversity loss and heat island effects. Gardens on private residential lots represent a substantial proportion of greenspaces in low density cities with extensive suburban areas. Drawing on a qualitative study of residents in Sunshine North, Melbourne, Australia, this paper discusses three questions about the relationship of private gardens to public greenspaces:1) how does residents’ use of private gardens impact their use of other neighbourhood greenspaces;2) can private gardens address inequality of access to greenspaces in lower income neighbourhoods; and,3) what does this imply for planning and neighbourhood design?Contrary to previous research, the findings did not show a meaningful relationship between residents’ use of their gardens and local greenspaces, and further, that large yards and gardens do not substitute for poor access to local greenspaces. The paper concludes that policy makers and planners cannot assume private gardens and public greenspaces are interchangeable. While private gardens and local greenspaces can both provide positive benefits to residents, private gardens do not act as a substitute for local greenspaces in neighbourhoods of varying socio-economic status.

Declining urban and community tree cover in the United States

Paired aerial photographs were interpreted to assess recent changes (c. 2009–2014) in tree, impervious and other cover types within urban/community and urban land in all 50 United States and the District of Columbia. National results indicate that tree cover in urban/community areas of the United States is on the decline at a rate of about 175,000 acres per year, which corresponds to approximately 36 million trees per year. Estimated loss of benefits from trees in urban areas is conservatively valued at $96 million per year. Overall, for both urban and the broader urban/community areas, 23 states/districts had statistically significant declines in tree cover, 25 states had non-significant decreases or no change in tree cover, and three states showed a non-significant increase in tree cover. The most intensive change occurred within urban areas, with tree cover in these areas dropping one percent over the 5-year period, compared to a 0.7 percent drop in urban/community areas. States/districts with the greatest statistically significant annual decline in percent urban tree cover were: Oklahoma (−0.92%/yr), District of Columbia (−0.44%/yr), Rhode Island (−0.40%/yr), Oregon (−0.38%/yr) and Georgia (−0.37%/yr). Coinciding with the loss of tree cover was a gain in impervious cover, with impervious cover increasing 0.6 percent in urban/community areas and 1.0 percent in urban areas over the 5-year period. Such changes in cover types affect the benefits derived from urban forests and consequently the health and well-being of urban residents.

Perceived species-richness in urban green spaces: Cues, accuracy and well-being impacts

Evidence that urban green-space promotes health and well-being of urban residents is increasing. The role of biodiversity is unclear: perceived biodiversity may be important, but how accurately it is perceived and the factors influencing this accuracy are poorly understood. We use experimental perennial urban meadows in southern England to investigate the impact of creating biodiverse habitats on green-space users’ i) physical and mental health, psychological well-being, ii) factors moderating health and well-being outcomes (site satisfaction and nature connectedness), and iii) perceived biodiversity. We explore whether ‘nature dose’ (time spent at a site) influences these relationships. We then assess whether green-space users can estimate botanical diversity accurately across meadow treatments differing in plant species richness and vegetation structure, and determine the environmental cues and personal characteristics associated with these estimates. Sites with experimental meadows did not increase respondents’ perceptions of site level biodiversity, their self-rated physical and mental health or psychological well-being relative to control sites lacking meadows. However, there were significant associations between perceived site level biodiversity per se, and site satisfaction and feeling connected to nature. Moreover, we observed a positive association between nature dose and self-estimated mental health. We found that actual and perceived botanical richness in individual meadow plots were strongly positively correlated. Perceived richness was positively associated with vegetation height, evenness, and colourfulness suggesting that these are cues for estimating species richness. The accuracy of estimates varied, but respondents with higher levels of eco-centricity were more accurate than people who were less connected to nature.

How does perception of nearby nature affect multiple aspects of neighbourhood satisfaction and use patterns?

Neighbourhood satisfaction and use of outdoor green spaces play a significant role in life satisfaction and well-being of urban residents. This study enhances our understanding of these factors by examining specific attributes of the nearby outdoor environment that pertain to planning and design recommendations. A random sample of 434 residents from four Chicago communities participated in a survey incorporating perception of various aspects of environmental attributes as well as multiple dimensions of neighbourhood satisfaction and use patterns. Using multiple regression modelling, the results demonstrated that satisfaction with quality of public spaces, amount of affordances provided by them and neighbourhood comfort are strongly influenced by the physical attributes and content of walking-distance outdoor spaces. Understanding residents' perception of planning and design-related attributes of the environment through an evidence-based approach can significantly contribute to more effective decisions, leading ultimately to fewer gaps between what people need and what is offered to them in outdoor settings.

Development of city tourism and well-being of urban residents

Many cities consider development of cultural tourism as opportunity to sustain employment and economic growth of the area. However, increasing tourists’ flows affect local economies and lives of local residents in a number of ways, not excluding negative effects. Careful consideration of benefits and pitfalls of the development of city tourism is necessary in order to sustain balanced urban development. In the present article, we evaluate experience of tourism development in 10 German cities—capitals of German cultural tourism. Our analysis is focused on the effect of city tourism on the well-being of urban residents. To address this issue, we study the effect of tourists’ nights spent in the centers of cultural tourism on the satisfaction with life of urban residents. Based on the results of the study, we suggest policy implications for the development of urban tourism that leads to improvements of the quality of life of locals.

Sustainability for Shrinking Cities

Shrinking cities are widespread throughout the world despite the rapidly increasing global urban population. These cities are attempting to transition to sustainable trajectories to improve the health and well-being of urban residents, to build their capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to cope with major events. The dynamics of shrinking cities are different than the dynamics of growing cities, and therefore intentional research and planning around creating sustainable cities is needed for shrinking cities. We propose research that can be applied to shrinking cities by identifying parallel challenges in growing cities and translating urban research and planning that is specific to each city’s dynamics. In addition, we offer applications of panarchy concepts to this problem. The contributions to this Special Issue take on this forward-looking planning task through drawing lessons for urban sustainability from shrinking cities, or translating general lessons from urban research to the context of shrinking cities.

Studies on Well-Being of Urban Residents from the Perspective of Green Growth-Based on Empirical Analysis on Residents in Chengdu City of Western China

In this paper, we make empirical analysis on the well-being of urban residents and its influencing factors from the perspective of green growth by using the survey data from the studying team which made the Urban Green Growth and Public Well-Being Investigation on 19 jurisdictional counties (districts and cities) of Chengdu City in August, 2015. The results suggest that residents’ well-being has obvious regional differences, and the main city zone has the lowest green well-being while the third city cycle-layer has the highest green well-being. From the view of internal influencing factors of the resident well-being, the results show that age and income are positively correlated with the residents’ green well-being, and the former correlation is significant, while residents’ well-being of Chengdu is negatively correlated with the educational level. From the view of external influencing factors, green cover percentage, air quality and water quality are positively correlated with the residents’ green well-being, while waste treatment and amount of factory have no significant correlations with residents’ green well-being.

The biodiversity–ecosystem service relationship in urban areas: a quantitative review

By 2050, up to 75% of people globally will live in cities. Despite the potential ramifications of this urbanization for ecosystem services (ES), and the importance of locally produced ES for the health and wellbeing of urban residents, syntheses addressing the underlying ecology of ES provision rarely include urban areas. Here, I conduct a quantitative review of urban ES studies in the ecological literature, synthesizing trends across the discipline. I also quantify the extent to which this work considers the organisms and ecosystem components responsible for ES provision using two approaches: assessment of biodiversity–ES relationships, and an adaptation of the service provider concept. The majority of urban ES studies were conducted in western, developed countries, and typically assessed a single service in a single city – largely ignoring ES synergies and tradeoffs, and cross‐city comparisons. While several different ES are studied in urban ecosystems, the field is dominated by weather and climate‐related regulating services, with assessments of cultural services particularly lacking. Most studies described a habitat type as the service provider; however, studies that considered the biodiversity–ES relationship were more likely to identify a specific functional group, community, or population as the key provider of an ES. The biodiversity–ES relationship itself was most frequently characterized as dependent on the composition of species, functional traits, or structures, rather than correlated with the magnitude of any specific biodiversity metric. While the study of ES in urban ecosystems is increasing, there exists considerable room for further research. Future studies would benefit by expanding the number and categories of ES assessed within and across cities, as well as broadening the geographical scope of urban ES research. Biodiversity–ES assessments in urban ecosystems would also benefit from an expansion of the biodiversity types considered, particularly regarding non‐species based approaches, and consideration of non‐native and invasive species.SynthesisUrban ecosystem services (ES) affect the health and wellbeing of over 3.5 billion people who live in cities. However, syntheses addressing ES provision rarely include urban areas. I conducted the first quantitative review focused explicitly on the ecology of urban ES, including the role of biodiversity in service provision. I found that studies typically measure only a single service in one city, precluding assessment of ES synergies, tradeoffs, and cross‐city comparisons. I also found that while most studies attribute ES provision to a habitat or land‐use type, studies that consider biodiversity‐ES relationships are more likely to recognize a specific functional group, community, or population as the key provider of an ES.

Urban space and climate: Introduction to the Special Issue

a Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Palacký University in Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic (*corresponding author: M. Vysoudil, e-mail: miroslav.vysoudil@upol.cz) An urban climate refers to the fact that atmospheric conditions tend to be different in a city compared to the surrounding rural environment. In addition, urban areas constitute those locations most at risk among those affected by potential global climate changes. Studies concerning the impact of global changes on the local climates of cities are of great significance for the health and wellbeing of urban residents. In contrast to the cities of Western Europe, however, urban areas in Central Europe developed in a significantly different way after World War II because of political and economic conditions. Urban structures, then, also tend to be different, and urban climate studies must include those specific features.

Surrounding greenness, proximity to city parks and pregnancy outcomes in Kaunas cohort study.

There is increasing evidence that green space can improve the health and well-being of urban residents. However, there has been no consistent evidence of the effect of city parks on reproductive health. We investigated whether surrounding greenness levels and/or distance to city parks affect birth outcomes. This study was based on 3292 singleton live-births from the Kaunas birth cohort, Lithuania (2007–2009), who were enrolled in the FP7 PHENOTYPE project study. Residential surrounding greenness level was ascertained as average of satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) within buffers of 100 m, 300 m, and 500 m of each maternal home and distance to a city park was defined as distance to boundaries of the nearest city park. For each indicator of green space exposure, linear or logistic regression models were constructed to estimate change in birth outcomes adjusted for relevant covariates. An increase in distance to a city parks was associated with an increase in risk of preterm birth and decrease of gestational age. We found a statistically significant association between low surrounding greenness and term low birth weight. After assessing effect modification based on the low surrounding greenness (NDVI-500 < median) and the distance to city parks (>1000 m), we found increased risks for low birth weight (OR 2.23, 1.20–4.15), term low birth weight (OR 2.97, 1.04–8.45) and preterm birth (OR 1.77, 1.10–2.81) for subjects with low surrounding greenness and farther distance from a park. Both higher surrounding greenness level and proximity to park have beneficial effects on pregnancy outcomes. A beneficial park effect on foetal growth is most apparent in the environment with low surrounding greenness level. Further investigation is needed to confirm this association.

Making Cities More Child- and Nature-Friendly: A Child-Focused Study of Nature Connectedness in New Zealand Cities

While it is clear that contact with nature is vital to the health, happiness and well-being of urban residents, itis less clear how urban children connect with nature in their immediate environments. In this paper we ask: Do city children feel that they can connect with nature and what forms does this connection take? We present the perspectives of 187 children living in three New Zealand cities. We argue that for most children, cities can offer a variety of positive natural opportunities but that low-income children tend to access less biodiverse spaces. We explore how planners and other urban professionals can better understand and support children's connectivity with locally available biodiverse environments.