Urbanization impact on landscape patterns in Beijing City, China: A spatial heterogeneity perspective

Social inequalities of park accessibility in Shenzhen, China: The role of park quality, transport modes, and hierarchical socioeconomic characteristics

Urban physical environments are the physical settings and built environments in neighbourhoods and cities which provide places for human activities. Evidence suggests that there are substantial ass...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19475683.2020.1791954

A review of urban physical environment sensing using street view imagery in public health studies

Background Neighbourhood walkability has been consistently associated with more physical activities in adults. Nevertheless, evidence of a beneficial association between walkability and older adults’ mental health is still scarce in developing countries. Furthermore, walkability was often measured through Geographic Information System (GIS) methods. Recently, the methodological development in street view images, such as using Google or Tencent Street View, has offered an attractive alternative. Methods Using Tencent street view images and machine learning classification methods, we quantify visual enclosure for neighbourhood street walkability with the proportion of visible sky in those images. Depression and anxiety data were extracted from mental health surveys for 1231 older adults in Beijing, China in 2011. Multilevel linear regression models were used to assess the associations. Results Street walkability was negatively associated with Geriatric Depression Scale scores (GDS 15-item) and Geriatric Anxiety Inventory scores (GAI 20-item), and the results of different robustness checks also support this relationship. The associations were stronger for disadvantaged older adults than others. Conclusion The present study indicates a potential beneficial role of street walkability on mental health (depression and anxiety) in older residents, especially for disadvantaged older adults. Additional longitudinal studies are required to address some limitations of this study, such as residential self-selection bias.

The relationship between visual enclosure for neighbourhood street walkability and elders’ mental health in China: Using street view images

Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and urban public green spaces availability: A localized modeling approach to inform land use policy

The prevalence of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) worldwide poses an alarming threat to public health. Recent literature has embraced the opinion that incorporating the social factors should advance the understanding of NCDs prevalence. In this context, examining the NCDs prevalence in association with area social deprivation should provide critical implications for coping with public health risks. However, few empirical studies have examined this specific issue, especially in the developing countries. Using the principal component analysis, an area social deprivation index (ASDI) is established for the Shenzhen city (China) by integrating ten indicators from four dimensions: education, housing, socially disadvantaged population, and economically disadvantaged population. The geographically weighted regression (GWR) is employed to analyze the associations between ASDI and the incidence rate of three prevalent NCDs at district scale. Spatial non-stationary relationships are identified for the three diseases. More specifically, prevalence of the three diseases is all positively correlated with the ASDI. Strength of the associations presents the geography that it generally decreases from the central city to the suburb. These findings suggest that greater possibility of NCDs prevalence would be expected in districts with higher social deprivation. Besides, the impact of social deprivation on NCDs prevalence is much stronger in the central city. The spatial stationarity can facilitate the formulation of location-specific preventive measurements. This paper is believed to provide an innovative insight for social indicators research.

Area Social Deprivation and Public Health: Analyzing the Spatial Non-stationary Associations Using Geographically Weighed Regression

China's new age floating population: Talent workers and drifting elders

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly spread across the world. The traditional understanding of the relationship between wealth and the spread of contagious diseases is that similar to many precedent epidemics, the pandemic spread easily in poor neighborhoods in many countries. The environmental and socioeconomic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are still poorly understood, thus this paper examines the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and the spread of the pandemic through a case study of Shenzhen, a Chinese megacity with many low-income rural migrants. The major finding is that wealthier and larger neighborhoods in Shenzhen were more likely to be infected in the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. This spread pattern is likely to result from China’s strict control to prevent the pandemic, human mobility, and demographic characteristics such as income. This finding reveals a new phenomenon that contrasts with the traditional understanding of the influence of wealth on the spread of epidemics. This paper enriches the understanding of the role of neighborhoods in the spread of the pandemic, and it has important public policy implications.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267487

Wealth, health, and beyond: Is COVID-19 less likely to spread in rich neighborhoods?

ABSTRACT Policies to provide housing of a quality and price suitable for young talent workers have become a priority in cities such as Shenzhen that are managing the transformation to a knowledge economy. Based on qualitative data gathered through interviews and participant observation, this article examines the lived experience of talent workers and their extended families to gain an understanding of community formation in high-rise housing. Five key findings emerged from the qualitative data. Talent housing is provided through employers and many talent workers live in an extended three generation family setting. The public-private space of the gated enclosure accommodates a variety of recreational activities and opportunities for social interaction. Unlike many other high-rise rental housing complexes, there is a rich social network reminiscent of traditional danwei housing. Like most small districts in China, the complex is secured and gated, which contributes to community formation despite the challenge imposed by verticality.

Community formation in talent worker housing: the case of Silicon Valley Talent Apartments, Shenzhen

Constrained by the hukou system and market mechanisms, Chinese rural migrants normally live in dormitories and urban villages (villages-in-the-city or chengzhongcun) quite distinct from the dwellings of more privileged social groups yet they are often located quite close together. This pattern may be described as a hukou-based yet market-driven form of residential segregation. This paper addresses an extreme level of segregation in China’s newest urban developments. By examining six key development zones in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), this paper argues that besides hukou and the market, urban planning contextualized in state-market engagement and socialist features is a crucial factor creating extreme residential segregation in these zones. This paper also argues that two planning instruments—large-scale land use zoning and the provision of public housing to migrants—play a significant role in creating segregation. The extreme segregation created by the state’s dominant planning practices in new urban developments demonstrates a transformation of China’s prevalent market-driven segregation.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/21582440221101053

Yue Gong

Papers

Area Social Deprivation and Public Health: Analyzing the Spatial Non-stationary Associations Using Geographically Weighed Regression

China's new age floating population: Talent workers and drifting elders

Wealth, health, and beyond: Is COVID-19 less likely to spread in rich neighborhoods?

Community formation in talent worker housing: the case of Silicon Valley Talent Apartments, Shenzhen

The Transformation of Residential Segregation in the Pearl River Delta, China: A Planning-Driven Form