Urban environmental health interventions towards the Sustainable Development Goals

The Construction of Image Reference Points and Text Appeals Information Tailoring in Promoting Diners' Public Environment Maintenance Behavior Intention

The environmental maintenance of public dining spaces significantly impacts urban construction's sustainable and healthy development. This paper studied the influence of image-text information tailoring relationships on behavioral intentions to promote public dining space environment maintenance. We used a two-factor between-subject experimental design, two (image reference points: self vs. others) × two (text appeals: feasibility vs. desirability). We also examined the mediating roles of environmental maintenance attitudes and environmental responsibility perceptions as regards pro-environmental behavioral intentions. The research results showed the following: (1) Among the four image-text information construction methods, the other's image reference point with the desirability text appeal promotes the diners' pro-environmental behavioral intention with optimal effectiveness; and (2) Environmental maintenance attitudes and environmental responsibility perceptions play mediating roles in promoting diners' intention to maintain environmental behavior in the image-text combined information presentation. Environmental responsibility perceptions cannot be mediated alone and must be progressively mediated with environmental maintenance attitudes.

Urban Health at a Glance in Italy by PASSI and PASSI d’Argento Surveillance Systems Data

(1) The percentage of the world’s urban population is 56% and is expected to reach 68% by 2050. In this study, we have investigated the dimensions of individual health by relating them to the type of residing municipality. (2) We also analyzed the health status, prevention, lifestyle, and elderly conditions in illustrated from PASSI and PASSI d’Argento (PdA) surveillance systems data by estimating the prevalence rates and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for different municipal residences. (3) Urban areas negatively influence some health outcomes, such as respiratory system diseases (OR = 1.24; 95% CI 1.18–1.30). With regards to the spontaneous participation in screening programs from female adults residing in urban areas, we observed ORs of 1.24 (1.13–1.37) and 1.30 (1.12–1.39) for breast and uterine cervix cancers, respectively. Urban contexts seem to promote healthy lifestyles, as there is a lower consumption of alcohol in both adult (0.92; 0.88–0.95) and elderly populations (0.85; 0.77–0.94), although sedentary life is more widespread. Compared to elderly residents living in rural settings, urban individuals find their neighborhood less safe and are less considered as a “resource”. (4) Urban areas promote some unhealthy conditions but can also be a valuable source of services and perspectives. According to the increasing urban population, public health policies towards implementing sustainable development should be established.

Spatial and temporal differentiation and influencing factors of environmental governance performance in the Yangtze River Delta, China

As the development of Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has been upgraded to a national level development strategy in China, relevant regions need to pay more attention to the environmental governance issues. Based on the 2013-2018 development data of 41 cities and the established evaluation indicator system with "press-state-response" (PSR) model, we mainly use a combination of global principal component analysis (GPCA) and entropy method to comprehensively measure regional environmental governance performance (EGP) in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. Next, the spatial relationship is explored and discussed with spatial autocorrelation analysis. Finally, the panel Tobit model is used to perform a regression analysis on the factors affecting the performance of environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta region. The results are summarized as follows. (1) From 2013 to 2018, the overall environmental governance performance of the Yangtze River Delta region maintained a steady growth trend, of which the environmental governance performance of Jiangsu Province and Shanghai maintained a steady increase, and the environmental governance performance of Anhui and Zhejiang Province fluctuated greatly. (2) These cities with better EGP are mainly located in the central and southern regions of the Yangtze River Delta, and those cities with poor EGP are mainly located in the northern part of the Yangtze River Delta. The environmental governance performance gap between provinces and cities is obviously large, and there are significant spatial positive correlations, spatial spillover effects and a trend of agglomeration with increased volatility. (3) The regression analysis shows that the economic development level has a significant positive impact on the EGP of the Yangtze River Delta region. Meanwhile, the negative impact of industrial structure and foreign investment is significant, but the positive impact of R&D investment intensity is insignificant, on the performance of environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Performance evaluation of urban environmental governance in Anhui Province based on spatial and temporal differentiation analyses

When the process of urbanization has brought economic benefits in the Yangtze River Delta of China, environmental pollution becomes increasingly prominent. In order to achieve integrated sustainable green development and reduce the gap in environmental governance performance between regions, this study analyzed the environmental issues of provincial cities in Anhui Province from 2013 to 2017 in the urban agglomeration of Yangtze River Delta. Governance performance is analyzed and the evaluation index system framework is determined using the "pressure-state-response" model with the panel and spatial data. Based on the global principal component analysis method and spatial autocorrelation analysis, the environmental governance performance of Anhui Province has generally increased steadily from 2013 to 2017. The situation in northern Anhui is still developing in a good state. Southern Anhui is in a trend of rising first and then stabilizing, whereas central Anhui has a downward trend after a rapid rise; in terms of the spatial pattern, the overall situation is central Anhui > northern Anhui > southern Anhui. The urban spatial distribution pattern of the region shows a positive spatial correlation. Particularly, the performance levels of Maanshan City and Huainan City have been at a poor level for a long time, whereas Hefei and Huangshan have strong comprehensive environmental governance capabilities with average efficiency values of 0.55 and 0.47, respectively. Corresponding countermeasures have been proposed to rectify polluting enterprises and optimize structure of industries, increase scientific and technological investment and infrastructure construction, strengthen the radiation driving effects, and establish a pollution monitoring system. Based on all the analyses and resulted findings, we concluded the study with corresponding policy implications/suggestions and recommended countermeasures.