How Are Green Spaces Distributed among Different Social Groups in Urban China? A National Level Study

Environmental health, economy, and amenities interactively drive migration patterns among China's older people

The increasing number of older adult migrants is rapidly changing regional demographic and social structures in China. There is an urgent need to understand the spatial patterns and factors that influence older adults to migrate, especially the role of environmental health. However, this issue has been under-studied. This study focused on intra-provincial and inter-provincial older adult migrants as research subjects, estimated their spatial concentration index based on the iterative proportional fitting approach, and explored the factors influencing their migration using the GeoDetector Model. The results showed the following: (1) In 2015, more than 76% of inter-provincial older adult migrants were distributed in Eastern China, and most intra-provincial older adult migrants were scattered in sub-provincial cities. (2) Compared to factors relating to economy and amenities, environmental health by itself played a relatively weak role in the migration of older adults, but the interaction among environmental health, economy, and amenities was a key driving force of older adult migration. (3) There were significant differences in the dominant environmental health factors between inter-provincial migration and intra-provincial migration, which were temperature and altitude, respectively. Our findings can help policymakers focus on the composition of older adult migrants based on urban environmental health characteristics and rationally optimize older adult care facilities to promote supply-demand matching.

Indicators of community physical activity resources and opportunities and variation by community sociodemographic characteristics: A scoping review

Objective

This scoping review synthesizes studies examining community-level variability in physical activity resource (assets) and opportunity (organized group physical activity services) availability by community sociodemographic characteristics to describe methodologies for measuring resources/opportunities, indicators characterizing availability, and associations between community-level sociodemographic characteristics and availability.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus for literature through 2022. Eligible studies quantitatively examined measures of physical activity resource/opportunity availability by community-level racial, ethnic, and/or socioeconomic characteristics within geospatially defined communities. Extracted data included: community geospatial definitions, sociodemographic characteristics assessed, methodologies for measuring and indicators of community physical activity resource/opportunity availability, and study findings.

Results

Among the 46 included studies, community geospatial units were defined by 28 different community boundaries (e.g., town), and 13% of studies were conducted in rural areas. Nearly all (98%) studies measured community-level socioeconomic status, and 45% of studies measured race/ethnicity. A total of 41 indicators of physical activity resource/opportunity availability were identified. Most studies (91%) assessed built environment resources (e.g., parks), while 8.7% of studies assessed opportunities (e.g., programs). Of 141 associations/differences between community sociodemographic characteristics and resource/opportunity availability, 29.8% indicated greater availability in communities of higher socioeconomic status or lower prevalence of minority populations. The remaining findings were in the opposite direction (9.2%), non-significant (36.9%), or mixed (24.1%).

Conclusions

Variability in physical activity resources/opportunities by community sociodemographic characteristics was not consistently evident. However, the indicators synthesized may be useful for informing population health improvement efforts by illuminating the physical and social conditions impacting population physical activity outcomes.

Investigation on urban greenspace in relation to sociodemographic factors and health inequity based on different greenspace metrics in 3 US urban communities

BACKGROUND

Study results are inconclusive regarding how access to greenspace differs by sociodemographic status potentially due to lack of consideration of varying dimensions of greenspace.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated how provision of greenspace by sociodemographic status varies by greenspace metrics reflecting coverage and accessibility of greenspace.

METHODS

We used vegetation levels measured by Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), percent of greenspace, percent tree cover, percent tree cover along walkable roads, and percent of people living ≤500 m of a park entrance (park accessibility). We considered data for 2008-2013 in Census block groups in 3 US regions: New Haven, Connecticut; Baltimore, Maryland; and Durham, North Carolina. We examined geographical distribution of greenspace metrics and their associations with indicators of income, education, linguistic isolation, race/ethnicity, and age. We used logistic regression to examine associations between these greenspace metrics and age-standardized mortality controlling for sociodemographic indicators.

RESULTS

Which region had the highest greenspace depended on the greenspace metric used. An interquartile range (33.6%) increase in low-income persons was associated with a 6.2% (95% CI: 3.1, 9.3) increase in park accessibility, whereas it was associated with 0.03 (95% CI: -0.035, -0.025) to 7.3% (95% CI: -8.7, -5.9) decreases in other greenspace metrics. A 15.5% increase in the lower-education population was associated with a 2.1% increase (95% CI: -0.3%, 4.6%) in park accessibility but decreases with other greenspace metrics (0.02 to 5.0%). These results were consistent across the 3 study areas. The odds of mortality rate more than the 75th percentile rate were inversely associated with all greenspace metrics except for annual average EVI (OR 1.27, 95% CI: 0.43, 3.79) and park accessibility (OR 1.40, 95% CI: 0.52, 3.75).

SIGNIFICANCE

Environmental justice concerns regarding greenspace differ by the form of natural resources, and pathways of health benefits can differ by form of greenspace and socioeconomic status within communities.

IMPACT STATEMENT

Comparisons of exposure to greenspace between different greenspace metrics should be incorporated in decision-making within local contexts.

Associations of public open space attributes with active and sedentary behaviors in dense urban areas: A systematic review of observational studies

In the context of rapid urbanization, public open spaces in dense urban areas are critical built environment elements to support active lifestyles. Several reviews have explored the associations of public open space attributes with physically active and sedentary behavior. However, few reviews have included studies from Asia, and no studies have focused on dense urban areas. This systematic review analyzed 18 observational studies investigating associations between public open space attributes with physical activity and sedentary behavior in dense urban areas of East Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong. We found that closer distance to and a greater number of public open spaces and features within them were positively associated with leisure-time physical activity. Places near water features and corridors within public open spaces were associated with more sedentary behavior. These findings inform landscape and urban design guidelines for (re)designing public open spaces to support active lifestyles in high dense urban areas.

Assessing the Equity of Accessibility to Urban Green Space: A Study of 254 Cities in China

Urban green space has environmental benefits of purifying the air, reducing the heat island effect and providing the social and economic benefits of rest places and social platforms. An integrated and organized green space system is important for fully realizing the positive functions of an urban ecosystem. Previous studies have considered green space supply and demand, but few studies have examined large-scale, diverse and small-scale systems, making it difficult to conduct a comparative study of urban green space accessibility and equity under the same conditions (such as data sources and calculation methods). Using the two-step floating catchment area method, this study evaluates the equity of 254 urban green spaces in China within four ranges of accessibility: 1 km, 2.5 km, 5 km and 10 km. The study also considers urban house price in the research. The results show the following: (1) There are large differences in the accessibility of green space between different cities in China. Within the accessibility threshold of 10 km, the city with the most accessible urban green spaces has an accessibility level that is 27,813 times that of the city with the lowest accessibility. (2) Within the range of walking/cycling, there are significant inequalities in green space access in the 254 cities; the inequality of green space accessibility in most of the studied cities is at the “dangerous” level. (3) The two-step floating catchment area method indicates that the social superiority (high social class) represented by high housing prices is associated with a greater opportunity to access urban green space services. This paper highlights the main problems associated with the accessibility of urban green space in China and proposes targeted development recommendations. These recommendations provide a reference for urban managers to develop effective green space development policies and realize the optimal allocation of urban green space.