Assessing Suitability of Human Settlements in High-Altitude Area Using a Comprehensive Index Method: A Case Study of Tibet, China

Promoting the sustainable development of traditional villages: Exploring the comprehensive assessment, spatial and temporal evolution, and internal and external impacts of traditional village human settlements in hunan province

The protection and development of traditional villages are crucial for improving the human settlement suitability (HSS). The paper takes 703 traditional villages in Hunan Province as the research object and establishes the HSS evaluation system by using the pressure-state-response model. Then this paper introduces the vector autoregressive model to explore the interactions and contributions within the three major subsystems. Finally, this paper adopts Geodetector model and GTWR model to study the external driving effects and temporal-spatial influence mechanisms. The main findings of this paper are as follows. First, the overall trend of the composite index of traditional villages is upward. Its spatial pattern transitions from a low index in the northwest to a medium index in the central region and a high index in the southeast. Second, the state system becomes the main driver of the response system change and it is highly influenced by the pressure system. Distance from medical facilities, Distance from educational institutions, Distance from the intangible cultural heritage sites, and Degree of relief are the four most important driving factors affecting the HSS in Hunan Province. At the same time, Distance to medical facilities and Distance to intangible cultural heritage sites have a positive impact, while Distance to educational institutions and Degree of relief have a negative impact. Fourly, these four factors have a significant spatiotemporal impact on the HSS in the Xiangxi region. This paper provides a scientific basis for the sustainable development and conservation of traditional villages in Hunan from multiple perspectives.

Health-related quality of life and its changes of the Tibetan population in China: based on the 2013 and 2018 National Health Services Surveys

OBJECTIVE

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was an important health outcome measure for evaluating an individual's overall health status. However, there was limited in the literature on HRQoL and its long-term changes of the Tibetan population. This study aimed to assess HRQoL of Tibetan and its changes over time, and explore the differences in HRQoL for residents at different altitudes.

DESIGN

Data for the cross-sectional study were extracted from the fifth and sixth waves of the National Health Services Surveys which were conducted in 2013 and 2018. A multistage stratified cluster random sampling strategy was used to select representative participants.

SETTING

Tibet Autonomous Region in China.

PARTICIPANTS

This study recruited 14 752 participants in 2013 and 13 106 participants in 2018, and after excluding observations with missing values for key variables, 10 247 in 2013 and 6436 in 2018 were included in the study analysis.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

The EQ-5D-3L was used to measure participants' HRQoL.

RESULTS

The mean health state utility scores of the participants were 0.969±0.078 and 0.966±0.077 in 2013 and 2018, respectively. Pain/discomfort was the most frequently prevalent issue reported in 18.1% and 17.9% of the participants in 2013 and 2018, respectively. Tibetans living 3500-4000 m altitude had the best HRQoL. Age, sex, employment status, educational attainment, chronic disease and weekly physical exercise were influencing factors associated with HRQoL.

CONCLUSIONS

The HRQoL of the Tibetan population was lower than the general Chinese population, and decreased over time between 5 years. There were differences in HRQoL among Tibetan at different altitudes, with residents living at 3500-4000 m having the best quality of life. More attention should be paid to those Tibetans who are older, female, unemployed and without formal education.

Analysis of Landscape Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Residential Areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: A Case Study of Tibet, China

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the largest ecological barrier and one of the most vulnerable areas of the ecological environmental system. However, the increasing frequency of human activities in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has led to strong interference. Residential areas are the main places in which human activities are carried out and, as such, can effectively reflect the intensity of activities. Based on this, this research takes the Tibet Autonomous Region as the study area and analyzes the distribution characteristics of Tibetan residential areas using Zipf's law and various landscape indices, as well as discussing the influences of altitude, hydrology, ecological environment, and location on residential area distribution. The obtained results indicate the following: (1) The residential areas in Tibet basically conform to the rank-size principle. The residential areas in central and northwest Tibet are concentrated in size distribution, and the relatively large residential areas are prominent, while the residential areas in the eastern Hengduan mountain region are relatively balanced in size distribution. (2) The landscape index results demonstrate that the counties with an unbalanced distribution of residential areas are mainly concentrated in the northwest of Tibet, while the residential areas in the counties and regions where the administrative stations of each prefecture-level city (or region) are located tend to present a polarization phenomenon, with large patches. The area distribution of residential areas showed a "medium-high-low" pattern from southeast to northwest. The residential areas in eastern Tibet have a high degree of fragmentation and a low degree of aggregation, while the residential areas in northwest Tibet have a low degree of fragmentation and a relatively high degree of aggregation. (3) The residential areas in Tibet are most concentrated in the altitude range of 3000-5000 m above sea level and their water affinity and road-affinity are strong, with the distribution of residential areas within 500 m of roads and water networks accounting for more than one-quarter. The vegetation coverage in the residential areas is low, inconsistent with the surface vegetation coverage rate over the whole of Tibet.

Urban Green Space and Subjective Well-Being of Older People: A Systematic Literature Review

A growing number of articles have identified and reported the benefits and importance of urban green spaces for improving human well-being, but there is a significant knowledge gap regarding the impact of urban green spaces on the subjective well-being of older adults. The literature search (August 2015-August 2022) was derived from two major scientific databases, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. As a result, 2558 articles were found, 1527 of which were retrieved from WOS and the rest from Google Scholar. Bibliometric methods and VOSviewer software were used to screen and organize the articles in the relevant fields. Finally, 65 articles met the review criteria. The included studies aim to capture the benefits of various features of urban green spaces in meeting or enhancing the subjective well-being needs of older adults. The results of our review further support the existence of a strong link between older adults' subjective well-being and various features of urban green spaces, providing new insights for future in-depth reexamination and policy development. Furthermore, the relationship between urban green spaces and older adults' subjective well-being depends not only on the urban green spaces themselves but also on the characteristics of the older adult population that uses them.

GIS-Based Modeling of Human Settlement Suitability for the Belt and Road Regions

(1) Background: Human settlements are a basic requirement for human survival and development. The natural suitability of human settlements directly affects human health and their quality of life and, to some extent, also dictates the size of the regional population and economy, as well as the level of urbanization. (2) Methods: This study presents a kilometer grid-based comprehensive human settlement suitability (HSS) evaluation model (containing the relief degree of the land surface (RDLS), the temperature–humidity index (THI), the land surface water abundance index (LSWAI), and the land cover index (LCI)). (3) Results: Based on the correlations between the four factors (i.e., the normalized RDLS (NRDLS), normalized THI (NTHI), LSWAI, and LCI), the NRDLS and NTHI were determined to be the leading factors, and the LSWAI and LCI were considered to be the auxiliary factors. The auxiliary factors were used to enhance the comprehensive HSS model determined by the leading factors. Based on this logic, spatial and index models were established separately. The HSS index for the BRI regions ranged from 0.07 to 1.00. Six levels of HSS were determined—namely, unsuitable, critically unsuitable, critically suitable, generally suitable, moderately suitable, and highly suitable conditions. In particular, the human settlements suitability is dominated by critically suitable and suitable conditions that accounted for 63% of the BRI. (4) Conclusions: The evaluation results of human settlements showed that topographic and climatic conditions are important limiting factors for the suitability of human settlements. Due to the renewability and manmade adjustability of hydrological and land cover conditions, the comprehensive suitability of human settlements shows differences in different geographic spaces along the BRI. The results provide a decision-making basis for the research on the resource carrying capacity and reasonable distribution of populations in the BRI, so as to realize the sustainable development along the regions.

The Influence of Subjective and Objective Characteristics of Urban Human Settlements on Residents’ Life Satisfaction in China

Under the guidance of people-oriented development concepts, improving residents’ life satisfaction has gradually become the goal of urban governance. Based on Chinese household tracking survey data and national socio-economic statistics, this study used the entropy method, multi-layer linear regression model and geographically weighted regression model and discusses the spatial heterogeneity of the impact of objective environmental characteristics and subjective perceived characteristics of urban residential environments on residents’ life satisfaction. It is of great importance to study the mechanisms through which subjective and objective characteristics of urban human settlements influence living satisfaction among residents. It is also important to discuss how to improve living satisfaction levels through the urban human settlements and to realize high-quality urban development. The research results show that in 2018, the overall level of life satisfaction among Chinese urban residents was relatively high. However, it is still necessary to continue to optimize the urban human settlements to improve residents’ life satisfaction. The objective characteristics of the urban human settlements, such as natural environmental comfort and environmental health, have a significant positive impact on residents’ life satisfaction. Residents’ subjective perceptions of government integrity, environmental protection, wealth gap, social security, medical conditions and medical level, as well as residents’ individual gender, age and health status also have a significant impact on residents’ life satisfaction. The direction and intensity of effects of different elements of the urban human settlements and residents’ personal attributes on urban residents’ life satisfaction have different characteristics in different regions.