ANALYSES OF THE IMPACT OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT FACTORS OF SMALL PUBLIC GREEN SPACES ON PUBLIC HEALTH —A CASE STUDY ON THE OLD CITY CENTER OF NANJING, JIANGSU PROVINCE

Abstract

Urban public green spaces significantly impact public health level, where physical, social, and recreational outdoor activities play an important role in improving people’s physical and mental health. In this paper, a total of 35 samples of small public green spaces were selected, and the data of built environment factors and healthy activities of each sample were collocted through ArcGIS analysis, field survey, and mapping. This paper then analyzes the impact of built environment factors on public healthy activities from a planning and design perspective by establishing a ridge regression model, which adopts location factors and functional / spatial factors in small public green spaces as independent variables, and the frequency density of healthy activities as dependent variables. The research reveals that: To location factors, the small public green spaces located near dense residential areas have a much greater impact on promoting public health activities than the ones sitting in dense mixed land use areas; To functional / spatial factors, facilities are the dominant factor that positively impacts users’ healthy activities, particularly the seating density; Reasonably designed small public green spaces or the ones with more open interfaces can effectively encourage people’s healthy activities, while which would be significantly decreased when the green space rate or the path density is excessively high. Finally, the paper proposes suggestions on the planning and design of small public green spaces.

Keywords

Small Public Green Spaces / Public Health / Built Environment / Location Factors / Spatial Elements / Nanjing City

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