Exploring Relationship between Urban Spatial Elements and Public Health: Using ‘the Image Of City: Theory as A Research Framework

Abstract

In the West, the notion that urban space can significantly influence public health has been widely accepted by scholars and applied in urban planning and landscape design practice. This article uses Kevin Lynch’s The Image of City as a research framework to present important scientific evidence reported in the last two decades. The article includes a concise introduction and analysis of six key issues: street, greenway, land uses, nearby nature of neighborhood, biodiversity, and location of neighborhood. The article provides important empirical evidence reported in recent two decades to support the argument and conducts critics on relevant environmental problems in China. Then the article introduces important physical, spatial, and functional characteristics of urban spaces that might have an influence on public health, which is based on five key elements of The Image of City. We expect this article could promote research and application of ‘Healthy City and Healthy Landscape’ concept in China.

城市空间可显著影响大众健康,这一点已经得到西方学界的认可,并逐步在城市规划与景观设计领域加以实践。以凯文？林奇的城市意象理论为框架,梳理近20年来关于城市空间要素如何影响大众健康的科学证据,对街道、绿道、邻里社区临近的绿色空间、土地利用方式、生物多样性、社区区位等6个关键问题进行介绍和分析,对最近20年来重要的实证研究证据进行了介绍,对目前中国出现的相关问题进行了分析并提出建议。此外,对城市意象五要素之影响大众健康的重要物理、空间和功能特征进行了总结,以期借此推动“健康城市,健康景观”概念在中国的研究和实践。