Today, “walkability” is considered a critical component of an aging-friendly neighborhood. This study examined the relationships between the neighborhood physical environment, walkability, and physical activity levels of older residents in Singapore. Five neighborhoods notable for their “aging in place” strategies were selected for a site survey. A questionnaire focusing on the evaluation of neighborhood walkability was administered to older adults in these neighborhoods. The questionnaire included three sections: neighborhood satisfaction, walkability, and the daily physical activity of older adults. The results indicated that adequate physical facilities and connectivity to the city were critical to older adults’ satisfaction with their neighborhoods. The mean walking time significantly dropped as the number of nearby facilities increased, and the number of facilities was negatively correlated with the daily activity levels of older adults. Thus, planners should attempt to calibrate the provision of neighborhood facilities to maintain the physical activity levels of older adults.
To achieve the goals of carbon peaking, a national policy instrument for carbon peaking in the building and construction sector has been launched by the Chinese MOHURD (30 June 2022). We have developed an actionable framework for implementing these policy objectives. The framework was designed by classifying and prioritizing selected strategic government recommendations in the form of an interactive indicator system and tool for evaluating the quality of low-carbon urban and neighborhood planning actions based on the decarbonation principles of carbon emission reduction and carbon capture. The analytic network process (ANP) was applied for processing the interactions and prioritizing the indicators (23 in total for the two principles applied). A scorecard was designed for assessing low-carbon urban and neighborhood planning strategies and technologies. The practical implementation of the tool was then tested with two real planning cases, one from a fourth-tier Chinese city and another from a high-density city. The applicability of the tool is further discussed by comparing it with well-developed international assessment tools in other contexts. This article contributes to the literature by first initiating research on the use of this evaluative tool for low-carbon planning and secondly by demonstrating how researchers can convert policies into practical implementations.
This study explores the waiting space environment of pediatric clinics in general hospitals and the relationships between the use of space, behavioral activities and overall satisfaction. Patients often spend a lot of time waiting for doctors, and child patients waiting to be seen are particularly likely to feel bored, depressed and anxious, which negatively affects their overall experience of seeking medical attention. Since the launch of China’s second-child policy, the number of children born in China has surged. As medical resources for children are in short supply and of uneven quality, it is urgently necessary to carry out research on optimizing the design of children’s waiting space in Chinese hospitals to improve their medical environment and experience. Method: This study identified four first-level indicators and twenty-seven second-level indicators in four dimensions: functional layout (layout and area), flow organization, supporting facilities and environmental details (physical and landscape environment). The research combined subjective and objective methods, including comprehensive observation, a questionnaire survey and interviews, taking three hospitals in Shenzhen as case studies. Results: The study found that the waiting space in pediatric clinics currently fails to meet key patient needs in areas such as mother and infant rooms, children’s play areas and drinking water facilities, and there are widespread problems with the creation of natural environments, such as views of natural scenery from windows and indoor green plants. Six factors were found to significantly positively influence overall satisfaction with waiting space, describing 69.76% of the changes in the respondents’ degree of satisfaction with the waiting environment. Supporting facilities and aspects of the physical environment had the greatest influence on overall satisfaction with the waiting space. Conclusion: Optimizing the design of the waiting space in pediatric clinics, with a focus on functional layout, flow organization, supporting facilities and environmental details, can improve overall satisfaction with pediatric waiting rooms. The results are preliminary; they need to be further tested in practice to complete the process of evidence-based design. This will lead to suggestions for refining the design of pediatric waiting units which can be used by architects and hospital administrators.
There is mounting evidence suggesting that workplace design directly connects with workers’ health and wellbeing. Additionally, the personal status of the mind can affect subjective attitudes and feelings towards the environment. In this study, the impacts of biophilic design attributes in offices on workers’ health and wellbeing are examined. A new post-occupancy evaluation (POE) questionnaire is developed for evaluating the biophilic design for workplace health and wellbeing. A questionnaire and field observations of two green building offices in Singapore and Shenzhen, China, are performed. The main obtained results are: (i) the questionnaire results show that the workers have a moderately high evaluation of the biophilic attributes in the workplace for improving health and wellbeing; (ii) there are significant differences between the self-reported health and nature relatedness of various ages and genders. Furthermore, the present study provides designers with new weighted biophilic design guidelines, specifically for workplace design practices.
A survey was conducted in Hangjiahu Plain Wetlands to study the baseline information, types, vegetation, characteristics, ecological values, construction and management. The results showed that: the total area of Hangjiahu plain wetlands coverage 181,800 hectares, involving 5 types. The natural resources were very rich in wetlands.There are 8 birds species under national protection and 4 wild plants under national protection. There are 10 wetland places under state protection by government. This is the Nature Protection Zone of Hangzhou Xixi National Wetland Park, a name on the List of international wetlands.Taihu Wetland Park is National wetland park. Proposals on protection and management of the wetland were made by considering practical.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.