How can the urban landscape affect urban vitality at the street block level? A case study of 15 metropolises in China

Abstract

Urban vitality, as a metric, measures the attractiveness and competitiveness of a city and is a driver of development. As the physical and social space of human activities, the urban landscape has close connections with urban vitality according to classical theories. However, limited quantitative criteria for the urban landscape and gaps between macro urban planning and micro design create difficulties when constructing a vibrant city. In this study, we quantitatively examined the relationship between the urban landscape and urban vitality at the street block level using geospatial open data to discover where, how, and to what extent we could improve urban vitality, taking 15 Chinese metropolises as a case study. Results indicate that, among the three aspects of the urban landscape considered, the city plan pattern has the highest effect on stimulating vitality, followed by the land use and the patterns of building form. Specifically, the three-dimensional form of buildings has a greater effect than a two-dimensional form. In addition, convenient transportation, a compact block form, diverse buildings, mixed land use, and high buildings are the main characteristics of vibrant blocks. The results also show that the effects of the urban landscape have spatial variations and obvious diurnal discrepancies. Furthermore, over 20 and 33% of the blocks in these cities are identified as low-vitality blocks during the day and night, respectively, and are then categorized into six different types. The identification of the common characteristics of these low-vitality blocks can be taken as references for designing a vibrant urbanity.

COVID-19 and urban spaces: A new integrated CFD approach for public health opportunities

“…As urban spaces have been increasingly rediscovered owing to COVID-19 lockdown, the importance of urban public spaces [ 90 ] and in particular, the design of urbanscape elements, to promote social behaviors has increased. Whereas urban public spaces, including parks, streets, squares, and pedestrian areas, can host vibrant functions, which promote the character of cities and the quality of life [ [91] , [92] , [93] , [94] , [95] ]. In addition, urban public spaces can be realized as a vital constituent of the cities and an important social determinant of physical and mental health [ 59 , 61 , 63 , 96 ].…”

Evaluation of Urban Vibrancy and Its Relationship with the Economic Landscape: A Case Study of Beijing

“…Previous studies have shown that factors affecting urban vibrancy include population density, building density, mixed land use, and accessibility [3,35,36]. In addition, Lu et al [37] found that house prices have a strong positive correlation with urban vibrancy, since house prices are directly related to spatial location.…”

A New Insight into Understanding Urban Vitality: A Case Study in the Chengdu-Chongqing Area Twin-City Economic Circle, China

“…In the literature, current research related to vitality evaluation mainly focuses on either the macroscale or the microscale [2,25,26], whereas the in-depth understanding and systematic evaluation of vitality itself from both the macroscale and microscale are scant. Moreover, most studies now focus directly on the impact of certain factors on the manifestation of vitality within a limited space [16,27,28], and offer little structural analysis on the GMUV. Furthermore, according to the literature general processes to understand UV can be divided into two steps: establishment of index system and selection of the analytic method.…”

“…It is certain that these theoretical findings have laid a solid foundation for understanding vitality. However, there is a lack of consensus on both the definition of vitality [16,17] and of quantitative studies concerning the GMUV from a macroscopic level [3,18], although a few scholars have explored the driving mechanism of vitality [19,20]. In practice, the demand for urban space increases with the growing economy, which has motivated an increasing number of scholars to begin to study the role of vitality in urban planning and urban space design [21,22].…”