PUBLICATIONS LIST
*Corresponding author
68. Zhou, Y., & Lu, Y*. (2024). Health effects of greenspace morphology: Large, irregular-shaped, well-connected, and close-clustered greenspaces may reduce mortality risks, especially for neighborhoods with higher aging levels. Environmental Research, 263, 120095. (Click for full text of PDF)
The healthcare burden has intensified with urbanization and aging populations in many global cities. While the health effects of urban greenspaces have been well documented, little is known about the associations between greenspace morphological features and health, especially in a high-density city with significant aging populations. Drawing on land use data with 10-m resolution, we assessed seven greenspace morphological metrics in terms of size (the percentage of greenspace, the largest pixel index, the average greenspace area), fragmentation (the patch density), shape (the average weighted shape index), connectedness (the cohesion index), and proximity (the aggregation index). We further conducted an ecological study to examine their associations with all-cause and three cause-specific (cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and cancer) mortality. Results from the negative binomial regression models revealed protective effects of five greenspace morphology metrics, including the percentage of greenspace, the largest pixel index, the average weighted shape index, the cohesion index, and the aggregation index, on mortality. The shape index showed the greatest effects, with every 1 Standard Deviation (SD) increase in the shape index linked to a reduction of 22.1% (95% CI: 22.0%–31.0%) in all-cause mortality, 22.1% (12.2%–30.8%) in mortality from cardiovascular diseases, 25.0% (14.0%–34.6%) in mortality from respiratory diseases, and 22.0% (12.3%–30.6%) in mortality from cancers. Moreover, stratified analyses revealed that the health effects of the cohesion index and the aggregation index were significantly more pronounced in neighborhoods with higher aging levels. Our findings highlight the significance of greenspace morphology features, beyond greenspace quantity, in improving residents’ health, particularly for societies with high aging populations.
67.Wang, J., Lu, Y.*, Diao, M., & Liu, Y. (2024). A comparative analysis of cross-sectional study and natural experiment in rail transit-travel behavior research: A case study in Wuhan, China. Journal of Transport Geography, 121, 104035. (Click for full text of PDF)
There has been a global increase in investment in rail transit, driven by its potential to enhance transportation efficiency, reduce air pollution, and stimulate economic growth. Both cross-sectional studies and natural experiments have contributed to the growing body of evidence supporting these claims. While natural experiments are commonly preferred for evaluating the impact of rail transit, cross-sectional studies remain popular due to their ease of data collection. However, there is a scarcity of studies that compare these two approaches using the same dataset to assess the robustness of cross-sectional studies. Using a two-wave panel dataset from Wuhan, China, this study used both cross-sectional and natural experimental analyses to examine the relationship between urban rail transit and travel behavior. The study attempted to enhance the credibility of the cross-sectional analysis by controlling for confounding variables and by combining it with the propensity score matching (PSM) method, respectively. The results revealed that the cross-sectional analyses could produce similar results, when setting a more stringent significance level. The findings suggested that well-designed cross-sectional studies can be reliable and represent a cost-effective alternative to resource-intensive natural experiments.
66. Zou, X., Zhou, Y., & Lu, Y.* (2024). Addressing ‘difficulty in dining’among older adults: optimizing community senior dining halls from external and internal built environments. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1-12. (Click for full text of PDF)
Many developed and developing countries, including China, are facing the challenges of the aging population. One such challenge is the difficulty for some older adults to access nutritious hot meals to maintain their health and well-being. Community-based senior dining halls (CSDHs) providing low-cost meals for older adults are a widespread model across China and neighboring countries, which aim to cater to the dining needs of older adults within local communities. However, most CSDHs face financial difficulties due to low dining volume. Hence, understanding how built environment characteristics are associated with the dining volume can potentially increase the dining volume and financial sustainability of CSDHs in the long run. This study analyzed the association between the dining volume and both the external and internal built environment of 50 CSDHs in Guangzhou, China. By using multiple linear regression models with three different buffer sizes (400 m, 600 m, and 800 m), we found that 1) among the external built environment characteristics, floor area ratio (FAR) and distance to the nearest subway station are negatively linked to the dining volume; 2) among the internal built environment characteristics, floor level is negatively associated with dining volume, whereas availability of dine-in seating and water dispenser, and number of seats are positively associated with it. Hence, a well-designed external and internal built environment of CSDHs may increase dining volume, enhance social interaction among older adults, and support community-based senior care.
65. Wei, D., Lu, Y.*, Zhou, Y., Ho, H. C., & Jiang, B. (2024). The effect of peri-urban parks on life expectancy and socioeconomic inequalities: A 16-year longitudinal study in Hong Kong. Landscape and Urban Planning, 252, 105192. (Click for full text of PDF)
Exposure to greenspaces has well-established benefits for the health and well-being of urban dwellers. Among these greenspaces, peri-urban parks (PUPs), which are human-modified, large-scale, and public-accessible greenspaces located on the urban fringe, have received increasing attention from policymakers and researchers in recent years, as the limited provision of greenspaces in urban areas barely meet the residents’ needs for nature engagement. However, the associations between PUPs and life expectancy and their potential socioeconomic inequalities remain unclear. In this study, we employed a longitudinal, territory-wide death-registration dataset to address such research gaps. The results showed that both the area and greenery of PUP significantly decreased life expectancy loss with standardized coefficients of −0.156 (p = 0.001) and −0.173 (p < 0.001), respectively. The life-expectancy benefits of PUP greenery remain significant throughout 200–8000 m buffer radii. Nevertheless, socioeconomic inequalities were found between PUPs and life expectancy associations. We found that people with higher socioeconomic status (SES) received higher PUP exposure. In addition, contrary to the hypothesis of equigenesis theory, higher-SES populations received greater benefits in life expectancy than lower-SES populations, even after controlling for inequalities in PUP exposure. Our findings uncover a complex relationship between PUPs, life expectancy, and SES, highlighting the need for targeted interventions for people with different SES to ensure equitable health benefits for all.
64. Wei, D., Wang, Y., Jiang, Y., Guan, X., & Lu, Y*. (2024). Deciphering the effect of user-generated content on park visitation: A comparative study of nine Chinese cities in the Pearl River Delta. Land Use Policy, 144, 107259. (Click for full text of PDF)
Identifying key factors affecting park visitation is critical for promoting park visitation and maximizing parks’ health and social benefits. Little research has comprehensively revealed the effects of UGC on park visitation within a large regional context, despite its pervasive influence in modern society. Furthermore, although existing research indicated that factors influencing park visitation may vary across different cities, few studies have linked such heterogeneity to different city levels, i.e., cities with different economic status, population size and urbanization level. In this study, we performed comparative research to reveal the effect of UGC on park visitation in nine cities with different urban contexts and economic levels within the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China based on 1,771,093 UGC and mobility data of sample parks. Our results demonstrated that UGC exposure, sentiment, and rating had significant effects on park visitation across all PRD cities; the effect of UGC rating was higher than that of most other variables. Furthermore, most high-value clusters of UGC were concentrated in first-tier cities, while low-value clusters were in non-first-tier cities. Moreover, the effects of UGC variables showed a decreasing trend with lower city levels, while the effect of certain built environment variables exhibited an increasing trend with lower city levels. Our study sheds light on the key factors in park usage, providing effective pathways for policymakers and urban designers to maximize the utilization of urban parks across various city types in modern society.
63. Li, Z., Lu, Y.*, Xie, B., & Wu, Y. (2024). Large-scale greenway exposure reduces sedentary behavior: A natural experiment in China. Health & Place, 89, 103283. (Click for full text of PDF)
As a global public health problem, sedentary behavior has attracted more and more attention. Although numerous studies have demonstrated many benefits of green spaces to health, causal evidence on how green spaces affect people’s sedentary behavior is scarce. This study used a natural experiment to evaluate the impact of greenway intervention on sedentary behavior. Two waves of data were collected in 2016 and 2019 (before and after the intervention) at East Lake Greenway (102-km-long) in Wuhan, China, with 1020 participants in 52 neighborhoods. We adopted three major methods to evaluate the impact of greenway intervention on sedentary behavior, including Propensity Score Matching and difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method (with both individual and neighborhood variables to match samples), continuous treatment DID method (with distance to the greenway as the continuous treatment), and mediation analysis (with moderate to vigorous physical activity or MVPA, and walking time as the mediator). The results revealed that the greenway intervention significantly reduced participants’ sedentary time and the intervention has a distance decay effect. The closer to the greenway, the greater decrease in sedentary time after the greenway opening. Furthermore, we found that MVPA and walking time mediate the impact of the greenway intervention on the change in sedentary behavior. The effect of greenway intervention was more beneficial for those under the age of 60, those who were employed, or those who were married. Our findings provided robust evidence that exposure to urban greenways affects sedentary behavior and such green infrastructures help protect public health in high-density urban areas.
62. Liu, D., Lu, Y.*, & Yang, L. (2024). Exploring non-linear effects of environmental factors on the volume of pedestrians of different ages using street view images and computer vision technology. Travel Behaviour and Society, 36, 100814. (Click for full text of PDF)
Creating pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and encouraging walking activities not only improves urban liveliness but also delivers health and environmental benefits. Previous research has largely focused on individual walking behavior, which often exhibits stronger associations with personal traits than with built environment characteristics. Pedestrian volume, a significant indicator of urban vitality and collective walking behavior, may have a stronger relationship with environmental characteristics. Moreover, prior studies often hypothesize a linear relationship between built environmental determinants and walking behavior. The exploration of potential non-linear influences may help policy makers and urban planners by identifying minimum, maximum, and optimal values of built environmental variables conducive for walking. Furthermore, studies focusing on the collective walking of older pedestrians remain scarce in the context of aging societies.
In this study, we utilize street view imagery and advanced computer vision algorithms to estimate citywide pedestrian volumes and their corresponding age classifications (older adults vs. all). Additionally, we assessed both micro and macro built environmental factors. The possible non-linear impact is examined using Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT). Our findings reveal disparities in the influence of environmental determinants on the volume of older pedestrians versus that of all pedestrians. Also, the significance of environmental elements exhibits variations across different spatial resolutions. Further, both eye-level vegetation and building level show an inverted U-shaped influence on the pedestrian count.
61. Li, Z., Lu, Y.*, Zhuang, Y., & Yang, L. (2024). Influencing factors of spatial vitality in underground space around railway stations: A case study in Shanghai. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 147, 105730. (Click for full text of PDF)
