The Impact Of Built Environment On Chinese Urban Residents' Subjective Well-being And An Analysis Of Influencing Pathways Between Them

The development challenges brought about by the continuous growth of urban populations and the research demands faced by urban planning make it an important research topic to explore how to enhance the residents' subjective well-being(SWB)by improving the built environment.Under the current era of promoting the construction of people-oriented urbanization,optimizing the urban built environment to meet the needs of people for a better life is an inevitable requirement of China's urban development.In response to this requirement,some cities in China have taken measures in the process of urban planning and regulation to improve the living environment.However,due to insufficient relevant research on China,the rationality and effectiveness of these measures still lack sufficient evidences to support.In addition,how the built environment affects residents' SWB is still unclear.Understanding the potential pathways between the built environment and SWB plays an important role in taking targeted actions to enhance residents' SWB.To fill these gaps,this paper aimed to analyze the impact of built environment on SWB of urban residents in China and the potential pathways between them.The theoretical analysis of this paper suggested that the relationship between the community built environment and SWB included both “bottom-up” and “top-down” links.The “bottom-up” analysis showed that the community built environment could affect individual's activities by stimulating the formation of individual's perceived environment,and then influence individual's SWB determinants and ultimately the SWB.The “top-down” analysis showed that SWB and SWB determinants may also affect potential pathways and the community built environment.The empirical research on the effects of the built environment on SWB(composed of life satisfaction and emotional well-being)found that the total effects of community population density,urban population density,distance to nearest bus stop and time to nearest business center on life satisfaction were negative,and the negative effect of increasing one unit of urban population density was far greater than that of community population density.The total effects of time to nearest business center on emotional well-being was also significantly negative.In addition,the total effects of time to nearest business center and urban population density on life satisfaction and emotional well-being varied with residents' age.Based on the conceptual framework constructed in this paper,the analysis of the potential pathways between community built environment and SWB showed that lower community population density,higher destination accessibility and increased distance to nearest bus stop could increase residents' perceived community safety and hence improve their health and community social capital,which further improve life satisfaction and emotional well-being.Besides,lower community population density could directly improve life satisfaction and emotional well-being through increasing perceived community safety and community social capital;higher destination accessibility and increased distance to nearest bus stop could also directly improve life satisfaction and emotional well-being through improving perceived community safety.The findings of this study shed some lights on both academic research and policy applications.In terms of academic research,first of all,relevant research on the built environment at city scale is necessary.Secondly,more attention should be paid to explore the potential pathways between the built environment and SWB,which could not only help to reveal the mechanism of interaction between the built environment and SWB but avoid erroneous conclusions.In terms of policy applications,firstly,it is necessary to strengthen public security and promote social interaction between neighbors,so as to lower the negative impact of high-density development on SWB.Secondly,urban policymakers should insist on ensuring accessibility of public infrastructure and service facilities.Thirdly,the supervision of potential public security problems near by bus stops should be strengthened to lower the negative impact of bus stops on SWB.Last,relevant planning policies should fully consider the local demographic characteristics to suit local conditions.