Case Studies
Aug 16, 2023

City Health Examination Evaluation and Subjective Well-Being in Resource-Based Cities in China

Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149, Issue 4

Abstract

During the last decades, the association between the quality of the urban living environment and individual subjective well-being (SWB) has received wide attention in many metropolitan areas across the world. However, few studies have focused on the effects of the quality of the urban living environment on SWB from a human perception perspective and concerned the underdeveloped areas such as resource-based cities. Drawing on a large-scale social survey data set collected from the City Health Examination Evaluation (CHEE) in China, this paper employed the Geographical Detector method to reveal the association between the CHEE and individual subjective well-being in four resource-based cities in China (Ganzhou, Huangshi, Jingdezhen, and Luoyang). The results showed that the SWB and CHEE of the respondents in the resource-based cities are generally good, with mean evaluation scores of 4.15 and 4.27, respectively. The factor detector results indicated that the eight subdimensions of the CHEE are all significantly associated with individual SWB in the resource-based cities, with the q-statistic values in the following decreasing order: life amenities > urban management > urban vitality > diversity and inclusiveness > security and resilience > convenient transportation > urban landscape and scenery > ecological livability. Furthermore, individual socioeconomic attributes, such as gender, hukou, house tenure, car ownership, age, household income, and occupation, were also significantly associated with individual SWB. The interaction factor results revealed that there are bilinear enhancing and nonlinear enhancing effects on individual SWB after the interaction between the subdimensions in the CHEE. Regarding city types, the average evaluation scores of the CHEE and SWB in the declining cities, mature cities, and regenerating cities decreases in turn, and the subdimensions of the CHEE had heterogeneous effects on individual SWB across city types. The findings in this study could provide insights into improving individual SWB in China’s resource-based cities by enhancing the quality of the urban living environment.

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Data Availability Statement

Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42001120) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities of Zhejiang (GB202103004).

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Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149Issue 4December 2023

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Received: Aug 27, 2022
Accepted: Jun 20, 2023
Published online: Aug 16, 2023
Published in print: Dec 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jan 16, 2024

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Associate Professor, School of Management, Zhejiang Univ. of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China; China Academy of Housing & Real Estate, Zhejiang Univ. of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4575-0652. Email: [email protected]
Qianyun Zhang [email protected]
Master’s Candidate, School of Management, Zhejiang Univ. of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China. Email: [email protected]
Wenzhong Zhang [email protected]
Professor, Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Email: [email protected]
Associate Professor, Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China (corresponding author). Email: [email protected]

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