Research On Campus Environmental Design Strategies For Physical Activity Promotion In Cold Climates

The report of 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has pointed that the Healthy China Policy should be viewed as priority.Public health is strongly related to a nation's production level,social vitality and social stability.University students,as fresh power of a nation's development,are in their crucial stages of the life spans.Therefore,to conduct research on their health promotion issue is urgent and essential.As a typical kind of health behavior,physical activity is effective to prevent and control several chronic diseases,while consuming limited time and money.However,climatic characteristics of cold winter,such as low temperature,piercing wind,snow and ice,limited solar access and air pollution,negatively influence the accessibility,comfort,safety and aesthetics of university behavior settings.As a result,students tend to be physical inactive and sedentary.Physical activity promotion by environmental design has been defined effective by interdisciplinary academic fields such as public policy,public health,transportation planning,architecture and urban design.The current study aims at exploring the correlation between students' physical activity and campus environment in cold climates in China,and proposing a feasible and effective system to guide campus environmental design for health promotion.From a theoretical perspective,the relationship between behavior and environmental design has been identified by Theory of Behavior Setting;and environment's role in physical activity promotion at both individual and population levels has been defined by theories of health promotion and health promotion by design.Accordingly,two specific models for campus physical activity promotion in cold climates have been presented based on the characteristics of local climate,student population and campus environment.Specific models can help to find out environmental necessities of various campus physical activity and to guide the following empirical studies.From an empirical perspective,surveys and statistical analyses have been conducted to explore the correlation between physical activity and campus environment in different seasons.Therefore,an environmental determinant framework for physical activity promotion has been defined by selecting prominent determinants,analyzing their impacts and relative values.As the next step,Delphi Consensus has been applied for developing a framework of design strategies of all the potential determinants.Based on Theory of Evidence-based Design,a campus design target system for physical activity promotion in cold climates can be proposed,including four hierarchies(public health,environmental necessity of behavior,design objective,and design strategies).From a practical perspective,based on the campus design target system,the contradictions between harsh weather in cold regions and 1)behavior efficiency of utilitarian activity;2)perceived environmental quality of recreational activity are severe.Therefore,current study has firstly proposed a series of strategies for utilitarian activity promotion: 1)accessible location and compact layout coordinated by functional design can help to release the stress of walking trips;2)connective walking network and multiple choices of transportation modes can help to enhance the convenience to reach destinations;3)land use mix and aggregated functional settings can help to increase the frequency of students' trips.These design strategies potentially increase total utilitarian activity amount based on “better accessibility of single trip,higher frequency of total trips” strategy in cold climates.Secondly,the current study has proposed a series of strategies for recreational activity: 1)to optimize thermal comfort by isolating undesirable weather,shaping micro-climate,and balancing annual climatic sources for physical activity;2)to avoid vehicular,crime,winter activity dangers by control traffic speed,eliminating dead zone of surveillance and avoiding ice-and-snow injury;3)to improve environmental attractiveness of walking spaces and open spaces,as well as to create better aesthetic quality on campus.All in all,for practical significance,this study follows the ideology of Health China Policy.Besides,it introduces the advanced thought of “health promotion” and quantitative methodology of evaluating “environment-behavior” relationship into current campus design practice in cold climates in China.This process has brought new perspectives and questions to this field,and the methodology has brought potential solutions.What is more,this study fulfills the public requirements of conducting healthy activities and promoting active living in extreme climates and comes up with a series of environmental design approaches to promote public health outcomes.For academic significant,this study reveals the correlations between students' physical activity and campus environmental characteristics in cold climates by both theoretical and empirical approaches.The study also proposes a campus design target system and a strategy guideline for campus physical activity promotion in cold climates based on students' and experts' survey data.Both the study design and the conclusions provide essential research supports for healthy environment design in extreme climates in China,and also inspire further studies in relevant research areas.