Evaluation And Optimization Design Of Neighborhood Physical Environment For The Purpose Of Child-friendliness

China has the largest group of children in the world.Nearly 180 million children live in cities.Paying attention to children's rights and creating livable environments are essential for child growth and development,which is also an important issue in the process of the transormation of China's population structure.In 2016,in response to an aging population and a low birthrate,the full implementation of the two-child policy was carried out.The adjustment of the birth policy helped release the fundamental needs for child welfare.In addition,urban children are faced with a range of challenges that relate to urban physical environments,such as declining health status,personal injury accidents,lack of contacts with nature and mental problems.Thus it has become imperative to improve urban settings and create supportive living environments for children.Based on the above,this study carries out a systematic research on neighborhood physical environment for the purpose of child-friendliness and aims to provide optimization approaches for environmental design of urban neighborhoods.Through theoretical analysis and systematic investigations,this study explores the internal relationship between child-friendliness and neighborhood physical environments at multiple levels.In terms of the theoretical analysis,a cognitive prototype of research on child-friendly physical environment is clarified.Through a review of practices abroad,the main points and effective approaches of child-friendly physical environments are proposed.On this basis,children's behavioral characteristics are identified from a viewpoint of environmental behaviors.Then the developmental goals of urban neighborhood physical environments are put forward considering environmental functions and children's demands.In the aspect of systematic investigations,children's and parents' environmental perceptions and preferences,the characteristics of children's activities and environmental deficiencies are clarified through literature research as well as several surveys.Based on that,environmental features that relate to children are clarified and a feature dataset is established.A scientific and objective evaluation system is essential for putting forward optimization approaches.It could help clarify the existing key issues and provide reliable basis for subsequent improvements.Based on the above theoretical research and investigations,this study develops an evaluation scale of environmental child-friendliness following a scale development process.Considering four large cities as main research areas,this study explores an evaluation framework and establish an initial model by exploratory factor analysis.Then the reliability of the model is verified by confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling and the measurement invariance is confirmed across age groups of children.On the basis of weight calculation,an evaluation system constituted of 6 first-class indicators and 23 second-class indicators is constructed.Then a case study is carried out,verifying the practicability of the evaluation system.On the basis of the evaluation system,this study further explores the effects of environmental child-friendliness on residential satisfaction concerning children's daily life.Quantifying the effects could help clarify the approaches to improve residential satisfaction and provide evidence on optimization design.This study adapts a theoretical framework proposed by Campbell.Using data from 4 cities,a multiple mediation analysis is carried out and the effects of environmental child-friendliness are verified.Based on the 6 first-class indicators of the evaluation system,this study summaries the optimization keypoints of environmental design considering the outcome of environmental effects.Several universal optimization countermeasures are proposed,including the supplementataion of recreation resources,the improvement of pedestrian environment,the organization of neighborhood circulations,the improvement of service facilities,the promotion of neighborhood relations as well as the the prevention of environmental risks,providing references for creating child-friendly neighborhood physical environments.From the perspective of environmental child-friendliness,this study reviews the constitutions of neighborhood physical environments and explores the evaluation methods as well as the optimization approaches.Research findings could provide evidence for the evaluation of environmental child-friendliness and practical design for both newly built neighborhoods and the renewal ones.They could also bring up references for developing design guidelines and standards,so as to create child-friendly communities and cities.