A Quantitative Study On The Association Between Spatial Characteristics Of Children Walking To And From School And Their Commuting Activities

With the opening of the two-child policy and the gradual implementation of child-friendly city construction,the welfare and needs of children are receiving increasing social attention.Children’s activity is closely related to their physical and psychological health.In recent years,children’s sedentary time has grown due to academic pressure and attraction to electronic products,and health problems such as obesity and myopia have been frequent.Walking to and from school is an effective way to improve children’s activity level and physical and psychological health.At present,research on built environment,green space,landscape elements and children’s school activities by domestic and foreign experts is generally limited to objective macro environmental factors in urban areas,while research on the influence of micro environment and children’s environmental perception on children’s walking to and from school is still in its initial stage.Based on the concept of "child-friendly city",this study analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics of children’s activities in walking to and from school,explores the relationship between environmental perceptions and children’s activities in walking to and from school,and proposes strategies and improvement solutions for optimizing the environment of walking to and from school based on the research results,so as to promote a positive and healthy environment for children in China in the future.The study provides a reference and guidance for the construction of a child-friendly urban environment that promotes children’s active and healthy going to and coming from school.The study used children aged 7-12 years old walking to and from school as the target population,and used behavioral notation,Arc GIS kernel density analysis,questionnaires,correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis to construct a model of the relationship between the perceived spatial environment of walking to and from school and children’s activity level.Firstly,six elementary school of different sizes in Changchun were selected as the research objects,and a total of 770 samples of children’s walking to and from school including children’s individual and social attributes,activity type,activity duration,activity intensity,spatial coordinates and other information were collected by using map annotation tools on working days,and the spatial distribution characteristics of children’s activities were presented by using Arc GIS.At the same time,a questionnaire was administered to children aged 7-12 years old in the study area to obtain children’s environmental perception evaluation including 4major categories and 26 minor categories.On this basis,further empirical research was conducted to explore the differences in children’s activities in elementary school with different spatial structures for walking to and from school,and to establish a regression model to analyze the intrinsic relationship and mechanism between children’s perception of walking to and from school and children’s activities.The results of the study showed that children’s walking to and from school in Changchun were mainly low-intensity activities,mostly occurred in the open space next to the street and road space;children’s walking activities in Changchun mostly lasted 3 to 6 minutes,and children’s walking activities in elementary school with green space lasted longer than those in other elementary school;the top three contents of children’s activities in walking to and from school space were partner communication behavior(28%),observation behavior(15%),adventure The distribution of children’s activities to and from school is generally scattered,but there are clusters of children in the green space near the school,in the open street space and corner space,near stores,and on the sloping plateau with rich spatial levels.There were also differences in children’s walking activities and perceptions among elementary school of different sizes and levels,and the proportion of green spaces near schools also influenced children’s walking activities to and from school.Using hierarchical regression,17 factors of children’s perception of the physical environment that significantly affect children’s activity level and activity type were obtained,and proposals were made to improve the child-friendly walking space in four aspects: safety,comfort,convenience,and fun,respectively,to promote children’s active walking to and from school.