Study On The Effect And Mechanism Of Shanghai Urban Densification On Residents’ Health

Health is a necessary prerequisite for personal development,urban construction,and national prosperity.In recent years,the urban environment that accompanies urban densification poses challenges to human physical and mental health.The COVID-19 has further aroused people’s concern and attention to urban development and health issues.It is of great significance to analyze the effect and mechanism of urban densification on residents’ multidimensional health to build a healthy city and improve the quality of life.Taking Shanghai as a case city and drawing on multi-disciplinary theories such as sociology,psychology and geography,the study evaluated and compared the overall situation and multi-dimensional characteristics of urban densification and residents’ multi-dimensional health by using first-hand questionnaire data,census and other statistical data,and explored the impact mechanism and path of urban density on residents’ health at different scales.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The urban densification of Shanghai is continuing,and is in the forefront of major international metropolitan areas.The population density of 10 districts in the city is still rising.The population density of renewal area in the central city and new towns in the suburbs has increased significantly.The average population density of the whole city’s communities has exceeded 20000 people per square kilometer,and the difference of per capita living area between the urban and suburbs has narrowed.(2)The urban population density in Shanghai has exceeded the optimal range of its positive effect on residents’ health.In terms of comprehensive physical health,the population density of streets and communities has an inverted U-shaped impact,with inflection points of 11000 and 20000 people per square kilometer respectively.In terms of comprehensive social and psychological health,the high population density of street significantly impairs the social interaction and psychological status of residents,the community population density respectively takes 10000 and 20000 people per square kilometer as inflection points to play an inverted U-shaped effect on them,and the per capita living area shows a significant positive correlation with them.(3)The negative effect of urban densification in Shanghai is highlighted in the sub-health accompanying urban disease,which is mainly reflected in the decline of energy,the multiplication of tiredness,the slowdown of reflexes,the decrease of social interaction and interpersonal alienation.(4)The residents’ requirements for the comfort of the space on the street scale are higher than that on the community scale,and the per capita living area scale always shows a higher level of living space.(5)Subjective perception of environmental assessment is an important path for urban densification development to affect residents’ health.(6)Social and cultural factors affect the effect of density on health through subjective perception differences.Based on the above findings,the study suggests that the intensity of urban construction and development should be strictly controlled,more green space and blue space should be set aside as much as possible,and urban space governance should be included in the healthy city construction.Under the circumstance of limited increment,more public activity space should be opened up as much as possible,with adopting different public space development strategies in different spaces.