Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland.
Environ Monit Assess. 2020 Jun 3;192(7):412. doi: 10.1007/s10661-020-08377-0.
Green space and its spatial formation are important elements of public welfare in urban environments and green ecosystems in big cities largely contribute to the mental and physical health of citizens. Tehran is Iran's biggest and most polluted city and air pollution in this city causes loss of human lives due to respiratory diseases. The effect of green area has been less studied in former researches in Tehran, and the reducing effects of green landscape on the mortality of respiratory diseases have not yet been evaluated. To measure the effects of green area landscape patterns (fragmentation, area-edge, shape, and aggregation) on public health, the current study evaluated the pathways and effects of green space on air pollution and the mortality of respiratory diseases using structural equation modeling approach and the partial least squares method. The results of the study indicated green space has a significant mitigating effect on air pollution and mortality of respiratory diseases and also air pollution has a meaningful increasing effect on mortality due to respiratory diseases in Tehran. The most important latent variable in green space is class area that indicates more area of green space is correlated with less mortality of respiratory diseases. The most important indicator of air pollution was the PM that needs to be considered and controlled by urban policymakers. Accordingly, maximizing the green area and its cohesion and minimizing fragmentation and green patch edge can contribute to a reduction in air pollution and consequently lower mortality of citizens.
绿地及其空间形态是城市环境公益和大城市绿色生态系统的重要组成部分，在很大程度上有助于市民的身心健康。德黑兰是伊朗最大和污染最严重的城市，该市的空气污染导致呼吸道疾病患者死亡。在德黑兰以前的研究中，对绿地的影响研究较少，绿地对呼吸道疾病死亡率的减少影响尚未得到评估。为了衡量绿地景观格局（破碎化、面积-边缘、形状和聚集）对公共健康的影响，本研究采用结构方程模型和偏最小二乘方法评估了绿地对空气污染和呼吸道疾病死亡率的影响途径和效果。研究结果表明，绿地对空气污染和呼吸道疾病死亡率有显著的缓解作用，空气污染对德黑兰呼吸道疾病死亡率也有显著的增加作用。绿地中最重要的潜在变量是类别面积，这表明更大的绿地面积与更少的呼吸道疾病死亡率相关。空气污染的最重要指标是 PM，需要由城市政策制定者加以考虑和控制。因此，最大限度地增加绿地及其凝聚力，最小化破碎化和绿地斑块边缘，可以有助于减少空气污染，从而降低市民的死亡率。
