Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126, Bari, Italy.
Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126, Bari, Italy; Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Centennial Campus, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.
Environ Res. 2021 May;196:110922. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110922. Epub 2021 Feb 25.
Urban green spaces generate a number of perceived benefits toward human health and well-being, including an overall improvement in the quality of life. To date, processes underlying these benefits are mostly investigated at city level, while very little research has been conducted at a larger scale, such as the European level. Evidence is lacking on the association between green spaces and citizens' perceived benefits based on variations among cities with different socio-economic conditions. This study aims to disentangle the relationship between greenness, citizens' perceived quality of life, the environment, social inclusion and urban management in 51 European cities, as well as the role of per capita income in moderating the effects of greenness on overall perceived quality of life. Through structural equation modeling, the effect of greenness was tested on citizens' perceived overall quality of life (i.e., on the environment, social inclusion, and urban management). The role of metropolitan gross domestic product per capita in moderating the relationship between greenness and citizens' perceptions on overall quality of life was investigated. Our findings confirm the influence of greenness on citizens' quality of life. More importantly, the influence of greenness on the overall perception of quality of life was considerably more marked in lower-income cities. This study represents one of the first attempts at exploring the complex mechanisms underlying the association between green space and citizens' well-being at continent level. Practical implications for European urban planners and policy makers are discussed.
城市绿地对人类健康和福祉产生了许多感知效益，包括生活质量的整体提高。迄今为止，这些效益的背后过程主要在城市层面进行研究，而在更大的规模上，如欧洲层面，研究却很少。基于不同社会经济条件的城市之间的差异，缺乏关于绿地与公民感知效益之间关联的证据。本研究旨在 51 个欧洲城市中梳理绿化程度、公民感知生活质量、环境、社会包容和城市管理之间的关系，以及人均收入在调节绿化程度对整体感知生活质量的影响中的作用。通过结构方程模型，检验了绿化程度对公民整体生活质量（即环境、社会包容和城市管理）的影响。研究了大都市人均国内生产总值在调节绿化程度与公民对整体生活质量的认知之间关系中的作用。研究结果证实了绿化对公民生活质量的影响。更重要的是，绿化对低收入城市整体生活质量感知的影响更为显著。本研究代表了在欧洲大陆层面探索绿地与公民福祉之间关联的复杂机制的首次尝试之一。讨论了对欧洲城市规划者和政策制定者的实际意义。
