School of Public and International Affairs, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, United States.
Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, United States.
Environ Int. 2024 Aug;190:108871. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.108871. Epub 2024 Jul 3.
Previous studies on the relationship between urban form and air quality: (1) report mixed results among specific aspects of urban spatial structure (e.g., urban expansion, form, or shape) and (2) use primarily cross-sectional approaches with a single year of data. This study takes advantage of a multi-decade, longitudinal approach to investigate the impact of urban spatial structure on population-weighted concentrations of PM and NO. Based on fixed-effect regression models for 481 urban areas in the United States spanning from 1990 to 2015, we found significant associations between various aspects of urban spatial structure and air quality after controlling for meteorological and socio-economic factors. Our results show that population density, compact urban form, circularity, and green space are associated with lower concentrations. Conversely, higher rates of urban expansion, industrial area, and polycentricity are associated with higher concentrations. For large cities (total population: 180,262,404), we found that increasing key factors from each urban spatial structure category (i.e., greenness, population density, compactness, circularity) by a modest 10% results in 10,387 (12,376) fewer deaths for PM (NO). We recommend that policymakers adopt comprehensive strategies to increase population density, compactness, and green spaces while slowing urban expansion to reduce the health burden of air quality in US cities.
（1）报告了城市空间结构特定方面（例如城市扩张、形态或形状）之间的结果相互混杂；（2）主要使用具有单一年份数据的横截面方法。本研究利用了一项数十年的纵向研究方法，调查城市空间结构对 PM 和 NO 人口加权浓度的影响。基于 1990 年至 2015 年美国 481 个城市的固定效应回归模型，我们在控制了气象和社会经济因素后，发现城市空间结构的各个方面与空气质量之间存在显著关联。我们的研究结果表明，人口密度、紧凑的城市形态、圆形和绿地与较低的浓度有关。相反，较高的城市扩张率、工业区域和多中心性与较高的浓度有关。对于大城市（总人口：180,262,404），我们发现，将每个城市空间结构类别（即绿色度、人口密度、紧凑度、圆形度）中的关键因素适度增加 10%，可分别减少 10,387（12,376）例 PM（NO）相关死亡。我们建议政策制定者采取综合策略来提高人口密度、紧凑性和绿地面积，同时减缓城市扩张，以减轻美国城市空气质量对健康的影响。
