Xiong Yue, Liang Jiayong, Guan Chenghe
School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urban Design and Urban Studies , NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21363. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-06451-6.
Despite the broad scope of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects and deep intertwine with urban development, there is a lack of quantitative research utilizing crowd-sourced data to understand public perceptions, particularly from both spatial and temporal perspectives. This study analyzes 144,210 Google reviews from 352 BRI urban infrastructure projects between 2012 and 2023, encompassing six urban infrastructure categories. Using the Valence Aware Dictionary and Sentiment Reasoner for sentiment analysis and Multi-grained Latent Dirichlet Allocation for topic modeling, the study reveals that sentiment for BRI projects is generally positive, especially in upper-middle-income countries. Discussion topics can be clustered into professional function (44%), benefits/disbenefits (24%), service industry (19%), and development (13%). Higher-income areas focus on service-related topics, while lower-income areas emphasize development. Moreover, higher urban growth rates at country level correlate with more positive sentiments and a greater focus on development. However, high investment areas experience more polarized reviews, indicating unmet expectations. Besides, the urbanization process at city level and local level also impact the performance of BRI projects, suggesting the importance of integrating BRI projects with local community. This study contributes to the understanding of the complex interplay between BRI projects, urban development, and public perception across regions and over time.
尽管“一带一路”倡议（BRI）项目范围广泛且与城市发展深度交织，但缺乏利用众包数据来了解公众看法的定量研究，特别是从空间和时间角度。本研究分析了2012年至2023年间352个“一带一路”城市基础设施项目的144,210条谷歌评论，涵盖六个城市基础设施类别。通过使用情感分析的情感感知词典和情感推理器以及主题建模的多粒度潜在狄利克雷分配，该研究表明，对“一带一路”项目的情感总体上是积极的，尤其是在中高收入国家。讨论主题可分为专业功能（44%）、利弊（24%）、服务业（19%）和发展（13%）。高收入地区关注与服务相关的主题，而低收入地区则强调发展。此外，国家层面较高的城市增长率与更积极的情感以及对发展的更多关注相关。然而，高投资地区的评论更加两极分化，表明期望未得到满足。此外，城市层面和地方层面的城市化进程也会影响“一带一路”项目的表现，这表明将“一带一路”项目与当地社区整合的重要性。本研究有助于理解“一带一路”项目、城市发展和不同地区及不同时间公众认知之间的复杂相互作用。
