No abstract

• This study developed an Ordered Logit Model to explore the effects of walking environments on the likelihood of residents becoming overweight or obese at three spatial scales. • The impact of walking environments at the scale of 1-km buffer on individual BMI is the most significant. • Urban planners should pay more attention to improving neighbourhood walking environments. With the development of urbanization in China, obesity is becoming a serious problem, and the relationship between walking environments and obesity has attracted considerable interest. Using data from questionnaires (n = 418) gathered in 2017 from eight neighbourhoods in Guangzhou, China, a typical high-density city, this study developed an Ordered Logit Model (OLM) to explore the effects of walking environments on the likelihood of residents becoming overweight or obese. The results demonstrate that body mass index (BMI) of individuals living in central urban areas is higher than those of suburban residents. After controlling for the effects of socioeconomic factors, it was found that the impact of walking environments at the scale of 1-km buffer on individual BMI is the most significant. Variables of walkability, road network density, bus stop density, metro stop density, green coverage rate, and distance to the park have negative effects on BMI. Based on these findings, it is suggested that planning interventions should focus more on the areas through which residents walk in their daily travel routines. The selection of neighbourhoods surveyed and the sample size limit this study, but the conclusions do provide a scientific basis for the construction of neighbourhoods that encourage walking and decrease the probability of becoming overweight or obese.

Based on geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis technology, the spatial pattern of raster grid transport accessibility for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area was studied and the states of spatial connectedness were simulated using highway passenger transport, railway passenger transport, port passenger transport and aviation passenger transport data. The result shows that transport accessibility within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area costs 'one hour' and the spatial distribution of accessibility in the area presents clear 'core-periphery' spatial characteristics, with Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen constituting the core. The transport accessibility of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao is high. Average accessibility of urban nodes as measured by travel time is 0.99 h, and the areas accessible within 1.42 h occupy 79.14% of the total area. Most of the areas with the lowest accessibility are found in the peripheral area, with the worst accessibility being 4.73 h. Compared with the west-side cities, the economically developed east-side cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area have higher connectivity with roads, railways, ports, and aviation transport. Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao are closely linked. The higher the accessibility, the closer the intercity connectedness.

In this paper, we study the characteristics of the spatial–temporal pattern of land used for transportation at the county level since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy in China and discuss the factors that influence the spatial differences between lands used for transportation in order to provide a reference for the formulation of traffic policies. The authors used ArcGIS spatial analysis, an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model, and a geographic detector model based on the data of the transportation network at the county level in China from 1978 to 2018. We obtained the following results: (1) The land used for transportation at the county level in China is divided by the Hu Huanyong Line, which is characterized by spatial variation, where the southeastern region is higher than the northwestern region. (2) Counties with a high proportion of land used for transportation show obvious changes, characterized by the transformation from the “corridor” zonal distribution of arteries to the “diamond” group distribution of major city clusters, reducing the gap in land used for transportation at the county level in China. (3) The level of industrialization, per capita gross regional product (PGRP), and ratio of the non-agricultural working population all have an incentivizing impact on the increase in land used for transportation at the county level in China. We conclude that the land used for transportation at the county level in China is jointly decided by the economy, industry, and population. Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to promote fast economic growth, the upgrading of industrial structures, and population density to achieve the balanced development of land used for transportation at the county level in China.