Research on Urban Community Street Environment Evaluation and Optimization Strategy under the Concept of a Healthy City: A Case Study of the Dingwangtai Area of Changsha City

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) articulated a vision in 1986, hoping that countries around the world would actively promote the construction and development of healthy cities. In the context of China, a paradigm shift in urban development has been triggered by the deep implementation of the Healthy China Strategy and the gradual completion of the comprehensive national spatial planning. This shift emphasizes a micro-level focus, advocating a human-centered approach to urban space exploration. In this paper, the Dingwangtai Area of Changsha City is selected as a case study. A street space health evaluation index system called “5D+” is constructed from six dimensions, namely, human perception, degree of mixing, density, distance to transit, destination accessibility, and devise. This research adopts the community as the fundamental unit of analysis, employing the Entropy-weighting TOPSIS method for the computation of indicators. The results of this study show that the Dingwangtai Area exhibits relative deficiencies in the dimensions of density, devise, and destination accessibility. Specifically, at the community level, the Ma Wang Street Community and the Fanhou Street Community have scored particularly low. In response, this paper proposes targeted measures and detailed recommendations aimed at optimizing the design of the street, enhancing the human experience, enriching functional attributes, and refining the street network. The ultimate goal is to propose a Healthy Streets Evaluation Index System based on the concept of a healthy city and to explore its relationship with healthy streets so as to provide valuable insights for the development of healthy city streets.