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. 2022 Dec 11;19(24):16634.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416634.

Investigating the Association between Streetscapes and Mental Health in Zhanjiang, China: Using Baidu Street View Images and Deep Learning

Anjing Zhang  1   2 , Shiyan Zhai  1   3 , Xiaoxiao Liu  4 , Genxin Song  1   3 , Yuke Feng  1   3
Affiliations

Investigating the Association between Streetscapes and Mental Health in Zhanjiang, China: Using Baidu Street View Images and Deep Learning

Anjing Zhang et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Mental health is one of the main factors that significantly affect one's life. Previous studies suggest that streets are the main activity space for urban residents and have important impacts on human mental health. Existing studies, however, have not fully examined the relationships between streetscape characteristics and people's mental health on a street level. This study thus aims to explore the spatial patterns of urban streetscape features and their associations with residents' mental health by age and sex in Zhanjiang, China. Using Baidu Street View (BSV) images and deep learning, we extracted the Green View Index (GVI) and the street enclosure to represent two physical features of the streetscapes. Global Moran's I and hotspot analysis methods were used to examine the spatial distributions of streetscape features. We find that both GVI and street enclosure tend to cluster, but show almost opposite spatial distributions. The Results of Pearson's correlation analysis show that residents' mental health does not correlate with GVI, but it has a significant positive correlation with the street enclosure, especially for men aged 31 to 70 and women over 70-year-old. These findings emphasize the important effects of streetscapes on human health and provide useful information for urban planning.

Keywords: deep learning; mental health; street view image; streetscapes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The map of four districts of the study area.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The sample sites of BSV image.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of patients in different age and gender groups.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The framework for analyzing the spatial distribution of two streetscape features and their association with mental health. Note: the blue represents input data; the green represents methods; the orange represents the outputs.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Converting panorama image to fisheye view image.
Figure 6
Figure 6
GVI histogram.
Figure 7
Figure 7
GVI spatial distribution map.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Distribution map of GVI hotspots.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Street enclosure histogram.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Street enclosure spatial distribution map.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Distribution map of street enclosure hotspot.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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