ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Impact of Urban Green Spaces on Residents' Physical and Mental Health Mediated by Social Capital: Utilizing Image Big Data and Deep Learning Approaches to Analyze Streetscape Features in Seoul, Korea

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 17 | PUBLIC SPACE

Speaker

Ms Sumin Kim (Graduate School of Urban Studies, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)

Description

Urban green spaces play a critical role in enhancing public health and well-being. While the relationship between green spaces and individual health status has been extensively studied, limited attention has been given to the structural pathways through which green spaces influence health, particularly the mediating role of social capital. This study addresses this gap by examining the mediating effect of social capital on the relationship between urban green environments and individual physical and mental health outcomes.
Using an online survey collected from 1000 residents in Seoul, Korea, this study employed the Generalized Structural Equation Model to identify the systematic relationships between urban green spaces, individual social capital, and physical and mental health status. We categorized urban green spaces into street greenery, accessibility to parks, and the volume of green spaces. In particular, this study quantified street-level greenery around residents using Google Street View (GSV) imagery and a deep learning-based HRNetV2-W48 model. Also, we used the value of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to account for the volume of green spaces around respondents’ home.
The findings revealed that social capital mediates the relationship between street-level greenery and individual health outcomes. Specifically, higher street greenery is associated with improved physical health outcomes, both directly and indirectly through social capital. Additionally, the results indicated that social capital enhances mental health by serving as a pathway between green space exposure and psychological well-being. Our results also showed that different green space characteristics have different effects on health outcomes, suggesting that specific configurations of urban green space may provide differential benefits.
Our findings provide significant policy implications for urban planning and public health. Enhancing street greenery and fostering community-level social capital could serve as effective strategies to promote physical and mental health in urban populations. Moreover, the findings highlight the importance of integrating green space design into sustainable urban development to achieve equitable health benefits.

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