AUTHOR=Zang Peng , Qiu Hualong , Zhang Haifan , Chen Kaihan , Xian Fei , Mi Jianghui , Guo Hongxu , Qiu Yanan , Liao Kaihuai 

TITLE=The built environment’s nonlinear effects on the elderly’s propensity to walk

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1103140

DOI=10.3389/fevo.2023.1103140

ISSN=2296-701X

ABSTRACT=The increased ageing of the population is a vital and upcoming challenge for China. Walking is one of the easiest and most common forms of exercise for older people, and promoting walking among older people is important for reducing medical stress. Streetscape green visibility and the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) are perceptible architectural elements, both of which promote walking behaviour. Therefore, we used Baidu Street View images and extracted NDVI from streetscape green visibility and remote sensing to scrutinize the nonlinear effects of streetscape green visibility and NDVI on older people's walking behaviour. The study adopted a random forest machine learning model. The findings indicate that the impact of streetscape green visibility on elderly walking is superior to NDVI, while both have a favourable influence on senior walking propensity within a particular range but a negative effect on elderly walking inside that range.