The 15-minute walkable neighborhoods: Measurement, social inequalities and implications for building healthy communities in urban China

A sufficient number of studies have highlighted that walkable neighborhoods can help to reduce the risk of obesity and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The Chinese government advocates the 15-minute (15-min) walkable neighborhoods to provide citizens with 15-min walkable access to basic public services, and ultimately to improve walking behavior and overall health. Following the Walk Score metric, this paper proposes a modified method for measuring 15-min walkable neighborhoods and applies it to Shanghai, China. Based on amenity access, the assessment considers walking demands of different pedestrian groups (i.e., the entire population, children, adults, and seniors), the amenity attributes (scale and category), and the real traffic conditions. Spatial regression is further performed to determine whether significant associations exist between community socioeconomic status and 15-min walkable neighborhoods score. Results show clear variations in 15-min walkable neighborhoods score for different pedestrian groups. Regarding the overall 15-min walkable neighborhoods, highly walkable communities are primarily concentrated in the central areas; and that poorly walkable communities are dispersed in rural areas. Senior-concentrated and adult-concentrated communities are more likely to present higher walkability, while children-concentrated communities exhibit lower walkability. Moreover, communities with inferior walkability are characterized by a high proportion of floating population (nonresidents). This research provides future studies with references for evaluating 15-min walkable neighborhoods. Social inequalities in 15-min walkable neighborhoods should be emphasized, and interventions in planning implementation for building healthy communities in China should be targeted.