The Association between Street Built Environment and Street Vitality Based on Quantitative Analysis in Historic Areas: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

Over the past decade, enhancing the quality of cities and building vibrant urban streets has become a hot topic in urban planning in China. Although there are many studies on how the built environment affects street vitality, the unique built environment of the street space in historic areas, as the core node of the city, has not been fully explored. This study constructs an association model between the street built environment (SBE) and street vitality in historic areas and evaluates the influence of SBE on street vitality by spatial analysis and statistical analysis methods using POI data, road network data, and Baidu heat map data, taking Wuhan, China, as an example. The results showed that (1) appropriate built environment development intensity, street width-to-height ratio, and facade ratio of historic buildings on the street frontage all can promote street vitality; (2) the spatial distribution of historic buildings converted to commercial functions in historic areas has a high consistency with the spatial distribution of street vitality, and the consistency is significantly higher than that of general urban streets; (3) historic buildings converted to residential functions and those in vacancy or under renovation in historic areas have a significant inhibitory effect on street vitality; and (4) the spatial distribution of transportation facilities and the spatial distribution of street vitality are mutually exclusive in historic areas. This study proposes a method for studying the SBE and street vitality in historic areas and initially explores the relationship between the influences of the SBE on street vitality in historic areas. Since the functional replacement of historic buildings can affect the street vibrancy in historic areas, our findings suggest moderating commercial renovation rather than simply repairing or maintaining the status for enhancing the street vitality. Moreover, the intervention of transportation facilities will reduce the street vitality in historic areas, which provides a basis for the strategy of renewing historic areas into pedestrian street spaces.