Exploring the Effects of Green Space of Community Level on People’s BMI and Self-rated Health: A Case Study of Shanghai

The impact of urban built environment on residents’ health has always been a hot issue for scholars at home and abroad. However, existing researches show there is no consensus on the effects of green space on residents’ health, such as obesity. One of the reasons lies in that different disciplines have different measurement methods and research accuracy of greening, and the conclusion is not solid enough. Based on WHO global aging and adult health data, this research selects the high-density areas of Shanghai as the targets, and collects more than 5,000 samples from 23 communities in Shanghai. With the satellite remote sensing technology and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), it quantifies the vegetation coverage level to explore the effects of greening space in high-density areas of China on the obesity and self-rated health of the residents. The research finds a large difference in NDVI among communities in Shanghai, high vegetation coverage can significantly improve self-rated health of urban residents, but has no obvious effects on the physiological health benefit BMI level. It also finds that vegetation coverage has good health benefits only within an appropriate range. Based on the above conclusions, it puts forward a health-oriented green space planning proposal.