Work

15-Minute life Circles: Impact of Needs-Based urban facility configuration on Residents’ emotions

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of needs-based urban facility configuration within 15-minute pedestrian life circles on residents' emotions, as well as the variations and patterns across multiple dimensions. It aims to quantify the “psychological returns” (enhancement of positive emotions) derived from urban facility construction aligned with residents' needs. By integrating Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory with multi-source big data, the study employs the Entropy Weight Method-TOPSIS integrated model (E-TOPSIS), City Hotspot Detector (CHD) clustering, Large Language Models (LLMs) for sentiment analysis, and Mixed Linear Models (MLM) to conduct multi-dimensional spatio-temporal analysis of geotagged social media data from Guangzhou in 2023 and 2024. The results demonstrate that needs-based facility configuration within a 15-minute pedestrian radius has a significant positive effect on residents' emotions (H1), with notable differences across various types of life circles (H2). Both H1 and H2 exhibit robustness in cross-year analyses. The emotional enhancement effect of needs-based configuration generally shows a marginal diminishing return, with stepwise variations across different ranges (H3), and the marginal diminishing return exhibits heterogeneity across administrative districts (H4). The findings of this study can advance urban planning from optimising the experience of individual facilities to a systemic approach that optimises facility and surrounding network configurations. Furthermore, it provides urban planners with a "psychological indicator" evaluation dimension, distinct from economic metrics, extending the returns of urban facility construction to encompass both "psychological returns" and "economic returns." This offers a theoretical foundation and practical basis for sustainable urban development.

Source: City and Environment Interactions

DOI: 10.1016/j.cacint.2026.100295

Authors: Zeyu Xiong, Shudi Wang, Yitao Xie, Hui He

Institutions: Beijing Normal University, Hangzhou Dianzi University

Language: English

Topic: Urban Transport and Accessibility

Subfield: Transportation

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,500