Work

Using GeoXAI to reveal gender differences in the spatially nonstationary influence of built environment on area-level happiness

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Gendered activity patterns can create unequal exposure to urban environments, yet city-scale evidence rarely combines gender-specific happiness, nonlinear modelling, and local spatial variation. We analysed 678,120 geotagged Weibo posts across 33,591 500 m grids in Shanghai using LSTM-CNN sentiment classification, HRNet streetscape segmentation, XGBoost, SHAP, partial dependence plots, and spatially varying contributions. After screening, 320,618 female-labelled and 187,089 male-labelled posts entered the analysis. Sentiment classification achieved 0.942 accuracy; random-fold XGBoost R 2 was 0.898 and 0.930 for female- and male-labelled happiness, and remained positive under spatial separation and the 20-user threshold. Results showed: (1) positive expression accounted for 73.64% of female-labelled posts and 74.30% of male-labelled posts. Female-labelled grid scores were higher and more variable (4.06 ± 2.13 versus 2.94 ± 1.71); both surfaces were spatially clustered (Moran’s I = 0.909 and 0.666) but modestly correlated ( r = 0.325; ρ = 0.273). (2) Population count and the Gini coefficient showed opposite correlations between groups. SHAP ranked NDVI first for the female-labelled model and Population count first for the male-labelled model, with Greenness, the Gini coefficient, and Distance to city center also prominent. (3) The same 5D dimension dominated only 43.3% of paired grids. Destination accessibility and Distance to Transit contributed more to female-labelled happiness in 95.1 and 84.0% of grids, whereas Design contributed more to male-labelled happiness in 68.0%. All five dimension-level differences were spatially clustered (Moran’s I = 0.571–0.788). These results locate contiguous gender differences in area-level happiness across Shanghai and provide evidence for locally targeted, gender-responsive urban and public-health planning.

Source: Frontiers in Public Health

DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1962036

Authors: Cuicui Ye, Zheng Ding

Institutions: Wuyi University, Wuyi University, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University

Language: English

Topic: Urban Green Space and Health

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Reduced inequalities, Gender equality

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,801