Influence of Community Green Space on Subjective Well-Being of the Elderly in Cold Regions: A Case Study of Changchun

Building comfortable urban community green space is of great significance in improving the elderly’s health, the quality of life and happiness under the harsh climate conditions in cold regions of China. This research cites the typical cold region city Changchun as an example. Through field surveys, questionnaires and street view image recognition, it identifies the content of community green space and subjective well-being of the elderly. It presents the impact extent and paths of various factors in the green space on the elderly’s subjective well-being by using the structural equation model (SEM). It solves key issues including the definition of the elderly’s subjective well-being, and the relationship between the quality of green spaces and well-being in cold region cities. The results show that: 1) The green vision exposure has the greatest impact on health of self-assessment and emotion of the elderly. 2) The shortest distance between the residence and the park has the greatest influence on the life satisfaction of the elderly. 3) The environment maintenance has no significant effect on the emotion of the elderly. Therefore, the general principle to follow in community green space planning in cold region cities should be reasonable allocation of resources and equity of services. The number of leisure and commercial facilities could be increased to enhance the attractiveness of green spaces. And semi-open heating activity facilities could be created to extend the length of staying in the green space in the cold season for the elderly.