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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Leisure-time physical activity

Figure 8. Evidence on the associations between urban built environment characteristics and residents’ leisure-time physical activity levels in the 12 articles.
Source: Illustration by the authors

and South Korea (China, 2021). However, Chinese cities Third, Chinese-style urbanization policies, which
vary greatly in size, ranging from small urban centers emphasize population mobility, pose challenges in aligning
inhabited by tens of thousands of people to megacities physical activity spaces with residents’ evolving needs (Liu
with tens of millions of inhabitants. Addressing the spatial et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2021). Achieving an effective match
shortage and misalignment of physical activity facilities between physical activity spaces and demand groups
cannot be accomplished through the introduction of a requires careful consideration, not only of spatial and
“one-size-fits-all” spatial allocation policy. temporal factors but also of population mobility dynamics
Second, there are significant differences in the and the static nature of spatial facilities.
characteristics of demand for physical activity spaces In addition, the “old residential area” housing policy
among cities with distinct geographical and developmental (China, 2021) targets low- and middle-income individuals,
socioeconomic characteristics. Given the diverse the elderly, and numerous tenants seeking proximity to
employment demographics and industrial landscapes their workplaces within China. In contrast to commercial
across cities, identifying and extracting BE characteristics housing, these residential areas generally exhibit spatial
necessitates consideration of both urban population constraints and shortcomings in the configuration of
dynamics and industrial attributes. This calls for a service facilities.
comprehensive approach to measuring residents’ LTPA
through empirical studies that capture the diversity and 4.3. Ideas for enhancing future research
typicality of urban contexts, rather than focusing solely on This systematic review offers valuable insights into future
megacities (Cui et al., 2023; Sudmant et al., 2020). research directions in the field. First, there is a need to

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2024) 15 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2427