The relationship between urban greenery, mixed land use and life satisfaction: An examination using remote sensing data and deep learning

Abstract

Most Europeans reside in urban areas. Due to anthropogenic air and noise pollution, as well as crowdedness, urban residents experience lower levels of well-being and life satisfaction. The literature indicates that greening urban spaces can help to mitigate these negative effects on life satisfaction. This study employs a deep learning approach in conjunction with high-resolution satellite imagery and land use data to obtain the distribution of different green space types in the residents’ neighborhood and examine their effect on life satisfaction. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the indeterminate relationship between mixed urban land use and life satisfaction. In both cases, the study considers heterogeneous age group effects. The empirical results reveal that in Switzerland, (1) solely older residents’ life satisfaction is positively affected by a greener neighborhood; (2) trees and grass located in gardens and parks are the primary drivers of this effect; and (3) the positive association between land use mixture and life satisfaction decreases with age, with no association found for older individuals. These findings provide practical implications for future city planning in Switzerland and other European countries and highlight the importance of considering the neighborhood’s age distribution in this process to maximize the positive impact of urban greenery and mixed land use on residents’ life satisfaction.