The influence of two and three-dimensional spatial characteristics of industrial parks on the emotional well-being of employees: A case study of Shenzhen

Abstract

Enhancing the emotions of the workers within industrial parks is crucial for achieving the sustainable development goal (SDG). However, evidence on the impact of industrial park environmental layouts on emotions is limited due to the low attention on the workers in the industrial park. Based on a framework of two-dimensional (2D) industrial park morphology indicators and three-dimensional (3D) spatial objective perception, this study aims to compare and analyze the effect of environmental characteristics in Shenzhen's industrial parks on workers' emotions by using emotional geography and social media data. The potential mechanism that environmental characteristic variables influence the positive emotion index (PEI) is also explored. Using the natural language processing (NLP) to analyze the Weibo check-in data, the study captures the daily emotions of workers in industrial parks. By adopting the linear and spatial regression models, this research reveals the complex relationship between the environmental layout of the total 425 industrial parks in Shenzhen city and the corresponding emotions of the workers. The conclusions are as follows: (1) There is a significant correlation between the environmental layout of the industrial parks and the emotions of the workers, with the correlation among 3D variables being higher than that among 2D variables considering spatial effects. (2) There is a certain degree of coordination and contradiction between the morphological indicators of the industrial parks and the spatial objective perception variables, necessitating the planners to consider both macro-scale and micro-perception environmental characteristics to enhance the workers' emotions. (3) In addition to higher accessibility and more public transportation options, the safer, wider, relatively more open streets, more perceivable green spaces, and richer street life can promote the positive emotions among the workers. On the contrary, the enclosed environments, the dense and overwhelming buildings, and the excessive road density may lead to negative emotions. This study contributes to establish the environmental layouts for the industrial parks that foster positive worker emotions and offer insights for the sustainable development of the industrial parks.