Towards the Healthy Community: Residents’ Perceptions of Integrating Urban Agriculture into the Old Community Micro-Transformation in Guangzhou, China

Abstract

In the renewal of old communities, one of the development directions is to improve health and enhance well-being. A healthy community includes four aspects of health, namely, healthy production, healthy lifestyle, healthy environment and ecosystem, and healthy physical and mental states of residents living in the community. Urban agriculture (UA), as a form of the community garden, is a supplementary form for the lack of production function in the urban community. It also has the potential to contribute to sustainable and resilient urban communities. This study focuses on analysing the health benefits of UA and attempts to identify old community residents’ attitudes and perceptions towards UA and understand their confusion and worry. The purpose of this study is to promote the healthy and sustainable development of old communities by integrating UA into the micro-transformation of old communities and provide planning and design strategies and community development ideas for the micro-transformation. Surveys were conducted on 10 old communities in Yuexiu district, located in Guangzhou, China. Statistical analysis was conducted using IBM Statistical SPSS version 26 to obtain information on the factor structure of residents’ perceptions towards the health benefits of UA. The analysis results showed significant differences between gender groups and the status of children on old community residents’ perceptions towards general UA benefits. The main factors accounting for old community residents’ perceptions towards the health benefits of UA were environmental health benefits, physical and psychological health benefits, and community health benefits. When developing UA in old communities, co-construction and co-sharing mode, public participation mode, and promotion mode are three important development strategies. Construction location, design style, and seasonal design are also critical for the construction of UA in old communities.