Understanding the Living Conditions of Chinese Urban Neighborhoods through Social Infrastructure Configurations: The Case Study of Tianjin

Under the unprecedented wave of urbanization and pace of economic development, the living conditions of residents have been unevenly changed in Chinese cities. To understand the diversified living conditions in Chinese urban neighborhoods from the supply-side point of view, new spatial and residential data were gathered to investigate the social infrastructure configurations around the residential communities. Using Tianjin as a case study, the research focuses on six important categories of human needs: education, healthcare, leisure, culture, entertainment, and transportation. Based on the cumulative accessibility measurements of 25 types of facilities, the social infrastructure configurations within neighborhoods are statistically and spatially analyzed and compared. The study discovered that: (1) despite the great diversity of living conditions in the city, the neighborhoods that have better services and strong associations with entertainment and education are prominent; (2) the neighborhoods with advantageous living conditions in different aspects tend to cluster at different places; (3) the neighborhoods of different types of communities, belonging to different administrative districts, or in different urban zones, all have distinctive characteristics in living conditions.