The Scale Effect of Street View Images and Urban Vitality Is Consistent with a Gaussian Function Distribution

Yin, Jie; Chen, Ran; Zhang, Ruixiang; Li, Xiang; Fang, Yuan

doi:10.3390/land14020415

Open AccessArticle

The Scale Effect of Street View Images and Urban Vitality Is Consistent with a Gaussian Function Distribution

by

Jie Yin

^1,2,*,

Ran Chen

^1,2,

Ruixiang Zhang

^1,2,

Xiang Li

^1,2 and

Yuan Fang

^2,*

¹

School of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China

²

Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Human-Earth Relations of Ministry of Natural Resources of China, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Land 2025, 14(2), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020415

Submission received: 19 December 2024 / Revised: 4 February 2025 / Accepted: 13 February 2025 / Published: 17 February 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Built Environment, Pedestrian Behaviors, and Urban Sustainability: 2nd Edition)

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Abstract

Street view images are often used to assess the impact of the built environment on urban vitality from an eye-level perspective. However, the influence of analyzing scale on the accuracy of assessment results is often ignored. To find the appropriate scale, we need to quantify the scale effect of street view images and urban vitality. Therefore, in this study, Shenzhen is selected as the study area. Urban vitality is characterized by Weibo check-in records. VGG19 is employed to learn the features of street view images and performs regression analysis of the image features and Weibo check-in records in different sizes of grids (100 m, 150 m, …, 1000 m). Finally, we fit the scale effect of their correlation via a function. We find that as the scale increases, the correlation between street view images and urban vitality tends to increase and then decrease, which is consistent with the distribution law of a Gaussian function. This study provides a basis for selecting appropriate scales of the correlation between street view images and urban vitality.

Keywords: street view image; scale effect; urban vitality; Gaussian function; VGG19

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MDPI and ACS Style

Yin, J.; Chen, R.; Zhang, R.; Li, X.; Fang, Y. The Scale Effect of Street View Images and Urban Vitality Is Consistent with a Gaussian Function Distribution. Land 2025, 14, 415. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020415

AMA Style

Yin J, Chen R, Zhang R, Li X, Fang Y. The Scale Effect of Street View Images and Urban Vitality Is Consistent with a Gaussian Function Distribution. Land. 2025; 14(2):415. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020415

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yin, Jie, Ran Chen, Ruixiang Zhang, Xiang Li, and Yuan Fang. 2025. "The Scale Effect of Street View Images and Urban Vitality Is Consistent with a Gaussian Function Distribution" Land 14, no. 2: 415. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020415

APA Style

Yin, J., Chen, R., Zhang, R., Li, X., & Fang, Y. (2025). The Scale Effect of Street View Images and Urban Vitality Is Consistent with a Gaussian Function Distribution. Land, 14(2), 415. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020415

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The Scale Effect of Street View Images and Urban Vitality Is Consistent with a Gaussian Function Distribution

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