Abstract
Urban bridges serve not only as transportation infrastructure but also as essential carriers of urban culture. However, existing bridge evaluation systems primarily focus on engineering performance and functional benefits, lacking systematic methods for assessing bridges’ cultural suitability. This study pioneers integrating cultural suitability into a comprehensive bridge evaluation system, establishing a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate bridges’ cultural appropriateness. The method constructs an evaluation index system across six dimensions: spatial accessibility, network convenience, bridge quality, spatial integration, traffic rationality, and interactive participation, evaluating bridges’ cultural suitability through both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Using the Tianjin Liberation Bridge as a case study, the assessment results show an overall cultural suitability score of 4.054, with strong performance in artistic quality (4.323) and spatial integration (4.247), aligning with the bridge’s status as a historical landmark of Tianjin’s port opening and an urban cultural icon. Through cross-validation of expert assessments and public questionnaire surveys, the evaluation system demonstrates strong performance in the comprehensiveness of indicator selection, operability of the assessment process, and accuracy of evaluation results. This evaluation system provides new perspectives and decision-making basis for urban bridge planning, design, and renovation, holding significant theoretical and practical implications for promoting the coordinated development of bridge construction and urban culture.
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We acknowledge that we used ChatGPT only for language correction and copy-editing purposes. No generative Al was used for content creation.
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Tianjin Research Innovation Project for Postgraduate Students of China, grant number 2022BKY089.
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Shunping He and Zihang Liu are co-first authors who contributed equally to this work. Shunping He: Conceptualization, methodology, data analysis, and manuscript writing. Zihang Liu: Literature review, data collection, and analysis. Xuefeng Shang: Methodology development and revision of the manuscript. Yuxue Zhang: Data curation and interpretation of the results. Chao Ma (Corresponding Author): Supervision, project administration, and manuscript finalization.
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He, S., Liu, Z., Shang, X. et al. An evaluation system for regional cultural suitability of urban cross-river bridges: insights into the liberation bridge in Tianjin. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35225-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35225-x
