Public Opinion on Healthy Cities: Topic Modeling of South Korean News Articles (2004–2024)

This study aimed to analyze healthy and sustainable city-related news articles in South Korea to identify key themes in public opinion and their temporal changes, and to examine their alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A retrospective observational study using text mining and topic modeling of news articles from a nationwide news database spanning 2004–2024. News articles (n = 15,137) containing the term "healthy city" were collected from the BIGKinds news big data system. After data preprocessing, Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling was applied to identify main themes. Topic temporal changes were analyzed through linear trend analysis, and topics were evaluated for SDG relevance. Ten main topics were identified through topic modeling: eight related to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and two to SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). Topics showing significant increase over time included urban planning, policy governance, and policy evaluation. Interest decreased significantly in region-specific development, physical activity infrastructure, and local tourism. Notable gaps were found in addressing WHO-emphasized SDGs 2, 6, 12, and 13. South Korean public discourse on healthy cities has shifted from physical infrastructure development to urban planning and governance. While strongly aligned with SDG 11, findings suggest the need for a more balanced approach that addresses gaps in environmental sustainability while maintaining effective governance.