Abstract
The ongoing discourse on air quality and climate changes positions walkability as a pivotal point of sustainable urban planning. Urban studies examine a city’s walkability in terms of pedestrian flows, design qualities, and street network topology, leaving walkability comparative frameworks under development. Building on the space syntax theory, this research introduces a “walkability compass”, a four spatial indicator-designed tool for city walkability assessment and comparison. The tools are being tested on eight Baltic region cities: Vilnius, Kaunas (LT), Malmö (SE), Riga (LV), Tallinn (ES), Gdansk, Bialystok, Lublin (PL). The nine-step method framework integrates four indexes: Gravity (Gr), Reach (Re), Straightness (St), and Population density (Pop). The “walkability compass” results reveal significant Re and St correlations; thus, visual and cultural aspects become the main factors in pedestrian-friendly cities. The spatial pattern typology has matched similar cities (Malmö and Kaunas) to work closely on sustainable urban planning development. In all case studies, specific walkability zones were mapped, but the Gr zones turned out to be the most compact ones (the Z-score of Gr was ranged from 355.4 to 584; other indexes oscillated between 209.4 and 542.6). The walkability mapping results are publicly shared via WebMap to stimulate the participatory discussion on case studies cities further development.
Highlights
IntroductionWalking has been the fundamental way of moving in cities since this territorial form of living
To make the framework comprehensive, we provide the Gravity index (Gr) and Population density (PoP) measures
geographic information systems (GIS) software used in previous framework steps and enable quick data export to the online and strong correlations were found at thefeature significance
Summary
Walking has been the fundamental way of moving in cities since this territorial form of living. The looming climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges urge rethinking urban lifestyles and the movement in cities. The discussion on sustainable urban forms has rolled since the 1990s [3], and nowadays urban systems are becoming a major nexus of global sustainability [4]. Numerous research studies turn back to walking in cities and the suitability of urban environments for walking—walkability. Walkability is a composite measure of how friendly an area is to walking, regarded as a critical factor striving towards urban sustainability [5,6]. Leslie and Edwards (2006) define walkability as “the extent to which characteristics of the built environment and land use may or may not Sustainability 2022, 14, 2033.
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