Abstract
In Japan, where the population is declining and aging significantly, walkability has attracted attention as a way to improve residents’ lifestyles. Therefore, it is essential to identify the residential clusters where walkability improvement would contribute to the maintenance of the population in order to select urban areas for the implementation of walkable designs. This study aimed to identify the residential clusters in which walkability affects the future population from the perspective of real estate prices. The reason for focusing on real estate prices is that they are expected to be a confounding factor connecting walkability and the future population. The method we used was to analyze the structural equation modeling of the impact of walkability index, real estate prices, and future population change ratio. This analysis was based on the neighborhood association scale. This study clarified that effective residential clusters are the business center cluster and the sprawl cluster. In the business center cluster and the sprawl cluster, the price of apartments for sale is the real estate value, through which the walkability index positively impacts the future population change ratio. This means that it is expected to contribute to the maintenance of the future population through a combination of walkable designs and housing policies that encourage people to change their residence types to apartments for sale when rebuilding old building stock using the location optimization plan policy.
Highlights
Zhang et al [15] found that walkability and real estate price are negatively correlated in the Futian District in the central area of Shenzhen. These results suggest that the statistical relationship between walkability and real estate price changes according to the type of residential cluster involved
The thirteen clusters were named based on the type of residential area
This study clarified the relationship between walkability, real estate prices, ous studies, this study clarified the relationship between walkability, real estate prices, and future population according to residential clusters
Summary
In Japan, the mission for urban planning is to support the country’s declining population. A characteristic of Japan’s declining population is the aging of the population [1]. It is necessary for urban planning to enable older adults to continue to live healthily while the population declines. In this context, walkability has attracted attention in terms of sustaining the lifestyle of citizens, including older adults. Walkability is defined as a property of a residential environment that promotes walking or cycling with safety, comfort, and easy access to the attractions of daily life [2]. Improving walkability is expected to contribute to the health of residents [3,4] and their ecological footprint [5]
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