territorial analysis

GIS analysis, onsite inspections, living labs

The first work-package of LONGEVICITY was based on a series of GIS analysis and on site inspections of the City of Milan (ITALY) in order to identify the relevant neighbourhoods where to perform the activities of the project. A sample of elderly inhabitants has been recruited in the seniors centers of the neighbourhoods to participate to the project. Multi-layer maps of the city of Milan based on the social and demographic characteristic of the inhabitants and the level of walkability.

GIS ANALYSIS

The software ESRI ArcMap has been used to perform a macroscopic multi-layer map of the City of Milan by merging a series of geo-referred open data sets related to the walkability assessment criteria. We identified the Neighborhoods or NLI of the city characterized by the highest presence of elderly inhabitants and by the poorest level of walkability (i.e. Elderly Walkability Index).

  1. Socio-demographic Data

    • ERD-Elderly Residential Density: socio-demographic characteristics of the inhabitants among the No. 88 Neighborhoods or NLI.

  2. Elderly Walkability Index:

    • LUE-Level of Usefulness for the Elderly: localization of those services specifically tailored to accommodate the needs of the elderly (TS-transport Services, SS- Social Services, CS-Commercial Services);

    • LCE-Level of Comfort for the Elderly: localization of those transportation facilities specifically tailored to accommodate the needs of the elderly (PFA-Pedestrian Friendly Areas, PCA-Pedestrian Circulation Areas, UGA-Urban Green Areas).

    • LSE-Level of Safety for the Elderly: localization of fatal and non-fatal pedestrian-car accidents occurred in 2016.

For a complete description see:

Gorrini, A., Bandini, S.: Elderly Walkability Index through GIS: Towards Advanced AI-based Simulation Models, In: Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Ambient Assisted Living - AI*AAL 2018, at the 17th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence - AI*IA 2018, 20-23 November 2018, Trento, Italy, Vol-2333, pp.67-82 (2019)

ON SITE INSPECTIONS


A series of on site inspections has been executed in the NLI PADOVA (City of Milan) and in the area of Sesto Rondò (Sesto San Giovanni, Metropolitan City of Milan). This selection was based on the location of the AUSER senior centers and on the diversity of the neighbourhoods typology among urban and suburban areas.

To conduct the inspections (about 25 inspections, executed in the morning or in the afternoon and focused on a sample of streets within the two selected areas), the research team designed an online observation protocol. The inspections were aimed at quantitatively evaluating the level of walkability of the two areas for the elderly pedestrians considering five main criteria:

    1. Usefulness;

    2. Comfort;

    3. Safety;

    4. Attractiveness;

    5. Legibility.

For each indicator, specific questions have been designed to get an accurate and objective assessment of the level of walkability. At the end, an overall walkability score has been calculated through a weighted summation considering each street and the whole selected areas.

During the observation process, the attention has been directed not only on annotating the physical features of road facilities (e.g., quality of sidewalks, safety of crosswalks, building facades, urban infrastructure), but also on profiling the typology of people who were carrying out their daily activities.

NLI PADOVA


SESTO RONDO' AREA


LIVING LABS


The AUSER senior centers located in the NLI PADOVA (City of Milan) and in the area of Sesto Rondò (Sesto San Giovanni, Metropolitan City of Milan) are the Living Labs of LONGEVICITY where to perform the activities of the project according to the proposed Work Packages and Tasks:

  • Social Inclusion (e.g., quality of life interviews, psycho-motor activities, road safety education courses, walking groups by using mobile app for smartphones);

  • Participatory Design (e.g., focus groups, design laboratories and workshops);

  • Walkability Assessment (e.g., questionnaires, video recorded observations, controlled experiments of age-driven pedestrian crossing behavior in the presence of an autonomous vehicle).

About 50 elderly participants (from about 65 years old, equally distributed among the two senior centers, homogeneous considering age and gender, with no severe cognitive diseases) have been recruited through the Administrative Office of AUSER Volontariato Lombardia.

The sample is composed by the elderly citizens who already participate the recreational activities at the AUSER seniors centers and also by those who experience a condition of social segregation at home.