An Application of the Walkability Index for Elderly Health—WIEH. The Case of the UNESCO Historic Centre of Porto, Portugal

Fernando Alves, Sara Cruz, Sophia Rother and Tino Strunk
Additional contact information
Fernando Alves: Research Centre for the Territory, Transports and Environment, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Sara Cruz: Research Centre for the Territory, Transports and Environment, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Sophia Rother: Fachhochschule Erfurt, 99085 Erfurt, Germany
Tino Strunk: Fachhochschule Erfurt, 99085 Erfurt, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: This work provides a follow-up to the article Walkability Index for Elderly Health: A Proposal, published in 2020. Previous research linked the quality of public spaces, walkability characteristics relevant to older people, and the direct health benefits of walking for the same target group. The present article, on the other hand, aims to validate the conceptual design of the walkability index for elderly health (WIEH), developed by the authors in the previous study, by applying it to a study area located in the historic center of Porto, Portugal. Therefore, public spaces and the pedestrian network are analyzed according to their suitability for older people’s walkability. Presented in a visual format, the results show that only a few paths within the study area were strongly suited to older people, and emphasize the impact of existing steep slopes on the quality of the pedestrian network.

Keywords: older people’s health; age-friendly spaces; public space quality; walkability index; Porto historic center (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4869/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4869/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:4869-:d:543954

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().