Participatory Seniors' Walkability Assessment Tool

Background

Name of your initiative:

Short name (acronym):

SeGAPe 65+

Website title and address:

SeGAPe 65+: Participatory Walkability Assessment Tool

Which organization is submitting this initiative?:

Instituto do Envelhecimento, ICS (University of Lisbon)

Please specify in which regions/provinces:

PORTUGAL

City:

Lisbon

Where is this organization located?:

Portugal

Please enter the name of the contact person for this initiative:

Mariana F. Almeida

Please enter the email of the contact for this initiative:

mariana.almeida@ics.ulisboa.pt

Part of larger strategy or programme:

Other

If you answered "other", please specify:

The project includes activities with different scopes (from local to international)

Please provide us with more details of this programme or strategy:

AUPE (Participation and Urban Built Environment Change for Healthy Ageing) is an action-research project concerned with the role of urban built environment in influencing health, independence and well-being of older people and with citizen engagement processes in fostering age-friendly, equitable and sustainable neighbourhoods in Portuguese cities. The project, implemented in partnership with local authorities and organizations, includes several interdependent activities, aiming to contribute to scientific knowledge, local data, tools and processes that support participatory evidence-based urban planning.

The status of the initiative:

Completed

Please give a summary of your initiative (in English):

SeGAPe 65+ - Seniors’ Group Assessment of Pedestrian Environment - is a participatory instrument to evaluate and rate the quality of streets for walking from the viewpoint of older adults. The tool provides a practical, systematic method to conduct a structured and quantified assessment of walkability conditions and improvement opportunities in a given area/neighbourhood, directly engaging older citizens in the planning process of age-friendly urban public spaces. A SeGAPe65+ Application Guide, including the tool, other materials and detailed instructions (Portuguese version only), is available online (www.ienvelhecimento.ul.pt/182), to support autonomous use by interested researchers, local authorities, or other local organizations and groups. Based on the methodology of Community Street Reviews (Abley et al., 2010, www.nzta.govt.nz), SeGAPe65+ was adapted to the older population in Portugal and pilot-tested in 2013 and 2014 in two cities (Odivelas and Lisbon), as part of the project AUPE - “Participation and Urban Built Environment Change for Healthy Ageing” implemented by the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS) and Institute of Ageing of the University of Lisbon, in partnership with local organizations and senior citizens (www.ienvelhecimento.ul.pt/investigacao/projectos/160).

The geographical scope:

Type of initiative:

Environment or setting of the initiative:

Urban

The economic environment or setting of the initiative:

The most important source of funding for your initiative:

If other, please specify your source of funding:

What triggered this initiative?:

Objectives

What are the main objectives of your initiative? Choose a maximum of 3 objectives.:

Civic participation: increase in possibilities for active civic participation of older peopleOutdoor spaces and buildings: increase in public spaces/buildings suitable for older people

Please describe any subgoals of your initiative:

To develop and pilot-test a senior’s walkability assessment tool, adapted to Portuguese cities. The methodology, made widely available, aims to fill a research and urban-planning gap for spatial, quantitative, yet participatory measures, to assist in the evaluation and co-production of “active”, healthy and inclusive, age-friendly environments.

Target group

Does your initiative target people with a specific impairment or disease?:

How many people have you reached or do you expect to reach with your initiative?:

Does your initiative target a specific age group?:

50 - 6465 - 7980+

Does your initiative target men or women?:

Irrelevant

Approach

Please indicate what best describes your initiative:

Research›Innovation/action/applied

What type of intervention strategy is used in your initiative?:

Please indicate the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your initiative:

Who executes the initiative:

Non-governmental organisationOtherResearch/educational setting

What is the relevant physical scale of your initiative?:

Neighbourhood›Public space

Please indicate how you think your initiative could be scaled up (made to reach more people):

The development and pilot-testing process resulted in a tool and application guide freely available and ready to be administered by other researchers, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and groups.

Please indicate the type of stakeholders concerned with your initiative.:

Please describe how you think your initiative could be transferred to other regions or contexts:

The resulting tool, SeGAPe65+, can be used by any organization or group interested in conducting participatory walkability audits in any urban context in Portugal (see Scaling up). The available support materials allow for administration even by practitioners with no previous experience in urban planning issues or participatory approaches. Testing and application in other Portuguese speaking countries might also be considered. SeGAPe65+ can be used as part of community audits undertaken by local agencies (social, health, urban planning or transport sectors), to support policy decisions and interventions, providing a spatially anchored comparable baseline and impact assessment walkability measure. Its use can also be promoted by older residents or advocates, as a lobbying tool for age-friendly, walkable environments. Further administration and data collection could also contribute to confirm and extend the potential this perceived built environment measure shows as part of a growing repertoire of new research methods aiming to understand the urban living experiences of older adults ‘ageing in place’.

Is your initiative economically sustainable and does it contribute to economic development?:

The main requirement /resource for administration of SeGAPe65+ is staff's and older citizen’s time. The tool does not aim directly at economic development, although it seeks to assist in the planning of walkable public spaces adapted to the needs and expectations of ageing urban populations - a prerequisite for healthy, equitable, thriving and sustainable communities.

If you selected "other" neighbourhood, please specify::

Impact & outcome

Will you collect or have you collected outcome data for this initiative?:

Yes

What do you consider the key success factors of your initiative? If your initiative has not yet started, please indicate what you expect the key success factors to be:

The partnership between university and local organizations and the direct involvement of older adults in the pilot study contribute to make SeGAPe65+ a useful and user-friendly walkability assessment tool, adapted to Portuguese urban communities. Its wider adoption might hopefully be driven by the growing recognition of the need to incorporate the experience of older adults in urban planning and the demand for simple, practical, participatory approaches.

What do you consider the main barriers to overcome in your initiative? If your initiative has not yet started, please indicate what you expect the main barriers to be.:

The tool’s administration and analysis is inevitably a time-consuming process. The involvement of different partners /sectors and users poses additional organizational challenges. Consideration of urban environment issues by sectors traditionally working with older populations or involvement of older citizens by urban planners is still not a frequent practice in the Portuguese context.

What instruments will you use/have used to collect data?:

If you selected "other" instrument to collect data, please specify:

If yes, how will you/have you collected those data?:

Will you collect or have collected socio-economic impact data for this initiative?:

Will or are the collected data in the initiative publicly available?:

Yes