522 / 2019-02-28 18:43:19

Residential Satisfaction in Relation to Walkability for QOL Outcomes

全体主题 > Urban Planning & Modeling

Background and Aim
Urban development is increasingly required to generate not only economic benefits but also social benefits for the sustainable society, which can be translated to QOL. While QOL is basically about the value of people’s life, it can be interpreted as the value of location where activities in daily life take place. Mobility plays an important role in QOL as higher-speed travel can increase opportunities to access to the higher number of activities. This is conventionally evaluated as accessibility of location in terms of the quantitative benefits of travel. However, there are qualitative social co-benefits of travel, such as health and social interaction, to be the outcomes of QOL. These are suggested to be achieved more by slower mobility as it can increase opportunities to interact with surrounding people and places, generating more diverse social activities. Such slow mobility is represented by active travel, such as walking and cycling.
However, the relationship between slow mobility and the QOL outcomes has not been spatially analyzed. Walkability is regarded as a concept of spatial evaluation for walking. The various evaluation indices for walkability have been developed, represented by the walk score, and have been validated for the positive impacts on prices of residential locations. On the other hand, few studies test whether the walkability evaluation could have any impacts on the QOL outcomes. Moreover, the walkability evaluation itself is hardly conducted in Japan and many Asian countries, where motorization is prioritized in road development. As Japan faces rapid social changes of aging and population decline and need the strategies of smart urban shrinking, walkability to enhance QOL may play an increasingly important role in residential location preferences. Therefore, it is important to rethink about location preferences, taking account of the impacts of walkability on the QOL outcomes.
This research aims to clarify the relationship of walkability by activity with residential satisfaction and the QOL outcomes.

Methodology
First, the components of walkability and QOL outcomes are sort out by a literature review. Then, an online questionnaire survey is conducted about satisfaction levels of residential places, the walkability indicators and the QOL outcomes. Finally, the relationships of the walkability indicators with resident satisfaction and the QOL outcomes are analyzed, using multiple regression analysis and factor analysis.
Walkability employs perception indicators of walk needs consisting of convenience, safety, comfort and attractiveness. The walkability indicators are measured with satisfaction levels of walk needs in residential places and daily activity places in daily life. The daily activities are chosen as work, shopping, education, hospital, exercise, hobby, fun and community.
QOL outcomes employs health factors to do with physical health and mental health, social interaction factors to do with family members and neighbors, and attachment to local places and people. The QOL outcomes are measured with satisfaction levels of health, social interaction and attachment.
The case study area is Nagoya city in Japan, which is highly dependent on car use, approximately 60%, but the city planning promotes walkable development around public transport stations. The survey data is collected for a range of types of residents to be evenly distributed by age, sex and walk frequency.

Results
The results showed that the walkability indicators are significant to account for the residential satisfaction and the QOL outcomes of health and attachment. Particularly, the walkability indicators of residential places are statistically significant for all of the residential satisfaction and the QOL outcomes. This is also the case of the walkability of attractiveness as a walk need. Moreover, the walkability of shopping places is important for residential satisfaction and the QOL outcome of attachment. These results imply the importance of residential preferences to walkability to enhance QOL.