Rethinking the accessibility of urban green space through route environment quality

Le résumé fourni par la source

Urban green spaces (UGS) enhance mental health and promote physical activities among residents. The proximity and quality of UGS are the main concerns related to accessibility evaluation in research and planning practice. At the same time, the environmental quality along routes to UGS is often overlooked, despite its potential influence on residents’ willingness to visit and their overall outdoor experience. In this study, we integrate environmental route quality into UGS accessibility assessment in Helsinki, Finland. The analysis uses high-resolution urban environmental data and modeled walking routes from residential areas to the nearest UGS (> 1.5 ha) and the nearest large UGS (> 10 ha). We found that approximately 40% of residents traverse low-quality environmental conditions when walking to the nearest UGS, with noise pollution emerging as the primary environmental concern. The proximity to UGS does not necessarily guarantee a pleasant or healthy walking experience. Our results reveal clear spatial disparities between and within neighborhoods in terms of both distance to UGS and environmental quality on the way there. Importantly, this study introduces a methodological framework for evaluating environmental quality along routes to UGS, which can be adapted to diverse urban contexts. While single-dimensional accessibility indicators are straightforward to quantify, there is a need to complement them with multidimensional accessibility metrics that link distance measures to environmental route quality data to help spatially identify areas for improvement.

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