Anna Broberg

Urban Environment and Children's Active Lifestyle: SoftGIS Revealing Children's Behavioral Patterns and Meaningful Places

Purpose. To determine the relationship between (1) urban structure characteristics, (2) childrens environmental experiences and active behavioral patterns, and (3) perceived health and body mass index (BMI). Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting. City of Turku, western coast of Finland, 175,000 inhabitants. Average residential density of the studied settings was 17 housing units per hectare, proportion of green structure 43%, and proportion of population under 15 years old 17%. Subjects. One thousand eight hundred thirty seven fifth (10–12 years old) and seventh (13–15 years old) graders from 54 schools in Turku. Measures. Self-reported behavioral patterns (activity of school travel mode, territorial range, mobility licenses, and distance to meaningful places) and environmental experiences (localized meaningful places, likability index, environmental fears) were gathered on the basis of locality with an Internet-based softGIS method. Self-reported BMI, perceived health, and daily symptoms were also queried. Geographic information system–based measures of urban structure (residential density, proportion of green structure, proportion of children), calculated within a 500-m buffer of each respondents home, were used as independent variables. Analysis. Mainly logistic regression analysis. Results. After controlling for gender, age, and neighborhood socioeconomic status (proportion of academically educated), residential density was significantly associated with active travel mode to school and short distances to the meaningful places of children. The proportions of green structure and children had an association with nonactive transport, long distance to meaningful places, and small territorial range. We also found significant associations between active school travel mode and reduced risk of being overweight when controlled for gender and age but not when the proportion of academically educated was also controlled. The negative association between likability index and daily symptoms and positive association with perceived health remained significant after controlling for all three background variables. The only urban structure variable directly associated with good perceived health was the proportion of green structure around the childs home. Conclusion. Moderate urban density seems to have child-friendly characteristics such as an ability to promote active school journeys and to guarantee a short distance to meaningful places. The studied Finnish children expressed very few environmental fears, and the possibilities for them to independently use the opportunities of the urban environment were very high. The limitation of the study was that the socioeconomic background variables were extracted from register-based geographic grid data rather than from respondents. More refined measures of urban structure are also needed in future studies.

Urban happiness: context-sensitive study of the social sustainability of urban settings

Previous studies have reported multifaceted, controversial social outcomes of densely built urban settings. Social sustainability of urban environments have rarely been studied in a context-sensitive manner, identifying the specific ways urban structural characteristics contribute to the behavioural, experiential and well-being outcomes. In this study, an online public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) methodology allowed the place-based study of urban and suburban contexts in the metropolitan region of Helsinki, Finland. Respondents (N = 3119) located their meaningful places and reported the experiential and well-being outcomes. GIS-based measures of urban structures were calculated within a 500m buffer around their homes. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the contextual variation and the mediational role accessibility and perceived environmental quality play in linking urban structural characteristics with well-being outcomes. Our findings indicated that although increasing urban density was associated with shorter distances to everyday services in both urban and suburban settings, the experiential and well-being outcomes varied. In the urban context, easy access to services contributed to higher perceived environmental quality and positive well-being outcomes, whereas in the suburban setting, the closeness of services decreased the experiential and well-being outcomes. Perceived environmental quality was strongly associated with well-being in both contexts. We concluded that densely built urban neighborhoods can also support social sustainability, but the processes vary between suburban and urban settings. A challenge remains for urban planners on how to improve accessibility and related positive experiential outcomes in suburban contexts.

Let the Citizens Map—Public Participation GIS as a Planning Support System in the Helsinki Master Plan Process

Abstract Current public participation methods are laborious, reach few participants and are ineffective at gathering usable information for planning. This situation leads often to mistrust and dissatisfaction in the process and outcome. This article identifies the critical conditions for meaningful use of public participation GIS (PPGIS) tools to support the making of master plan in Helsinki. With PPGIS tools, residents’ insight of their living environment can be reached and utilized along the planning process. The results are divided to conceptual and empirical points. Whereas the conceptual points emphasize better understanding of the locus of the PPGIS tools in planning process, the empirical findings reveal new ways to study how residents’ perceptions align with the plan proposal. Though new tools, data and analysis can support representativeness, independence, early involvement, influence and transparency, planners and residents need more understanding of the benefits of these tools. The study indicates that though planners found the collected data and the analysis valuable, they still lacked the skills and institutional motivation to use the data effectively. The results point out that when PPGIS tools can be integrated to the mainstream planning practices, the tools have the ability to evolve to a more comprehensive participatory planning support system.