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How to Ensure Walkable Pedestrian Paths? An Assessment in the Largo Felice Area of Cagliari (Italy)

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2023 Workshops (ICCSA 2023)

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Abstract

Improve walkability, and therefore the capacity to provide safe and accessible walking opportunities, has emerged as a crucial topic especially for post-pandemic cities, seeking to create inclusive and liveable urban spaces. In this direction, a user-centred planning approach prioritises the creation of pleasant and accessible walking environments, which are essential for achieving a sustainable urban development. The physical features of the urban areas must be carefully designed and implemented to enhance the living standards, safety, and inclusiveness, also for vulnerable users. Based on the Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, this paper provides an analytical-assessment approach for evaluating walkability in urban settings, in order to identify the significant properties of urban infrastructures. The methodology is characterised by an integrated approach based on a survey process, including remote observations. The evaluation of pedestrian paths’ performances considers the most influencing attributes (e.g., sidewalk width; visibility; crosswalk provision) which have been identified and evaluated for the case study of Largo Felice in Cagliari, Italy. To obtain an overall assessment in terms of safety, approachability, and enjoyment, each of these indicators has been analysed by aggregating and cross-referencing the detected attributes. The results highlight critical issues associated with the study area, that hinder the approachability and safety of pedestrian pathways, e.g., architectural barriers, discontinuities, poor visibility. Finally, the paper provides some recommendations for improving walkability in urban areas. Future research developments will include the assessment of further walkability attributes to perform a comprehensive analysis of an extended study area and in-field survey to validate the results.

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Acknowledgements

This work is the result of a project proposal developed within the doctoral course Smart and Sustainable Cities (3rd edition) held at the University of Cagliari and coordinated by C. Garau (https://dottorati.unica.it/dotticar/smart-and-sustainable-cities-3-edizione/). The course was attended by FS to refine theoretical and methodological tools with reference to the topics researched in the framework of the "Ecosystem for Sustainable Transition in Emilia-Romagna" (ECOSISTER) Spoke 4, WP1. Funder: Project funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.5 - Call for tender No. 3277 of 30/12/2021 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. Award Number: Project code ECS00000033, Concession Decree No. 1052 of 23/06/2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of, CUP D93C22000460001, “Ecosystem for Sustainable Transition in Emilia-Romagna” (Ecosister). The work of V. Torrisi was supported by European Union (NextGeneration EU), through the MUR-PNRR project SAMOTHRACE (ECS00000022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze, 181/A, 43124, Parma, Italy

    Federica Stabile & Silvia Rossetti

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, 09129, Cagliari, Italy

    Chiara Garau

  3. Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Catania, 95125, Catania, Italy

    Vincenza Torrisi

Authors
  1. Federica Stabile
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  2. Chiara Garau
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  3. Silvia Rossetti
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  4. Vincenza Torrisi
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Contributions

This paper is the result of the joint work of the authors. ‘Abstract’, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Conclusions’ were written jointly by the authors. FS wrote the ‘Case Study’; VT and FS wrote “Materials and Methods” and “Results and discussion”; SR, CG and VT coordinated and supervised the paper.

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Correspondence to Silvia Rossetti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Osvaldo Gervasi

  2. University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  3. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Maria A. C. Rocha

  4. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Chiara Garau

  5. University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

    Francesco Scorza

  6. University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Yeliz Karaca

  7. Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo M. Torre

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Stabile, F., Garau, C., Rossetti, S., Torrisi, V. (2023). How to Ensure Walkable Pedestrian Paths? An Assessment in the Largo Felice Area of Cagliari (Italy). In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2023 Workshops. ICCSA 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14110. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37123-3_17

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