A Participatory Evaluation of the Walkability of two Neighborhoods in Brussels

In this paper, we further develop and test a walkability evaluation method developed by the first author to understand two neighborhoods in Brussels. This method introduced alternative strategies and tools for enabling the evaluation of walkability and discussed how a structured collection of human experiences could possibly lead to a social construct of walkability. In this study, following this method, we made a field survey with architecture students to measure the walkability of the two referenced neighborhoods. In addition, considering the close links of walkability with the physical layout and configuration, we made a Space Syntax analysis (visual integration and axial connectivity) and compared this with the walkability ratings made by the students. As a result, we found moderate to high correlations between the experiential evaluation of the students and the Space Syntax results. Besides establishing links between subjective and computational surveys, this study resulted in the conception of a web-based platform with a mobile app which integrates location-based experiential and computational evaluations of walkability.

ISBN:9789491207136

Publication year:2017

Accessibility:Closed