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UID:pretalx-foss4g-2026-BMXX8Y@talks.osgeo.org
DTSTART;TZID=JST:20260901T163000
DTEND;TZID=JST:20260901T170000
DESCRIPTION:This study aims to evaluate the walkability of the area surroun
 ding Shin-Yurigaoka Station for older adults\, which is located in a hilly
 \, suburban environment. This will be achieved by analysing the street net
 work as a whole using a gradient-aware network approach.\n\n In Japan\, wa
 lkability has become an increasingly important issue in the context of rap
 id population ageing. Older adults continue to go out frequently in their 
 daily lives and walking remains one of their main modes of travel. In this
  context\, the ease of walking is shaped not only by distance or network c
 onnectivity\, but also by the physical burden of slopes. This issue is par
 ticularly relevant in Japanese suburban hilly areas\, where many residenti
 al districts have been developed on hilly terrain\, often requiring reside
 nts to negotiate slopes and stairways to access stations\, shops\, and eve
 ryday services.\n\nAgainst this background\, this study focuses on the are
 a around Shin-Yurigaoka Station in Asao Ward\, Kawasaki City\, examining h
 ow the walkability of older adults can be understood through a combined pe
 rspective of street network structure and slope conditions. Asao Ward is a
 n appropriate study area for two reasons. Firstly\, according to the 2020 
 Municipal Life Tables published in 2023\, Asao Ward had the highest averag
 e life expectancy in Japan for both men and women\, making it a notable ar
 ea for longevity. Secondly\, despite its hilly terrain\, a Kawasaki City s
 urvey found that a significant proportion of older residents in the ward r
 eported being able to walk for around 15 minutes or doing so in their dail
 y lives. This suggests that walking remains an important mode of everyday 
 mobility for older adults\, even in areas with many slopes.\n\n This raise
 s a key analytical question: in hilly urban environments\, do roads that a
 re structurally central to the street network also function as physically 
 walkable routes for older adults? To address this question\, the study exa
 mines the degree of overlap between network centrality and low-slope condi
 tions.\n\n In Space Syntax research\, configurational measures such as Int
 egration have been linked to pedestrian movement (Hillier et al.\, 1993). 
 In contrast\, walkability is understood to be a multidimensional concept i
 nfluenced not only by road connectivity\, but also by factors such as acce
 ss to destinations\, land use and safety (Saelens & Handy\, 2008). Studies
  of older adults have also shown that walking and physical activity are in
 fluenced by neighbourhood environmental factors\, including walkability\, 
 access to destinations\, and pedestrian infrastructure (Barnett et al.\, 2
 017). These findings suggest that street-network centrality alone may not 
 fully explain actual walkability\, particularly in hilly areas. Therefore\
 , this study introduces a gradient-aware network analysis that integrates 
 street-network centrality with topographic conditions.\n\n The analysis wa
 s conducted using open geospatial data and open-source software. Road netw
 ork data were obtained from OpenStreetMap and a 5-metre digital elevation 
 model (DEM) was used to represent topography. To better focus on walkable 
 public routes\, roads classified as parking areas\, private roads and indo
 or roads were excluded from the analysis. The study area was defined as a 
 15-minute walking catchment around Shin-Yurigaoka Station\, based on an as
 sumed walking speed of 1.0 m/s for older adults. In QGIS\, the roads were 
 divided into 10 m segments and the longitudinal gradient of each segment w
 as calculated based on the elevation difference between its start and end 
 points. In parallel\, Integration values were derived through Angular Segm
 ent Analysis at a radius of 900 m (R900) using DepthmapX and the Space Syn
 tax Toolkit. These values were then assigned to road segments at intersect
 ions. Integrating these variables enabled the study to construct a gradien
 t-aware network analysis framework\, evaluating each road segment in terms
  of its configurational importance within the overall network and walking 
 difficulty due to slope.\n\n The results reveal several important patterns
 . Within the 15-minute walking catchment area of Shin-Yurigaoka Station\, 
 high-integration roads — defined as the top 20% of the network in terms 
 of integration value — accounted for 23.9% of the total road length. Low
 -gradient roads\, defined as having a gradient of 8.0% or less based on Ja
 panese sidewalk design standards\, accounted for 84.7% of the total. Roads
  that satisfied both conditions simultaneously — namely\, roads that wer
 e both highly integrated and low in gradient — accounted for 21.6% of th
 e total. Examining the intersection of these two conditions more closely\,
  it was found that 90.8% of high-integration roads were also low-gradient 
 roads. This suggests that many of the structurally central roads around th
 e station have relatively gentle slopes. In contrast\, only 25.6% of low-g
 radient roads were classified as highly integrated. This suggests that\, w
 hile gentle-slope roads are widely distributed across the study area\, the
 y do not necessarily form the core of the street network.\n\n These findin
 gs suggest that the walkability of a hilly urban area for older adults sho
 uld be evaluated not only in terms of the physical ease of the slope\, but
  also in terms of the role that a road plays within the overall network. I
 n other words\, roads that are easy to walk on do not necessarily occupy a
  central or strategic position in everyday movement patterns. This is an i
 mportant consideration when it comes to understanding mobility in suburban
  hilly areas\, where the topography can reshape the relationship between u
 rban structure and practical pedestrian accessibility. The study also demo
 nstrates the value of using open street and elevation data alongside open-
 source spatial analysis tools to examine this issue from a reproducible an
 d scalable perspective.\n\n As a next step\, road data in OpenStreetMap an
 d QGIS will be refined to ensure the analytical network more accurately re
 flects the actual pedestrian environment\, including sidewalks and other w
 alkable links. The analysis will also be extended to a 30-minute walking c
 atchment area to compare the relationship between centrality and gradient 
 at a broader spatial scale. Furthermore\, future work will validate the ga
 p between the analytical results and the actual physical environment in or
 der to examine the validity and applicability of gradient-aware network an
 alysis for evaluating walkability for older adults in hilly urban areas.
DTSTAMP:20260718T052810Z
LOCATION:Cosmos1
SUMMARY:How Does Walkability for Elderly People Differ between Hilly and Fl
 at Urban Areas? A Case Study of Shin-Yurigaoka Station and Nagareyama-Otak
 anomori Station - Hinako Terado
URL:https://talks.osgeo.org/foss4g-2026/talk/BMXX8Y/
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