Investigate the Impacts of Landscape Characteristics on the Disparity of Children and the Elderly’s Presence and Behavior in Urban Central Waterfront Using the Mixed Method.

Abstract

The urban central waterfront is an important public place in high-density cities that promote public health and well-being. The outdated design of many urban waterfront spaces failed to meet citizens’ current needs, particularly for vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly, whose physical capability, psychological need, and way of recreation varied largely from adult users. The challenge is global but might be extremely pressing in China, where unprecedentedly swift urbanization happened over the past forty years. Quick and coarse urban waterfront regeneration and renewal projects insufficiently considered the needs of children and the elderly. Previous studies can not provide a solid answer to the question: What landscape characteristics contributed to the disparity of the presence and behavior of children and elderlies in the central urban waterfront? To address this critical knowledge gap, we used a representative waterfront area in Ningbo, China as the study site. This research combined on-site observation, quantitative GIS spatial analysis, and qualitative photo analysis to investigate the association between landscape characteristics and distribution of children and elderly’ activities. A spatial-behavior inventory based on on-site observation containing 8,901 detailed activity data including an individual’s gender, age group, group size, landscape setting, and behaviors was analyzed with landscape characteristics using ArcGIS. Photo analysis was conducted to investigate the relationships in a qualitative way. The findings found that inadequate provision and uneven distribution of child and elderly-friendly facilities, poor sub-area edge definition, low land use mix diversity, lack of spatial variation in size and function, poor microclimates, incompatible resting facilities, coarse and uneven walkway surface, and concentrated adultexclusive land use are negatively associated with the presence of children and elderlies’ activity. Design guidelines were presented based on these findings. This study contributed to the mixed-method research that investigates critical landscape characteristics for the minority populations in central urban waterfront space, and the process of establishing child and age-friendly public space in high-density cities.