Citizen science and the (re)discovery of walkability from a child and youth perspective

Abstract

Encouragement of walking and the use of citizen science directly influence the promotion of positive aspects for society, especially for children and adolescents. The article presents a study conducted with students from a public school, aged between 10 and 12 years, that enhances a walkability assessment tool from the perspective of the younger population. Using a participatory methodology, the study integrates pedestrian perceptions as a determining factor in the analysis of the importance of indicators. The results showed that walkability is still inadequate in the studied region and that the inclusion of the public in the research process brought benefits that go beyond the quantitative weights assigned to the index scores.