Spatial Potential Accessibility of Playgrounds in Barcelona City

Abstract

There has been an extensive tradition of geographical studies conducted to analyse the access to urban parks or green spaces. Several studies deploy approaches to measure the potential spatial accessibility and congestion of children's playgrounds in urban areas. Identifying inequalities in terms of spatial access to children's playgrounds is an important issue that could be useful for urban planners. The main objective of this paper is to measure the potential spatial accessibility and congestion of playgrounds in Barcelona City. A second objective is to analyse the factors that may explain differences between neighbourhoods in spatial access to playgrounds. Several analyses were carried out. First, two indicators of spatial potential accessibility are computed at the census tract level. Next, a mapping technique is used based on a cross tabulation of the quintiles of two indicators. A typology of census tracts can then be developed according to the various possible combinations between playground accessibility and congestion. Third, two spatial models-spatial lag and spatial error-are estimated in order to introduce socioeconomic factors into the explanation of accessibility and congestion. Finally, a multinomial logistic model is estimated to explain the typology of Barcelona census tracts based on potential playground congestion and accessibility. The results show that in Barcelona City, there are no important spatial disparities in terms of access to children's playgrounds.

Una ciudad segura y jugable para el bienestar y la salud de la infancia: una aportación desde Barcelona

“…Específicamente en la ciudad de Barcelona se han realizado investigaciones sobre la importancia de la exposición a espacios verdes para el desarrollo neurológico, cognitivo y conductual (Amoly et al, 2015;Dadvand et al, 2015Dadvand et al, , 2017Dadvand et al, , 2018 o Mueller et al (2017) estiman que, anual y concretamente en la ciudad de Barcelona, casi el 20% de la mortalidad podría prevenirse si se cumplieran las recomendaciones internacionales sobre la exposición a la contaminación del aire, el ruido, el calor, el acceso a espacios verdes y la actividad física. Por otro lado, Martori et al (2020) concluyeron que no existen disparidades espaciales importantes en términos de acceso a los parques infantiles en Barcelona, aunque recomendaron aumentar el número de parques infantiles en zonas con población de bajos ingresos para reducir la posible congestión. Pinheiro de Almeida y Gonçalves (2015) observaron que los niños, niñas y preadolescentes valoran tener espacios de juego grandes, otros niños o niñas con quienes jugar y opciones que potencien sus habilidades motrices, entre otros aspectos.…”

“…Es esencial que la planificación urbana vele por el derecho a la ciudad de todas las personas sin ningún tipo de discriminación social. La literatura académica previa analizaba especialmente las diferencias por sexo (Ortiz-Guitart et al, 2014;Pérez-Tejera et al, 2018) o contexto económico (Martori et al, 2020;Pérez del Pulgar et al, 2020), por lo que se añaden las condiciones de vida específicamente relacionadas con el origen cultural y la pobreza específicamente. En este sentido, resultaría pertinente avanzar en la investigación aplicada con niños, niñas y adolescentes, para conocer las necesidades e intereses diferenciados por sexo, así como las barreras o dificultades en el uso del espacio público por parte de los niños, niñas y adolescentes afectados por la pobreza y/o con orígenes en el extranjero.…”

Does play-based experience provide for inclusiveness? A case study of multi-dimensional indicators

“…Proximity also results in more social engagement among the parents who accompany children for commuting and walking to the playgrounds (Bennet et al, 2012 ; Smoyer-Tomic et al, 2004 ) also measured the spatial accessibility to the playgrounds by computing buffer zones and other gravity models. Martori et al, ( 2020 ) expanded this approach by considering the congestion factor into the playground accessibility context. In line with other studies, the study also found that there was no significant association between accessibility and ethnicity (McCarthy et al, 2017 ).…”

Neighbourhood cohesion and territorial cohesion: in search for conceptual integrity

“…Accessibility studies are quite common in measuring various aspects of neighbourhood performance, such as school catchment areas (Harris & Johnston, 2008), green areas proximity (Leonard et al, 2015), playground congestion (Martori et al, 2020) or food provision (Renee et al, 2021). The accessibility analyses presented in this paper are based on a classic time-and space-related geography (Ha ¨gerstrand, 1970), which uses time units representing the ease of reaching activities distributed in particular area (Bryniarska & Starowicz, 2010).…”