Assessment of a urban sustainability and life quality index for elderly

Abstract

The research here presented originates from some of the ongoing challenges of our society: the demographic changes and the high share of population living in urban areas. The aim of the research is the definition of an index of sustainability and quality of life for elderly at suburban scale, not only able to outline aspects related to the local territorial context but also to represent the neighbourhood level. This would provide significant added value to existing indicators that represent the quality of life for much larger areas as cities, regions and nations. Indeed, it is universally recognised that the quality of life varies quite considerably depending on whether you live in different neighbourhoods or urban areas. The index proposed with the research is elaborated on the base of objective and subjective indicators integrated with the judgment of experts, in order to give an accurate and truthful weight to each indicator. Moreover, it has been elaborated for microscale analysis, dividing urban areas into cells, in order to highlight more in detail the real needs of each specific zone. As a result, the elaborated index would be an available tool to be provided to the local public administration to facilitate and optimise the urban planning and management, prioritizing interventions on the base of the sustainability principles and subjective needs of the population, in particular of elderly.

On Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in Civil Engineering and Architectural Design. A Review of Assessment Tools.

“…A hybrid strategy, that uses both objective and subjective methods, with quantitative and qualitative analysis should be preferred (Huxley et al, 2012). Tools such as the "Assessment of Urban Sustainability" (Astiaso Garcia et al, 2017), the "Universal Design-based Framework" (Mosca and Capolongo, 2020), the "MASBE tool" (Mercader-Moyano et al, 2020), the "DIETool" (Rebernik et al, 2020), and the "Social Sustainability Indicators" (Olukoya and Atanda, 2020) are recent examples of tools that use a combination of objective and subjective methods. As a result, several tools dealt with accessibility, however, only a few recent works presented features about inclusion, and more broadly about equity and diversity.…”

How Climate Change Affects the Building Energy Consumptions Due to Cooling, Heating, and Electricity Demands of Italian Residential Sector

“…On a wider territorial scale, the fundamental role of cities is widely recognized in the literature; in [31] it was found that on an urban scale, problems can be tackled more effectively by the easier communication with local decision makers; in [32][33][34] the problem of energy self-sufficiency at municipal level was addressed, identifying solutions to increase the RES share on the electricity consumption; in [35] the possibility of using municipal waste was evaluated, for building envelopes for nZEB; in [36] a methodology was proposed for the preparation of an urban action plan based on carbon footprint assessment related to a city in southern Italy; in other works, the field of study was more limited and reached the neighbourhood scale [37,38].…”

Energy Retrofitting Effects on the Energy Flexibility of Dwellings

“…The larger houses with greater frequency are isolated. They have larger dispersing surfaces and, subsequently, heat losses [61].…”