Evaluating public space pedestrian accessibility: a GIS approach

Public spaces are sources of quality of life in neighborhoods. Seeking to help professionals and municipalities assess how well a public space can be used by the community it serves, this paper presents a GIS-based methodology for evaluating its pedestrian accessibility. The Romanian city of Timisoara is used as a case study, by comparing past, present and potential access to public spaces. The main contributions to the field in terms of methodology are establishing a procedure that can be used in cities where data is poor, and offering a more accurate interpretation of urban density, as opposed to traditional census data. The article’s conclusions show that historical and present access to public spaces does not differ that much due to the 20th century densification of the urban structure. Yet, well-placed new public spaces could improve this situation significantly especially in low-density neighborhoods.