Life span is greatly increased and therefore urban textures host more and more older adults; unluckily outdoor public spaces are not conformed for their requirements. In particular, when performing their everyday activities by walking, senior citizens have to cope with mobility conditions endangering their possibility to participate in outdoor activities and to lead an autonomous, independent life. This situation can make difficult integrating in society, can eliminate a stimulus to remain active and thence lead to a passivity that can affect health and induce greater isolation. Thus keeping older adults mobile is a goal of European policy. The European research “SIZE - Life Quality of Senior Citizens in relation to Mobility Conditions” analyses what enhances and what limits the mobility of senior citizens, which strategies are successful for improving the situation, how cities have to be designed for easing walking around. The research is strongly interdisciplinary: architects, urban planners and traffic engineers worked together with psychologists and sociologists, being flanked by seniors’ national associations. The central part of the research was dedicated to individuate opinions of users and experts by various enquiry means (focus groups, qualitative and quantitative interviews). The recurrence of fears, barriers and quality of life indicators, together with the importance of the solutions, were detected, with the aim of depicting a clear picture of the situation, more or less shared by the sample, in the eight involved countries, and of motivating action by responsible authorities. The book, after a brief description of the whole research program and phases, deals more in depth with the work carried out in “Work Package 12-Working out solutions”, of which the author was responsible, suggesting prior intervention fields, innovative solutions and measures in order to design and realize an urban environment that is accessible, safe and secure, comfortable and attractive, more appropriate and agreeable to seniors. This work package was indeed aimed at defining guidelines and recommendations for selecting policies, strategies and implementations appropriate to fulfil the goal of keeping senior citizens mobile, and in particular of designing an agreeable walking environment also for them. The requirement/performance approach was fundamental; by a satisfaction index it is possible to define the prior areas of intervention. Safety, security and sociability seem to be the most important unmet requirements or missing performances; by comparison, comfort and accessibility seem less important. A specific methodology considering various stages was applied. The first operations concern the tendentious elaboration of data in order to define, classify and prioritize suggested problems and solutions; to group problems according to un-satisfied requirement classes; to interrelate problems and solutions. Others regard: the articulation of solutions into measures and field of actions; the evaluation of the pertinence of the solutions to solve the problems and of the measures to satisfy the requirements; the evaluation of the relations of interface and interference among solutions. Each solution/measure is described and assessed in a form in order to help the choice, depending on the case, of the most appropriate one for solving the specific detected problem and for each specific local situation. These technical forms, describing all the possible actions, constitute a catalogue that is inserted in a CD Rom attached to the printed book. As final step, a collection of the most frequent problems and of the most urgent technical and non-technical solutions and measures, apt to solve them, that can be considered more or less trans-national, is selected, complying with seniors’ rating and partners’ opinions. The selected solutions and measures pertain to different fields of action and can be applied at different scale; in particular, the ones pertaining to the infrastructural field of action concern the environmental design, from the district to the street and detail level. Synthetic indications of intervention, problem by problem, are briefly presented, highlighting a set of more targeted, alternative measures that, having received a high evaluation also by the representatives of the participating Seniors’ National Associations, are considered not only as more appropriate for solving seniors’ problems but also as more agreeable to them, and thence can be heartily recommended. They indeed meet specific requirements and offer the requested performances.
La durata della vita è molto aumentata, di conseguenza gli ambiti urbani ospitano un numero sempre maggiore di anziani, sfortunatamente però gli spazi pubblici all’aperto non sono conformati per rispondere alle loro esigenze. In particolare, quando i cittadini anziani svolgono le loro attività giornaliere, muovendosi a piedi, debbono far fronte a condizioni di mobilità che mettono in pericolo la loro possibilità di partecipare alle attività pubbliche e di condurre una vita autonoma ed indipendente. Questa situazione rende difficile l’integrazione sociale, può eliminare lo stimolo a rimanere attivi e quindi condurre ad una passività che incide sulla salute e induce un ulteriore isolamento. Perciò mantenere la mobilità degli anziani è uno scopo della politica europea. La ricerca europea: “SIZE-Life Quality of Senior Citizens in relation to Mobility Conditions” analizza cosa aumenta e cosa riduce la mobilità degli anziani, quali strategie atte a migliorare la situazione hanno successo, come debbono essere disegnate le città per facilitare gli spostamenti a piedi. Il progetto di ricerca è fortemente interdisciplinare: architetti, urbanisti ed ingegneri del traffico hanno lavorato insieme con psicologi e sociologi, e sono stati affiancati da associazioni nazionali di anziani. La parte centrale della ricerca è stata dedicata ad individuare le opinioni dell’utenza e degli esperti con diversi mezzi di indagine (focus groups, interviste qualitative e quantitative). Sono stati individuati sia la ricorrenza di paure e barriere sia l'importanza di alcuni indicatori di qualità della vita e soluzioni, con il fine di delineare un quadro esaustivo della situazione, più o meno condiviso dal campione intervistato negli otto Paesi coinvolti nel progetto, e di motivare l’azione delle autorità responsabili del settore. Il libro, dopo una breve descrizione di tutto il programma di ricerca e delle sue fasi, descrive approfonditamente il lavoro svolto nel “Work Package 12: Working out Solutions”, di cui l'autrice è stata responsabile, indicando quali sono gli ambiti di intervento prioritari e suggerendo le soluzioni e le misure innovative atte a progettare e realizzare un ambiente urbano accessibile, sicuro, confortevole e piacevole, più appropriato e confacente alla terza età. Questa fase del lavoro era infatti finalizzata a definire linee guida e raccomandazioni per scegliere politiche, strategie ed interventi appropriati ad ottenere lo scopo prefissato: mantenere la mobilità degli anziani ed in particolare progettare un ambiente pedonale gradevole anche per loro. L’approccio esigenziale/prestazionale è stato in tal senso fondamentale; grazie ad un indice di soddisfazione è possibile definire le aree prioritarie di intervento. La sicurezza, d’uso e personale, e l’intorno sociale sembrano essere le più importanti aspettative non corrisposte o prestazioni assenti; in paragone, il comfort e l’accessibilità sembrano essere meno importanti. La metodologia di lavoro, appositamente delineata, è articolata in diversi passi. I primi riguardano: l’elaborazione tendenziosa dei dati per la definizione, classificazione e graduatoria dei problemi e delle soluzioni suggeriti; la creazione di gruppi di problemi in funzione delle classi di richieste esigenziali non soddisfatte; quindi l’interrelazione tra problemi e soluzioni. Altri riguardano: l’articolazione delle soluzioni in misure ed in campi di azione; la valutazione dell’appropriatezza delle soluzioni a risolvere i problemi, delle misure a soddisfare le richieste esigenziali, delle relazioni di interfaccia o interferenza tra le soluzioni. Ogni soluzione/misura viene descritta e valutata in una scheda per aiutare a scegliere, secondo il caso, la più appropriata a risolvere il problema specifico rilevato e alla specifica situazione locale. Queste schede tecniche, che descrivono tutti gli interventi possibili, costituiscono un corposo catalogo che è inserito in un un CD Rom annesso al testo stampato Come passo finale, seguendo le valutazioni dei cittadini anziani e dei partners, è stata fatta una selezione dei problemi più frequenti e delle soluzioni e misure, tecniche e non, più urgenti adatte a risolverli, che possono essere considerati transnazionali. Le soluzioni e misure selezionate si distribuiscono in diversi campi di azione e possono essere applicate a diverse scale; in particolare quelle del campo dell’infrastruttura riguardano il progetto dell’ambiente, dalla scala del quartiere a quella della strada, fino al dettaglio. Nel testo vengono date sintetiche indicazioni di intervento, problema per problema, mettendo in luce un insieme di misure più mirate che, avendo ricevuto una valutazione alta anche dai rappresentanti delle Associazioni Nazionali degli Anziani partecipanti al progetto di ricerca, sono considerate non solo le più appropriate per risolvere i problemi degli anziani ma anche quelle a loro più gradite, e quindi possono essere caldamente raccomandate. Tali soluzioni rispondono infatti alle specifiche esigenze e offrono le prestazioni richieste.
Martincigh, L. (2011). Mobilità e qualità della vita nella terza età. Indicazioni di intervento per agevolare la fruizione dell'ambiente urbano. Mobility and quality of life for senior citizens. Indications to improve the use of the urban environment.. ROMA : DEI s.r.l. Tipografia del Genio Civile.
Mobilità e qualità della vita nella terza età. Indicazioni di intervento per agevolare la fruizione dell'ambiente urbano. Mobility and quality of life for senior citizens. Indications to improve the use of the urban environment.
MARTINCIGH, Lucia
2011-01-01
Abstract
Life span is greatly increased and therefore urban textures host more and more older adults; unluckily outdoor public spaces are not conformed for their requirements. In particular, when performing their everyday activities by walking, senior citizens have to cope with mobility conditions endangering their possibility to participate in outdoor activities and to lead an autonomous, independent life. This situation can make difficult integrating in society, can eliminate a stimulus to remain active and thence lead to a passivity that can affect health and induce greater isolation. Thus keeping older adults mobile is a goal of European policy. The European research “SIZE - Life Quality of Senior Citizens in relation to Mobility Conditions” analyses what enhances and what limits the mobility of senior citizens, which strategies are successful for improving the situation, how cities have to be designed for easing walking around. The research is strongly interdisciplinary: architects, urban planners and traffic engineers worked together with psychologists and sociologists, being flanked by seniors’ national associations. The central part of the research was dedicated to individuate opinions of users and experts by various enquiry means (focus groups, qualitative and quantitative interviews). The recurrence of fears, barriers and quality of life indicators, together with the importance of the solutions, were detected, with the aim of depicting a clear picture of the situation, more or less shared by the sample, in the eight involved countries, and of motivating action by responsible authorities. The book, after a brief description of the whole research program and phases, deals more in depth with the work carried out in “Work Package 12-Working out solutions”, of which the author was responsible, suggesting prior intervention fields, innovative solutions and measures in order to design and realize an urban environment that is accessible, safe and secure, comfortable and attractive, more appropriate and agreeable to seniors. This work package was indeed aimed at defining guidelines and recommendations for selecting policies, strategies and implementations appropriate to fulfil the goal of keeping senior citizens mobile, and in particular of designing an agreeable walking environment also for them. The requirement/performance approach was fundamental; by a satisfaction index it is possible to define the prior areas of intervention. Safety, security and sociability seem to be the most important unmet requirements or missing performances; by comparison, comfort and accessibility seem less important. A specific methodology considering various stages was applied. The first operations concern the tendentious elaboration of data in order to define, classify and prioritize suggested problems and solutions; to group problems according to un-satisfied requirement classes; to interrelate problems and solutions. Others regard: the articulation of solutions into measures and field of actions; the evaluation of the pertinence of the solutions to solve the problems and of the measures to satisfy the requirements; the evaluation of the relations of interface and interference among solutions. Each solution/measure is described and assessed in a form in order to help the choice, depending on the case, of the most appropriate one for solving the specific detected problem and for each specific local situation. These technical forms, describing all the possible actions, constitute a catalogue that is inserted in a CD Rom attached to the printed book. As final step, a collection of the most frequent problems and of the most urgent technical and non-technical solutions and measures, apt to solve them, that can be considered more or less trans-national, is selected, complying with seniors’ rating and partners’ opinions. The selected solutions and measures pertain to different fields of action and can be applied at different scale; in particular, the ones pertaining to the infrastructural field of action concern the environmental design, from the district to the street and detail level. Synthetic indications of intervention, problem by problem, are briefly presented, highlighting a set of more targeted, alternative measures that, having received a high evaluation also by the representatives of the participating Seniors’ National Associations, are considered not only as more appropriate for solving seniors’ problems but also as more agreeable to them, and thence can be heartily recommended. They indeed meet specific requirements and offer the requested performances.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.