Urban Walkability: Diagramming and Mapping 

Abstract:

The concept of urban walkability has come to occupy a key role at the nexus of a series of multidisciplinary fields connecting urban design and planning to broader issues of public health, social equity, economic productivity and climate change. Density, functional mix and access networks are well recognised as key urban design factors: density concentrates more people and places within walkable distances; functional mix produces a greater range of walkable destinations; and access networks mediate pedestrian flows between them. This complex synergy of density, mix and access – referred to as the urban DMA – largely stems from the work of Jane Jacobs. With an approach based in assemblage thinking, it is shown that each of these interrelated factors is multiple and problematic to define or measure. Any reduction of morphological properties to a singular index can involve a misrecognition of how cities work. It is argued that walkability is a complex set of capacities embodied in any urban morphology, and that it should not be conflated with nor derived from actual levels of walking. Starting from diagramming the urban DMA, it is shown how multi-layered, multi-scalar and diachronic spatial mapping geared to particular research questions can help advance understandings of urban walkability.