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Quantifying Life Quality as Walkability on Urban Networks: The Case of Budapest

  • Luis Guillermo Natera OrozcoEmail author
  • David Deritei
  • Anna Vancso
  • Orsolya Vasarhelyi
Conference paper
First Online:
Part of the Studies in Computational Intelligence book series (SCI, volume 882)

Abstract

Life quality in cities is deeply related to the mobility options, and how easily one can access different services and attractions. The pedestrian infrastructure network provides the backbone for social life in cities. While there are many approaches to quantify life quality, most do not take specifically into account the walkability of the city, and rather offer a city-wide measure. Here we develop a data-driven, network-based method to quantify the liveability of a city. We introduce a life quality index (LQI) based on pedestrian accessibility to amenities and services, safety and environmental variables. Our computational approach outlines novel ways to measure life quality in a more granular scale, that can become valuable for urban planners, city officials and stakeholders. We apply data-driven methods to Budapest, but as having an emphasis on the online and easily available quantitative data, the methods can be generalized and applied to any city.

Keywords

Walkability Urban networks Urban development Life quality 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the experts of KKBK for consultations, and Federico Battiston and Gerardo Iñiguez for comments and discussions on the subject.

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Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  • Luis Guillermo Natera Orozco
    • 1
    Email author
  • David Deritei
    • 1
  • Anna Vancso
    • 2
  • Orsolya Vasarhelyi
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Network and Data ScienceCentral European UniversityBudapestHungary
  2. 2.Corvinus University of BudapestBudapestHungary

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