University of Twente Student Theses
Accessibility and availability of physical activity infrastructure in Lisbon
Erasmus, A.J. (2023) Accessibility and availability of physical activity infrastructure in Lisbon.
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| Abstract: | Introduction: Insufficient physical activity is a worldwide public health problem, and environmental factors can have an influence. This paper studied the availability and accessibility of physical activity facilities in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The focus lies on Lisbon because of its high level of physical inactivity compared to other countries within the European Union, with 57% of residents being physically inactive. This study aimed to see if the availability and accessibility of physical activity facilities could influence the activity levels of the residents. Method: Geospatial data from OpenStreetMap were used in ArcGIS Pro and Excel to analyse the availability and accessibility of the facilities. A statistical and geospatial analysis was conducted to count and measure the available facilities and their distance from residential areas. The analysed facilities were bicycle rentals, sports centres, swimming pools, and parks. These facilities were chosen since residents would use them for physical activity, according to literature. Results: The analysis showed that most facilities are located in the Lisbon centre, with 52.9% of the facilities, such as bicycle rentals, sports centres, and swimming pools, having a 1000 m distance from residential areas and 37.4% of residents living more than 300 m away from parks. Conclusion: This study concludes that having fewer facilities or having facilities at greater distances from residential areas could affect residents’ physical activity levels. However, more research is needed to find a correlation between low levels of physical inactivity and the availability and accessibility of facilities. Keywords: Physical activity, availability, accessibility, Lisbon Metropolitan Area |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | TNW: Science and Technology |
| Programme: | Health Sciences BSc (56553) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/95457 |
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