Sciences has proven that physical activity combined with outdoor play can do wonders in the development of a child’s mental, physical and social wellbeing. Despite this, outdoor physical activity is being eroded due to a combination of increased urbanization, advancements in technology, societal and lifestyle changes that favor indoor sedentary activities over outdoor physical activities epically in children. Therefore, it is imperative to research and understand what factors and locations possess the ability to influence and encourage outdoor play in children.
The playability of an urban built environment is defined as the factors and or locations that influence a child’s decision in choosing where to play. Certain features of a neighborhood have already been recognized to impact playability, these features can be broadly categorized into the following; accessibility of play spaces, attractiveness of features, density of attractive locations, perceived level of safety and finally the level of transportation infrastructure to play spaces. However, the level at which these variables influence playability is unknown.
In this study, the specific variables that affect playability for 10-13-year-old children are explored using a GIS approach. Spatial data pertaining to playability is transformed into an indexed ranking for two study areas; the Lonsdale district in North Vancouver, B.C. and the Grandview-Woodland neighborhood in Vancouver, B.C. A multi-criteria analysis method was then used to visualize the playability index for the chosen age group in the two study areas.
The rise of childhood obesity has become a widespread issue in children’s healthcare (Herrington & Brussoni, 477). Research has shown evidence that “playing outdoors, particularity in natural play spaces, boosts children’s physical activity, potentially decreasing childhood obesity” and encourages “more diverse forms of play for children of varying ages and competencies” by increasing activity in typically less active kids (Herrington & Brussoni, 477). The end goal was to identify key features of a neighbourhood that encourage playability which could contribute to medical knowledge in the field of children’s physical activity research.
Two neighbourhoods located within the Metro Vancouver Region (Lonsdale, North Vancouver and Grandview-Woodland, Vancouver), where chosen as study areas as they are considered low density residential neighborhoods better suited for families and have a high concentration of children. Combined with an abundance of greenspace and mild climatic conditions it was determined that regions possessed a higher playability potential when compared to the central business district of a city (Buck et al, 24). Furthermore 10-13-year-old children was chosen as study subjects as they are generally given enough freedom to chose locations to spend time based on personal preference. This is an important aspect of the study, as the goal is to determine features of neighbourhoods that encourages play specifically for children. To respect privacy and ethical considerations when working with such a sensitive study group the subject’s preferences and play patterns were collected in the form of transcribed interview data with all identify features anonymized. Thus, the researchers only had access to generalized information on where and how the subjects preferred to go (i.e., to parks/corner stores/schools, by bike/walking/public transit).