Outdoor play for children has become less frequent over the past 10 years, causing academics to investigate the attributes of neighbourhoods that influence play positively and negatively (Loebatch et al, 537). Determining variables that can increase physical activity are important, as health researchers can utilize this information to prevent chronic disease in children (Herrington & Brussoni, 477). Ideally, the results of a playability study can be used as a tool to help combat obesity concerns by increasing outdoor play. Increasing physical activity is not the only concern, as research shows that play improves the emotional, cognitive and social development of kids (Ginsburg, 182). Due to lifestyle changes in the past 10 years, children have been experiencing a more hurried lifestyle, increased technology usage and higher importance placed on academics, which has resulted in decreased levels of physical activity and children not experiencing optimal development due to a lack of play (Ginsburg, 182). Emerging research has suggested that one explanation for the decreasing number of children playing outdoors is a result of excessive injury prevention precautions, but the consequence is that these restrictions are reducing development (Brussoni et al, 3134). Herrington et al, defined the Seven C’s as an index to describe the “unique qualities of playing outdoors”, that can be used to evaluate the relationships between play and children’s development to help design suitable outdoor play spaces (Herrington et al, 1). The Seven C’s are applicable to our playability study, as they tie the importance of quality play in children’s mental and physical health. However, the Seven C’s are commonly used on a smaller scale, such as playground design and can be difficult to implement at the neighbourhood scale, illustrating the research gap and need for larger scale play analyses.
Playability of a neighbourhood can be a subjective measure, as the variables surrounding it can vary based on opinion. In an American study published in the US National Library of Medicine, perception of safety had a strong influence on children’s physical activity (Tappe et al, 3). While actual crime rates may seem important, it is the perception of safety that ultimately had a large influence on play. The study found that children were more discouraged from playing outside in poor inner-city communities than in the neighbouring suburban communities (Tappe et al, 24). Perceptions of accessibility and road safety were also determined to be influencing factors according to a study published in Preventative Medicine. The study showed that perceptions of limited access to parks or sports grounds were associated with a lesser likelihood of physical activity, particularity walking or cycling (Timperio et al, 39). Parent perceptions of safety were also seen as an influencer on child play, as road safety infrastructure such as traffic lights, crosswalks and intersections were of high hazard concern (Timperio et al, 39). The study concluded that perceptions of adequate road safety might be an important factor for increasing local walking and cycling and ultimately playing outdoors (Timperio et al, 45).
A Canadian study was conducted at Queens University to determine if playability differed between walkable and non-walkable school neighborhoods for 11-13-year-old children. The study concluded that children from low-walkability neighbourhoods were more likely to engage in physical activity outside of school than children from high walkability neighborhoods (Janssen & King, 66). Walkability is defined as the degree to which streets are connected to one another, the density of people and places and the density of land use and pedestrian infrastructure (Janssen & King, 66). These factors would likely have an impact on adult physical activity, however for children, outdoor play is more important than walking (Janssen & King, 66). The study concluded that playability was more heavily impacted by the occurrence of yards, playgrounds, underdeveloped greenspaces, cul-de-sacs and trails in a neighbourhood (Janssen & King, 68). In fact, it was discovered that certain characteristics of highly walkable areas discouraged play in children such as high population density, mixing of residential and commercial areas and fear for safety (Janssen & King, 68). While walkability has a high potential to increase physical activity in adults, it has little or negative effects on the playability of neighbourhoods, therefore a walkable neighbourhood is not necessarily a playable one.
There is sufficient health science research indicating the importance of play, but very little work has been done to create play indices of neighbourhoods. To determine the best methodology for rating playability, similar research was examined. Although most of these projects were not intentionally designed for the neighbourhood scale, the methodologies can be adapted for use at a larger scale, as many similarities occur. In one particular study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, scientists studied various school-environments and assigned a playability score by digital auditing school locations and creating buffers around each school (Remmers et al, 1). Euclidean and network distance calculations of children to the schools was also included (Remmers et al, 1). The conclusions of the study was that the further the children lived “to their school, the weaker the association between playability of the school environments and physical activity” (Remmers et al, 1). Although, more factors will go into our analysis other than distance from schools, the process for rating each variable will need to include similar methods of buffering, distance analysis and data auditing. Using Google Street View to audit neighbourhood environments has been a time and cost cutting alternative to on-sight-surveying and has been proven a feasible alternative (Rundle et al, 94). Digital site audits are needed in the playability analysis, to fill in data gaps and accurately assess datasets. Google Street View is a trustworthy method of doing so, as it generally has a high level of concordance, especially with measures such as pedestrian safety, motorized traffic and infrastructure (Rundle et al, 94).
In a study published in Science Direct, multi-criteria analysis (MCA) was used to evaluate equitable access to basic services used by children (Taleai et al, 56). MCA was beneficial as it allows urban planners to analyse these equity measures at different scales more easily. An analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used to derive the weights in the MCA, as it is a widely applied method in MCA studies in GIScience (Taleai et al, 58-60). Thomas Saaty introduced The Analytical Hierarchy Process in 1980, which has proven to be a useful approach to simplifying complex decisions using pairwise comparisons. It is beneficial because it aids in decision making and can incorporate both subjective and objective portions of decision making (Saaty, 90). The AHP calculates weights based on pairwise comparisons and combines the criteria weights and scores to determine the weighted sum for each variable. Saaty outlined that there are three steps for the implementation of AHP: computing the vector of criteria weights, computing the matrix of option scores and lastly, ranking the options (Mocenni, 1). Using an AHP model for ranking complex factors in our playability analysis will help to standardize and formalize our weighting process.