Pedestrian accessibility of services as a measure of territorial cohesion at the neighbourhood level

Authors

  • Lukasz Damurski Chair of Urban Planning & Design and Settlement Processes, Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9384-9075
  • Jacek Pluta Institute of Sociology, University of Wrocław
  • Wawrzyniec Zipser Chair of Urban Planning & Design and Settlement Processes, Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2020-0022

Keywords

territorial cohesion, neighbourhood, accessibility, services, public transport, pedestrians

Abstract

Territorial cohesion, despite its initial ambiguity, has been successfully implemented in national and regional policies across the EU. However, its operationalisation on the local level remains a major challenge. This paper asks whether pedestrian accessibility of services and public transport nodes can be used as a measure of territorial cohesion at the local level. The presented research was conducted in 2016–19 in five neighbourhoods in Poland representing various settlement contexts: large cities, medium-sized towns and suburban areas. It adapted particular indicators of territorial cohesion established by ESPON to the neighbourhood scale. The highest levels of territorial cohesion expressed by users’ satisfaction were achieved in a neighbourhood in a medium-sized town, whereas in geographical terms, territorial cohesion reached higher levels in large cities. Despite those differences, the proposed research method based on pedestrian accessibility offers quantifiable and comparable results on territorial cohesion on the neighbourhood level.

Author Biographies

Lukasz Damurski, Chair of Urban Planning & Design and Settlement Processes, Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Łukasz Damurski - urban planner, associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland (since 2006). His research interests focus on local (neighbourhood) service centres, relationship between online and offline services, public communication and citizen participation in urban planning. He has conducted numerous research projects funded within grant programmes from the European Commission, Polish Ministry of Science and National Research Centre Poland. Since 2014 he has been a member of the Editorial Review Board in the International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR). His works – papers and books on various aspects of urban planning theory and practice – are characterised by a wide, political and axiological perspective. Currently he is working on a multi-disciplinary project on conversion and hybridization of services, i.e. the shift of traditional urban services to the internet.

Jacek Pluta, Institute of Sociology, University of Wrocław

Jacek Pluta, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Wroclaw. His research
interests are focused around the field of sociology of culture, urban sociology, social problems, quality of life
and entrepreneurship. He specialises in preparing and implementing methodologies in applied social sciences
(CAPI, PAPI, FGI). As an expert he widely cooperates with public authorities, NGOs and market actors in
social policy, social services culture and free time organisation. He is a director of many research projects,
including Ogólnopolskie badanie sytuacji, potrzeb i możliwości osób niepełnosprawnych (2008–2010), Strategie
sukcesyjne polskich przedsiębiorstw rodzinnych (2012–2013), Czynniki rozwoju przedsiębiorczości
na lokalnym rynku pracy (2005–2007), Ewaluacja Europejskiej Stolicy Kultury Wrocław 2016 (2016–2017),
Analiza funkcjonalna osiedli (2015–2016), Wrocławska diagnoza społeczna (edycja 2010, 2014, 2017), Strategia
Kultura Obecna! (2017), Strategia Wrocław 2030 (2018). He is an author and co-author of books: Atlas
problemów społecznych Wrocławia (2006), My, Wrocławianie. Społeczna przestrzeń miasta (2006), Problemy
społeczne w przestrzeni Wrocławia (2010), Stare i nowe problemy społeczne wielkiego miasta (2010), City and
Power – Postmodern Urban Spaces in Contemporary Poland (2018).

Wawrzyniec Zipser, Chair of Urban Planning & Design and Settlement Processes, Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Wawrzyniec Zipser, Ph.D., urban planner, assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the Wroclaw
University of Science and Technology. He was born in Wroclaw, although his family roots reach cities important
for urban planning: Lviv and Prague. He has graduated from the newly-launched Spatial Management
(one of the first two in Poland) at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology
where he obtained his doctoral title in 2005 based on a dissertation about the impact of large-scale
retail on shaping the city structure. He works as a teacher and researcher at the Department of Urban Design
& Planning and Settlement Processes at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He deals mainly
with the problems of settlement processes: on a local – regional scale, uses simulation tools and spatial information
systems

References

Bryniarska, Z., Starowicz W. (2010) Wyniki badań systemów publicznego transportu zbiorowego w wybranych miastach, SITK, Kraków.

Christaller, W. (1993) Die zentralen Orte in Süddeutschland, Gustav Fischer, Jena.

Clifton J., Díaz-Fuentes D. & Fernández-Gutiérrez M. (2016) Public Infrastructure Services in the European Union: Challenges for Territorial Cohesion, Regional Studies Volume 50, Issue 2, 358-373.

Colomb, C., & Santinha, G. (2014) European Union competition policy and the European territorial cohesion agenda: An impossible reconciliation? State Aid rules and public service liberalization through the European spatial planning lens. European Planning Studies, 22(3), 459–480. doi:10.1080/09654313.2012.744384

Damurski, Ł., Pluta, J., Maier, K., Andersen, H.T. (2019) Stakeholders in the local service centre: who should be involved in the planning process? Insights from Poland, Czech Republic and Denmark. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, 43(43), 91-106. DOI: http://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2019-0006

Dao, H., Cantoreggi, P. & Rousseaux, V. (2017) Operationalizing a contested concept: indicators of territorial cohesion, European Planning Studies, 25:4, 638-660, DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1281230

Drevet, J. (2007) Chasing a moving target: territorial cohesion policy in a Europe with uncertain borders. In A. Faludi (ed.), Territorial cohesion and the European model of society, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA.

ESPON (2012) INTERCO. Indicators of territorial cohesion. Scientific Platform and Tools Project 2013/3/2. Final Report. Part A. Executive summary.

ESPON & University of Geneva, Luxembourg.

European Commission (2004) A new partnership for cohesion convergence competitiveness cooperation. Third report on economic and social cohesion. European Communities.

European Union (2002) Consolidated versions of the treaty on European Union and of the treaty establishing the European Community. 2002/C 325/01.

Faludi, A. (2007) Territorial Cohesion and the European Model of Society (Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy).

Gehl, J. (2009) Życie między budynkami: użytkowanie przestrzeni publicznych. Tłum. M. A. Urbańska. Wydawnictwo RAM, Kraków.

Guzik, R. (2003) Przestrzenna dostępność szkolnictwa ponadpodstawowego, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków.

Hägerstrand, T. (1970) What about people in Regional Science. Papers of the Regional Science Association, Vol. XXIV: 7–21.

Korzeniewski, W. (1989) Budownictwo mieszkaniowe. Poradnik projektanta. Arkady, Warszawa.

Litman, T. (2018) Evaluating Active Transport Benefits and Costs. Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Victoria, Canada.

Lovejoy, K., Handy, S. and Mokhtarian, P. (2010) Neighborhood satisfaction in suburban versus traditional environments: An evaluation of contributing characteristics in eight California neighborhoods. Landscape and Urban Planning Vol. 97, 37–48.

Luukkonen, J. & Moilanen, H. (2012) Territoriality in the Strategies and Practices of the Territorial Cohesion Policy of the European Union: Territorial Challenges in Implementing “Soft Planning”, European Planning Studies, 20:3, 481-500, DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2012.651806

Mao, L., Nekorchuk, D. (2013), Measuring spatial accessibility to healthcare for populations with multiple transportation modes, Health and Place No 24, 115-122.

Mouratidis, K. (2018) Is compact city livable? The impact of compact versus sprawled neighbourhoods on neighbourhood satisfaction. Urban Studies, Vol. 55(11), 2408–2430.

Nosek, Š. (2017) Territorial cohesion storylines in 2014–2020 Cohesion Policy, European Planning Studies, 25:12, 2157-2174, DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1349079

Ohmer M. L., Coulton C., Freedman D. A., Sobeck J. L., Booth J. (2019) Measures for Community and Neighborhood Research. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks.

Prażniewski, A. (2009) Spójność terytorialna… Włocławek: Kujawsko-Pomorskie Biuro Planowania Przestrzennego i Regionalnego. Document available online: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/archive/consultation/terco/pdf/2_national/kujawsko_pomorski.pdf (accessed 28.06.2019).

Sá Marques, T., Saraiva, M., Santinha, G., Guerra, P. (2018) Re‐Thinking Territorial Cohesion in the European Planning Context. International Journal Of Urban And Regional Research, 1-26. DOI:10.1111/1468-2427.12608

Shearmur, R. (eds.) Knowledge Intensive Business Services: Geography and Innovation, Ashgate, Farnham Surrey and Burlington Vermont.

Van Neste, S. L., Sénécal, G. (2015) Claiming Rights To Mobility Through The Right To Inhabitance: Discursive Articulations from Civic Actors in Montreal. International Journal Of Urban And Regional Research, 218-233. DOI:10.1111/1468-2427.12215

Van Well, L. (2012) Conceptualizing the logics of territorial cohesion. European Planning Studies 20.9, 1549–67.

Venkatesh, V., Brown, S. A., Sullivan, Y. W. (2016) Guidelines for Conducting Mixed-methods Research: An Extension and Illustration, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Volume 17 Issue 7, 435-494.

Zhang, X., & Mu, L. (2019) The perceived importance and objective measurement of walkability in the built environment rating. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, p. 1-17.

Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series

Downloads

Published

2020-09-01

How to Cite

1.
DAMURSKI, Lukasz, PLUTA, Jacek and ZIPSER, Wawrzyniec. Pedestrian accessibility of services as a measure of territorial cohesion at the neighbourhood level. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. Online. 1 September 2020. Vol. 49, no. 49, pp. 31-48. [Accessed 17 May 2025]. DOI 10.2478/bog-2020-0022.

Issue

No. 49 (2020): September

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Title, logo and layout of journal Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series are reserved trademarks of Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series.

Stats

Number of views and downloads: 675
Number of citations: 1