Planning intervention for senior citizen friendly neighbourhood

Abstract

Globally, the pace of increment is maximum for the proportion of senior-citizen people (age 60 and above) when compared to any other age group. The senior citizen's major share, i.e., around eighty percent, will be living in developing countries within five decades. (WHO,2020, Active aging baseline report). With this continuous growth, the number of senior-citizen will double, from 11% in 2006 to 22% by 2050, as the share of the global population. Incorporating age-friendly concepts into planning principles to make life easier for older people is particularly important. The Rural Health Information Hub defines 'aging in place' as 'the ability to live safely, independently and comfortably in one's own home and community, regardless of age, income or ability level'. The World Health Organization is urging cities to transform into age-friendly hubs to assist older people to reach and use their full potential. “Active aging” is the term adopted by WHO, to convey “the need of optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security to enhance the quality of life of the aging population”. The neighbourhood encourages active aging by providing a healthy physical and social environment. It plays a key role in the life of older people as their interaction domain shrinks with age and they became increasingly dependent on the neighbourhood facilities for physical activities and neighbours for community interaction. Walkable neighbourhood streets and public spaces are ideal for seniors to enjoy walking (active travel), jogging and yoga. The research aims to study the senior-citizen-friendly neighbourhood perspective in physical planning. It will be achieved by understanding the relationship between the built environment and physical and social activities and finalizing the senior-citizen friendliness indicators from guidelines, best studies, and focus group discussions. Apart from physical indicators concept of “Age-in -place” which is the ability to age and grow old in the same place irrespective of gender, income, etc. has been added as it has an impact on physical and social activity undertaken by senior citizens. The study area (two neighborhoods) was selected in ABSTRACT Planning Intervention for senior citizen friendly neighbourhood v Gurugram city because of the increased cases of social isolation of senior citizens in the city. The neighborhoods are selected based on two parameters – the development type and length of senior-citizen residents. For comparing the neighborhoods, quantitative and qualitative analysis was done and the final weights for each parameter and sub-parameter were assigned through Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Finally, the assessment provided the opportunity to understand the gaps of the two neighborhoods, and the neighborhood with the lesser score is taken up for the further stage of the proposal. The neighborhood is proposed to be universal inclusive and should have intergenerational spaces. Location for the intervention were finalized by overlapping different layers and the proposals for road improvement and interactive public space were proposed.