Andrea Gorrini and Viola Bertini
The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic review of the contributions present in the literature about walkability. This is aimed at defining a set of criteria and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic review of the contributions present in the literature about walkability. This is aimed at defining a set of criteria and methodologies for the assessment of the level of pedestrian friendliness of cities characterised by mass tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a theoretical review about walkability and on the study of mass tourism phenomenon in Venice in relation to the ongoing de-urbanisation process. The analysis of open data sets provides by the Public Institutions of Venice and the execution of on-site observations allowed a qualitative assessment on the level of walkability of the historical centre of Venice.
Findings
The results of the proposed study highlighted that the level of walkability in Venice is profoundly affected by the lack of base services, the presence of massive tourism flows and the scarcity of road signage.
Practical implications
All the elements highlighted in this work could lead to proposing several design solutions and policies to manage the tourism phenomenon in Venice in a more effective and sustainable manner.
Social implications
The assessment and enhancement of the level of walkability of urban areas represent a useful tool to manage the tourist flows and to reduce the conflicts between inhabitants and visitors in tourism cities.
Originality/value
The current work represents a valuable contribution towards the systematisation of the theoretical and methodological framework towards a tourism-based walkability assessment.
Details
Keywords
Valentino Moretto, Gianluca Elia and Gianpaolo Ghiani
Starting from a critical analysis of the main criteria currently used to identify marginal areas, this paper aims to propose a new classification model of such territories by…
Abstract
Purpose
Starting from a critical analysis of the main criteria currently used to identify marginal areas, this paper aims to propose a new classification model of such territories by leveraging knowledge discovery approaches and knowledge visualization techniques, which represent a fundamental pillar in the knowledge-based urban development process.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology adopted in this study relies on the design science research, which includes five steps: problem identification, objective definition, solution design and development, demonstration and evaluation.
Findings
Results demonstrate how to exploit knowledge discovery and visualization to obtain multiple mappings of inner areas, in the aim to identify good practices and optimize resources to set up more effective territorial development strategies and plans. The proposed approach overcomes the traditional way adopted to map inner areas that uses a single indicator (i.e. the distance between a municipality and the nearest pole where it is possible to access to education, health and transportation services) and leverages seven groups of indicators that represent the distinguishing features of territories (territorial capital, social costs, citizenship, geo-demography, economy, innovation and sustainable development).
Research limitations/implications
The proposed model could be enriched by new variables, whose value can be collected by official sources and stakeholders engaged to provide both structured and unstructured data. Also, another enhancement could be the development of a cross-algorithms comparison that may reveal useful to suggest which algorithm can better suit the needs of policy makers or practitioners.
Practical implications
This study sets the ground for proposing a decision support tool that policy makers can use to classify in a new way the inner areas, thus overcoming the current approach and leveraging the distinguishing features of territories.
Originality/value
This study shows how the availability of distributed knowledge sources, the modern knowledge management techniques and the emerging digital technologies can provide new opportunities for the governance of a city or territory, thus revitalizing the domain of knowledge-based urban development.
Details
Keywords
Xiaoyue Ma and Hao Ma
Graphic-based tag clouds aim to visually represent tag content and tag structure, and then to better represent tagged information for later search. However, few studies have…
Abstract
Purpose
Graphic-based tag clouds aim to visually represent tag content and tag structure, and then to better represent tagged information for later search. However, few studies have clarified the features among varied visualization approaches involved in graphic-based tag clouds and compared them for the purpose of information search.
Design/methodology/approach
After reviewing four kinds of graphic-based tag clouds, an experimental demonstration was conducted in our study to verify how user performs in information search for a general seeking task by using them. Precision ratio, recall ratio, clicks on search and time for search were four variables tested in the experiment. Also, two supplementary tests were respectively carried out to manifest how graphic-based tag clouds contributed to the identification of target tags and tag clusters.
Findings
The experimental results showed that compared to tag content visual tag structure was more important to find related tags from tag clouds for information search. In addition, tag clouds that visually represented the semantic relationships within tags could make user more confident about their search result and carry out a shorter learning process during searching, which signified a tag-based information search path when visual elements were applied.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first to illustrate systematically the graphic-based tag clouds and their impacts on information search. The research findings could suggest on how to build up more effective and interactive tag clouds and make proposition for the design of search user interface by using graphic-based tag clouds.