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Modelling Physical Accessibility to Public Green Spaces in Switzerland to Support the SDG11

SDGs Impacted

Urban sprawl has a strong impact on the provision and use of green spaces and, consequently, on the benefits that society can derive from these natural ecosystems, especially in terms of public health. In looking at the Sustainable Development Goals and other regional policy frameworks, there is a strong need for quantifying access to green spaces. This study presents and applies a methodology to model the physical accessibility at national and sub-national scales to public green spaces (i.e., urban green spaces and forests) in Switzerland, using AccessMod, a Digital Public Good (DPG), and ArcGIS travel time functions. The aim of this study is therefore to establish the physical accessibility of public green spaces by modelling access to both forests and urban green spaces at the national and sub-national scales of Switzerland.

Impact / Outcome
The results at a national scale showed that more than 75% of the Swiss population has access to the nearest urban green space from their home within 15 min of travel using private motorized transport where possible. This population coverage decreases to approximately 60% and 35% when considering a maximum of 10 min and 5 min travel time, respectively. Accounting for the effects of slopes on decreasing walking speeds had little effects on the overall population coverage at the 5-, 10-, or 15-min travel time thresholds (less than 1.5% difference).
Funding sources
Private
Key Metrics
Map population’s physical accessibility to green spaces in Switzerland through Digital Public Goods (DPG) resources
Locations
Europe, Switzerland
Sector
IT and Communications (ICT)
Intervention lever
Indirect government
Operating model
Fully private
Year published
01 January 2021

The EDISON Alliance

A World Economic Forum Initiative