CEO EQAR. ASEPAU.
Polytechnical University of Madrid.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 Sep 2;297:499-506. doi: 10.3233/SHTI220879.
In Spain, fifteen cities have been declared World Heritage Cities by UNESCO. This implies a responsibility to conserve all the heritage wealth of these places. However, what is the point of heritage if it cannot be known and visited? In order to be able to do this for all people, in equal and inclusive conditions, it is essential to consider Accessibility and Universal Design principles. This is a challenge that requires a personalised study in places that were precisely built with the idea of being inaccessible. In particular, the study of the urban fabric and pedestrian itineraries are the determining spaces that this article develops. The aim of this study is to determine the keys and possible guidelines for the definition of urban accessibility indicators in the routes of historic city centres. For this purpose, significant routes have been sought in historic centres from the accessibility point of view: areas of high pedestrian traffic (in many cases for tourist reasons). Thus, six of the fifteen historic quarters of the World Heritage Cities in Spain have been selected for the study, with examples of good accessibility practices and difficulties that can be identified in their itineraries. For this analysis, an initial study of the existing documentation on the subject (secondary information sources) is carried out, in addition to a direct analysis (primary information source) of the graphic documentation compiled in each of these places. Subsequently, a complementary analysis will be made of some examples of good practice in pedestrian routes in historic city centres in cities in other countries. On the basis of this preliminary analysis, a comparison will be made to establish common points and singularities among the different case studies first, and then with other cities. This diagnosis provides results that are identified as "keys to consider in the intervention on pedestrian routes in historic centres". These keys not only address issues of mobility, but also location, orientation, understanding, etc., thus addressing a holistic consideration of accessibility as a fundamental principle for all people, and in particular for the elderly sector, which is one of the groups that is clearly growing and which, without necessarily having to have a severe or recognised disability, needs an accessible environment that is easy to use. As a main conclusion, it can be said that the results of this study do not only have an internal application for these cities but can be perfectly extrapolated as a basis for the elaboration of specific indicators for any historic city centre in any city in the world, considering the necessary adaptation to the specific characteristics of each city.
在西班牙，有 15 个城市被联合国教科文组织宣布为世界遗产城市。这意味着要保护这些地方的所有遗产财富。但是，如果遗产无法被了解和参观，那么保护它又有什么意义呢？为了让所有人都能够平等、包容地了解和参观这些遗产，考虑可达性和通用设计原则至关重要。这是一个挑战，需要对那些原本就是不可达的地方进行个性化研究。特别是，对城市结构和行人路线的研究是本文所发展的决定性空间。这项研究的目的是确定在历史中心的路线中定义城市可达性指标的关键和可能的指导方针。为此，从可达性的角度出发，在历史中心寻找了重要的路线：高行人流量的区域（在许多情况下是出于旅游原因）。因此，选择了西班牙 15 个世界遗产城市中的 6 个历史街区进行研究，这些街区既有良好的可达性实践，也有其路线中可能存在的困难。为此，首先对该主题的现有文献（二手信息来源）进行初步研究，此外还对在这些地点编制的图形文献进行直接分析（一手信息来源）。随后，将对其他国家历史城市中心的一些良好行人路线实践示例进行补充分析。在此初步分析的基础上，将对不同案例研究之间首先进行比较，并与其他城市进行比较，以确定共同点和特殊性。该诊断提供了被确定为“在历史中心的行人路线干预中需要考虑的关键因素”的结果。这些关键因素不仅涉及流动性问题，还涉及位置、方向、理解等问题，从而将可达性作为所有人，特别是老年人的基本原则，全面考虑，因为老年人是一个明显增长的群体，他们不一定有严重或公认的残疾，但需要一个易于使用的无障碍环境。总的来说，可以说这项研究的结果不仅对这些城市具有内在的应用价值，而且可以作为任何世界任何城市的历史中心的具体指标的制定基础，完全外推，同时考虑到每个城市的具体特征的必要适应性。
