The plazas in shopping malls have the potential to serve several purposes for the elderly people, including as locations for health behaviors such as physical exercise and socialization. Yet the demand and supply of shopping mall plaza accessibility for the elderly is lacking research. This study uses the two-step floating catchment area approach (2SFCA) to assess the accessibility of shopping mall plazas. First, we extracted point of interest (POI) data from the Internet and aggregate it into a 100-meter-long hexagonal cellular network to determine the number of people and population density. Second, we use the shopping malls built in Beijing by the end of the year 2020 as an example and analyzed the need of the elderly and accessibility categorization. The results demonstrate the varying accessibility of urban plazas, complimentary parks, community parks, and pocket parks for the elderly people in different urban areas. The research proved that the plaza is an important complimentary to parks as a type of outdoor activity space. The research recommended that urban policy-makers and urban planners and designers consider taking use of handful plazas as an economic way of improving health behaviour of elderly people.

Authors:
Dan Li, Shenzhen Technology University, China
Yue Kang, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China
Shanshan Xie, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Linsha Zhou, Quanzhou Normal University, China

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Li is currently Assistant Professor at School of Design and Innovation, Shenzhen Technology University, China. Her research interests include aging, health, and built environment. Currently she is working on elderly's health and smart mobility.

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