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This study intends to analyze the trend of walkability research over two years (2021–2022) in several aspects, including the research problem, gap and aim underlying walkability issues, research setting, the scale of analysis, the type of data, the data collection tool, the analysis method and contribution.

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is employed to conduct a systematic literature review from three leading databases including Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and Sage.

From the review, it can be concluded that the research focuses on two aspects, namely, the built environment and people. The studies in this field are conducted at different scales of the built environment, from macroscale to microscale, including region, city, neighborhood and street-level studies that are conducted around the world including Asia, Europe and America which receive high attention from researchers. Meanwhile, the study of walkability in Australia and Africa gains less attention. It is revealed that there are four factors of walkability including land use and accessibility for macroscale which cover region, city and neighborhood, while street network and pedestrian infrastructure and facility are mainly analyzed for street-level. Most of the studies widely utilize a quantitative approach for analyzing physical walkability factors in a measurement-based approach by using certain tools/software, and a perception-based approach by using questionnaires.

The findings can assist to keep up with the rapid pace of scientific publications and help accelerate the understanding of particular ideas in the field of walkability for the planning and design practice and policy that can be used by researchers/academia, urban designers, urban planners, architects, engineers and policymakers. Also, this study hopefully could assist further research direction for the future and could add value to a more advanced way of understanding the research on walkability.

This research provides a robust framework for walkability trend analysis and a comprehensive understanding of the main ideas from the existing research on walkability worldwide.

This paper aims to determine the significance of tourist walkability on three community-based tourism sustainability indicators, namely, the economic, social and environmental benefits and costs impacting community’s quality of life through the lens of the triple bottom line approach with the institutional theory.

This study views institutions as either enabling or restricting the sustainable community-based tourism because institutions influence resource integration and value assessment by the beneficiary. Moreover, institutions also lead the co-creation of sustainable community-based tourism among various stakeholders. Drawing on this conceptualisation, the notion of sustainable community-based tourism is filtered through the lens of institutional theory. Thus, this work approaches sustainable community-based tourism as a dynamic process of co-creating a tourist destination formed by different actors’ and institutions within the ecosystem of the tourist destination. Meanwhile, the triple bottom line benefits and costs experienced by the overall community would produce net effects on the residents’ perceptions of sustainable tourism.

This paper classifies both tangible and intangible costs and benefits because of tourist walkability and its triple bottom line trade-offs experienced by tourists and residents. This paper penetrates new grounds by reviewing the triple bottom line impacts of tourist walkability on residents’ quality of life. Government policies as mediating variable and national culture and individual personalities of tourists and residents as moderating variables were discussed. A conceptual framework named Tourist Walkability Sustainable Tourism Impact on Residents (TWSTIR) is proposed. Finally, a Sustainable Community-based Tourism Strategic (SCBTS) model which is based on the two dimensions of intensity of tourist walkability and residents’ quality of life is proposed.

Research limitations may include a lack of assessment on political, technological and legal issues, and therefore, future research is warranted in these three areas. Some emotions and attitudes of the residents may not be captured since the Gross National Index (Gross National Happiness) may have its inherent blind spots.

This paper would be of interest to the scholarly world, as its original idea and concluding research agenda are burrowing into a new sub-field of tourism research. In view of growth and degrowth of sustaining community-based tourism, the SCBTS model is presented to provide directions for tourism policymakers and entrepreneurs to formulate and implement appropriate strategy for the tourist walkability activity per se and investment in the accompanying infrastructure.

This paper also presents the sacrifices and inequities in the communities and the relevance of government policies, national culture and individual personalities of tourists and residents, in which the attention of tourism policymakers and the communities that thrive on the travel and tourism industry should not be neglected.

The idea and discussion of this paper is original. This paper burrows into a new sub-field of tourism research. Tourist walkability needs more attention from the scholars, as this tourist activity can have positive and negative effects on residents’ quality of life. The TWSTIR framework is developed to discuss the relationships of tourist walkability, triple bottom line concept and residents’ quality of life within the sustainable community-based tourism scope. The SCBTS model is presented for tourism policymakers and entrepreneurs to perform appropriate strategy for the tourist walkability activity and investment in the accompanying infrastructure.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the principal factors affecting walkability from the viewpoint of the inhabitants of Bursa. It is intended to discover whether inhabitants’ conception of factors affecting walkability complies with the factors identified by the authors in regard to literature review.

Based on several studies about influencing parameters of walkability, three main factors – spatial, social, economic – can be specified affecting the desire to walk by the user. In the content of this study, a conceptual model is developed for the assessment of factors influencing walkability. In this study, two different analysis methods are applied: qualitative approach: observation survey; and quantitative approach: questionnaire survey. By utilizing the conceptual model, a questionnaire is prepared and applied to 200 pedestrians in three streets. Moreover, the questionnaire items were factor analyzed to explore the principal factors affecting walkability from the viewpoint of the inhabitants of Bursa.

In the literature review part, the factors affecting walkability are defined as accessibility, comfort and use, environmental aesthetics, safety and security and connectivity. However, as a result of the survey applied to pedestrians in Bursa, it has been revealed that the most important factors are “Accessibility,” “Comfort and Use,” “Traffic Safety,” “Crime Security” and “Connectivity,” excluding the factor “Environmental Aesthetics.”

There is a need for studies which assess the factors influencing the walkability in tourism cities in depth. Tourism potential in Bursa, Turkey, has raised since it has been inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2014. Therefore, walkability became one of the important issues in urban planning decisions for the streets in the historic city center in policies of the local government. The studies that assess the factors influencing walkability and the satisfaction of the pedestrians will open up new visions for urban decision makers. Within the scope of this study, existing historic city center in Bursa has been analyzed in terms of walkability.

Building circulation has an important impact on human comfort of buildings and is one of the critical factors in building design. A quantitative walkability evaluation of building circulation can benefit both building design and operation. However, indoor walkability of building circulation is determined not only by objective path features but also by subjective user preference. How to incorporate the preference from a large group of users into the design process is still a challenging issue.

This study proposes a participatory framework of indoor path walkability evaluation based on user preference. Hierarchical indicators are developed to objectively measure indoor path features. Furthermore, group decision-making theory is adopted to aggregate individual user preference into user common preference for determining the relative indicator weights. Finally, integrated walkability scores (IWSs) are calculated to evaluate indoor path walkability quantitatively.

A total of three case scenarios demonstrate that the proposed evaluation framework provides an efficient way for designers and owners to measure user preference quantitatively, analyze building circulations based on user preference and compare the walkability of different building design schemes.

The developed methods provide an efficient way for designers and owners to measure user preference quantitatively, analyze building circulations based on user preference and compare the walkability of different building design schemes.

This study develops a comprehensive and quantitative walkability evaluation approach that considers both objective path features and subjective user preference derived from user characteristics and walking purposes, which provides an effective way to incorporate user feedback into the building design process and operation.

A walkability friendly environment is crucial in historical towns and cities built with minimal number of motor vehicles. This research aims to assess physical attributes of pedestrianization in Georgetown, Penang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site regarding walkability. A structured interview was conducted among 170 respondents at six different streets to examine citizens' satisfaction on the pedestrian facilities using six walkability features including a) pathway, b) zebra crossing, c) signage, d) personal safety, e) traffic flow and, f) aesthetics & amenities. Relative Importance Index (RII) analysis show that existing pathways do not meet acceptable standards in promoting a walkable environment. Aesthetic and amenities scores the lowest in satisfactory level and zebra crossing scores the highest in unsatisfactory level. The level of walkability in the World Heritage Site in Georgetown, Penang are found inadequate. Provision of physical walking and built heritage features without providing sufficient activities along the streets do not yield high walkability.

This study aimed to broaden Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by including healthy urban performance attributes of the residential neighbourhoods as an additional predictor for walking behaviour. First, the study reviewed the literature on TPB and walkability in residential environments, and then constructed a TPB model based on walkability to set the hypotheses. The study explored the correlations among walkability attributes and walkability behaviour through a survey conducted with residents in Ankara, Turkey (n= 220). To analyse the data, first confirmatory factor analysis and later, structural equation modelling were used. The findings of the study highlighted two aspects of planning for a walkable neighbourhood: (i) a walkability model based on the three constructs of TPB should not neglect the measured and experienced urban performance; (ii) utilizing pedestrian environment for walking as fully as possible requires a collaborative and an experiential approach as well as a multi-parameter decision-making process.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The current work represents a valuable contribution towards the systematisation of the theoretical and methodological framework towards a tourism-based walkability assessment.

It is noted that cities in the region of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have a very poor Walkability Index. It is typically the forgotten mode of transport. Moreover, walking has become impossible. This is not just due to the scorching weather conditions but also due to the excessive dependence of the residents on the private automobile. The purpose of this paper is to explore walkability urban problems and to propose smart urban solutions so as to encourage walking in GCC cities.

This present paper defines walkability and portrays its advantages and benefits. It adapts the criteria of walkability to meet GCC cities’ planning needs. Furthermore, it analyzes Masdar City in Abu Dhabi as an example of encouraging walkability using smart solutions. The pilot case study for this present paper, King Abdullah national park in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, will be the application pool of those criteria. However, a questionnaire has been formulated in order to solicit some facts about attaining pedestrian comfort in that park.

The paper provides various smart urban solutions so as to encourage walkability in GCC cities.

Through presenting an overview of walkability in GCC cities and suggesting smart urban solutions, an additional study would be required to encourage walkability in other environments using various intelligent urban features.

This chapter develops a comprehensive framework for evaluating planning decisions that affect walking conditions (“walkability”) and walking activity. It identifies various walking economic impacts (benefits and costs), describes methods for measuring those impacts, and discusses how to apply this information, based on the literature. The chapter finds that walking plays a unique and important role in an efficient and equitable transportation system, including affordable basic mobility, exercise and recreation, and access to other modes including public transit and parked cars. Walking is typically the second most common travel mode by trip mode share, and is particularly important for physically, economically and socially disadvantaged people. Improving walkability, increasing walking activity, and creating more walkable communities provides various economic, social, and environmental benefits. Conventional planning tends to undervalue many of these benefits, resulting in less support for walking than is optimal. Decision-makers increasingly want more comprehensive evaluation which considers a wider range of planning objectives and impacts. More comprehensive benefit analysis tends to justify more support for walking, and could lead to better planning decisions. Improving walking conditions helps create a more diverse, efficient, and equitable transport system which responds to changing demands and future needs. Walking is particularly important for disadvantaged people who tend to rely on walking for basic mobility, many of whom are constrained if walking conditions are poor. The analysis presented in this chapter is significantly more comprehensive than generally used in planning, and if used could lead to improved planning and enhanced walking.

As a relatively new city by North American standards, Vancouver experienced tremendous growth in the early 20th century. Constrained by its location on a peninsula and surrounded by water, early planning and engineering decisions supportive of citizen accessibility also encouraged and reinforced walkability through strong streetcar networks, walkable neighbourhood commercial areas and the availability of single family housing. Citizen engagement in emerging walkability projects was predicated by the successful stopping of a freeway through the heart of Vancouver. As Vancouver’s planning and engineering policy developed, citizens synergistically worked with the City on several emerging projects that reinforced connection and walkability across the city. Often incepted as demonstration projects, many of these initiatives have been adopted as city policy and have applicability in other jurisdictions.The walkability neighbourhood demonstration projects described can be replicated in other municipalities to create positive impacts on walkability and city life. The effectiveness of these approaches in walkability are echoed in the innovative Olympic Village neighbourhood which housed the athletes at the 2010 Olympic winter games. Many of the concepts and best practices developed in walkable community projects have been melded in creating a successful walking environment garnering world attention. By enhancing walkability in neighbourhood projects, communities strengthened their area’s sustainability and social networks. The synergistic work between the municipality and the community is vital to the success and effectiveness of demonstration projects that can be adopted later as citywide policy.