A place-based model of local activity spaces: individual place exposure and characteristics

Abstract

Researchers for long have hypothesized relationships between mobility, urban context, and health. Despite the ample amount of discussions, the empirical findings corroborating such associations remain to be marginal in the literature. It is growingly believed that the weakness of the observed associations can be largely explained by the common misspecification of the geographical context. Researchers coming from different fields have developed a wide range of methods for estimating the extents of these geographical contexts. In this article, we argue that no single approach yet has sufficiently been capable of capturing the complexity of human mobility patterns. Subsequently, we discuss that reaching a better understanding of individual activity spaces can be possible through a spatially sensitive estimation of place exposure. Following this discussion, we take an integrative person and place-based approach to create an individualized residential exposure model (IREM) to estimate the local activity spaces (LAS) of the individuals. This model is created using data collected through public participation GIS. Following a brief comparison of IREM with other commonly used LAS models, the article continues by presenting an empirical study of aging citizens in Helsinki area to demonstrate the usability of the proposed framework. In this study, we identify the main dimensions of LASs and seek their associations with socio-demographic characteristics of individuals and their location in the region. The promising results from comparisons and the interesting findings from the empirical part suggest both a methodological and conceptual improvement in capturing the complexity of local activity spaces.

Appendix: Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents (N = 1139)

	Sample (%)	Statistics Finland (%)*
Gender
Male	41	45
Female	59	55
Age
55–64	51	55
65–74	48	45
Retired	60	59
Educationa
Basic education	13	40
Upper secondary education	42	33
Lower university degree	16	11
Higher university degree	29	17
Marital status
Married	64	55
Unmarried	12	17
Divorced	17	23
Widow	7	6
Living arrangement
Couple	68	60
Living alone	28	35
Other	4	5
Housing
Apartment	59	70
Row house apartment	21	10
Detached house	20	19
Mother tongue
Finnish	89	87
Swedish	9	7
Other	3	6
Income (median)b
Ages 55–64	3501–4000	4001–4500
Ages 65–74	3001–3500	3001–3500

1. *The sample consists of Finnish people living in the capital area, aged 55–75 in year 2015 (a and b exceptions)
2. ^aThe reference sample consists of Finnish people living in the capital area, aged 55+ in year 2014
3. ^bThe reference sample consists of all the Finnish people aged 55–75 in year 2014