Identifying Accessibility Gaps to Urban Functions and Services – Examples of Italian Medium-Sized Cities

The accessibility to urban ecosystems, functions and services (transport node, public services or areas, historical areas) represents a crucial issue to be addressed when planning contemporary cities toward higher levels of sustainability and a more equal spatial distribution of these services/functions. Accessibility is directly linked to the issue of environmental justice, because it relies on the general principle that all people have a right to have access to the same services. However particular social groups may benefit from different level of accessibility more than other, depending on where the services/functions are located and how they can get to the service. This work proposes a method to identify in a spatially explicit way accessibility gaps to urban function and services for three Italian medium-sized cities, namely Catania, Bari and Modena. By mapping different type of functions and services (green areas, education, health care, sport and leisure) and their areas of influence, the three cities are classified in sub-basins with different degree of accessibility. The integration analysis on different social subjects (children, elderly people, all population) allows to identify gaps to specific functions and services needed by the social subjects living in the area. Results are used to suggest a new or modified system of urban functions and services able to take into consideration the different demands and needs of social groups living in the three cities and therefore to maximise their overall accessibility.