Walkability Indicators in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Walkability indicators are a pivotal method to evaluate the role of the built environment in people’s decisions regarding active mobility, contributing to help promote more sustainable and equitable regions. Currently, there is a lack of literature describing the trends and findings from recent studies, and how research on this topic has responded to COVID-19. In this work, we apply the PRISMA methodology to perform a systematic literature review of studies that employed walkability indicators to uncover associations between walkability and different topics, such as physical activity, health and mobility, in the aftermath of the pandemic. Results show that the growth rate of studies in this period almost doubled compared to the three years prior to the outbreak. We explore the main subjects addressed in recent literature and found that most studies resorted to well-known indicators, predominantly to Walk Score®, while fewer works developed and applied new indicators. General findings point to a positive association between walkability and physical activity, overall health and active mobility. Moreover, in recent works, walkability’s relationship with environmental metrics is not clear and there is a lack of studies linking walkability indicators to COVID-19. More than two years after the worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, our work provides an effective resource for researchers to understand recent trends in studies employing walkability indicators.