A Study on the Walkability of Zijingang East Campus of Zhejiang University: Based on Network Distance Walk Score

Abstract

Due to the generally poor planning of new university campuses in China today, students living in these places normally do not walk as often as they should, and with studies showing the significant impact of walking on physical health and productivity, there is an urgent need to improve university walkability. Walkability is a valuable tool for assessing the level of support for walking in a region, and there are few studies on walkability on university campuses. In this paper, we used a network distance-based Walk Score to evaluate and analyze the walkability of the Zijingang east campus, Zhejiang University. We improved some of the parameters of the Walk Score based on the actual travel characteristics of the students, formed a new calculation method based on a geographic information system (GIS) applicable to the university campus, and evaluated the applicability of this method. The results show that the new method can reflect the actual walking experience and provide a helpful design reference for designers. We also found that optimizing the distribution of facilities is very effective using the feature of the attenuation function.