Guillem Vich

Autonomous University of Barcelona | UAB · Departamento de Geografía

There is growing interest in understanding the links between neighbourhood environmental attributes (i.e. greenness, walkability and air pollution) and human health. Recent research has analysed the mediating role of a diverse set of potential factors and studied the agreement between objective and perceived modalities of those attributes. In this...

Walking for transportation has well-known environmental, social, and health-related benefits. However, its daily use may have been especially altered by restrictions to population activities and mobility during the post-lock-down phase of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In this study we aimed to explore how daily walking for transportation during a p...

It is well‐established that urban form can encourage or hinder daily walking activity. Consequently, urban form has a direct impact on both spatial accessibility and the ability of achieving daily physical activity recommendations. However, the relationship between urban form and walking patterns may present relevant differences among different pop...

BACKGROUND AND AIM Recent studies have shown that active travel is generally associated with lower levels of both perceived and measured stress. Specific microenvironmental conditions encountered during daily journeys, however, may lead to varying degrees of stress experienced at that moment. Our aim is to evaluate how travel mode-specific stress,...

Background While urban built environments might promote active ageing, an infrequently studied question is how the neighbourhood walkability modulates physical activity changes during a physical activity intervention program in older adults. We assessed the influence of objectively assessed neighbourhood walkability on the change in physical activi...

Background Walking is an essential activity for everyone and for older adults in particular, given that it is the most accessible form of physical activity and one of the healthiest transportation modes. Understanding how walkability (the potential of the environment to enable and/or encourage walking) has been objectively measured and analyzed for...

Despite the key importance of public transportation for the accessibility, attractiveness, and sustainability of tourist areas, little is known about how the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted its use among tourists. In response, we compared the likelihood of using transit among visitors in a Catalan coastal area based on surveys conducted in 2019...

Mobility in cities is changing with the appearance of electric micro-mobilities (EMMs), i.e. e-bikes, e-scooters, e-mopeds. We conducted a health impact assessment (HIA) of EMM use on the health of Barcelona adults. Assuming a 5% (S1) and 10% (S2) increase in EMM use, we modelled changes in physical activity (PA), personal air pollution exposure an...

Urban growth boundaries (UGBs) established by urban planning, are common containment strategies to prevent urban sprawl. We analyze the effectiveness of the UGB strategy in the case of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile, established by the land use plan in 1994. We describe and quantify the annual growth rate and the development of new bu...

Benchmarking and monitoring of urban design and transport features is crucial to achieving local and international health and sustainability goals. However, most urban indicator frameworks use coarse spatial scales that either only allow between-city comparisons, or require expensive, technical, local spatial analyses for within-city comparisons. T...

Benchmarking and monitoring urban design and transport features is critical to achieving local and international health and sustainability goals. However, most urban indicator frameworks use coarse spatial scales that only allow between-city comparisons or require expensive, technical, local spatial analyses for within-city comparisons. This study...

Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, public transport has been signalled as a potential contagion hot-spot, leading to a generalised decrease in its use. However, public transport use is still being used and little is known about how the perception of loyal users is configured in contexts of influenza-like viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. The configura...

Many academics, urban planners and policymakers subscribe to the benefits of implementing the concept of the 15-Minute City (FMC) in metropolises across the globe. Despite the interest raised by the concept, and other variants of chrono-urbanism, to date, only a few studies have evaluated cities from the FMC perspective. Most studies on the subject...

Engaging in physical activity plays a vital role in a healthy ageing process due to its associated mental and physical health benefits. Green spaces such as parks or public gardens are safe, accessible, and attractive environments that generally allow people to engage in physical activity. Therefore, residing in neighbourhoods that are well provide...

Physical neighborhood attributes such as greenness, walkability and environmental pollution may have an influence on people’s behavior and health. It has been claimed that part of such effects may come from the promotion of physical activity and the strengthening of social cohesion. In this study, we recruited samples of pregnant women in two Spani...

This study explores how older adults' time out-of-home and physical activity (PA) are associated with the provision of urban open spaces (green spaces, plazas, and boulevards) and microelements (street trees and benches) in their neighborhoods. The authors used data from 103 residents in Barcelona and matched it to official geospatial data. The aut...

Urban mobility and the COVID-19 pandemic have had significant impacts on each other and on health. Urban areas are particularly hit by COVID-19, where moving around while social distancing is challenging because public space is often limited and mostly designated for motorized traffic. Urgent actions need to be taken by cities and citizens that bri...

Background While urban built environments might promote active ageing, an infrequently studied question is how the neighbourhood walkability modulates physical activity changes during a physical activity intervention programme in older adults. We assessed the influence of objectively assessed neighbourhood walkability on the change in physical acti...

El objetivo de este estudio es el de explorar la influencia de las características del entorno residencial en los patrones de caminar de hombres y mujeres, mediante la utilización de datos de movimiento geolocalizados o tracking. Para ello, se ha seleccionado un grupo de jóvenes adultos que estudian o trabajan en la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelon...

Metropolitan university campuses (MUCs) are of interest for policymaking given their general highly car-oriented nature, and the subsequent need to promote policies that enhance sustainable accessibility outcomes. Hence, a growing body of research has emerged over the last decade focusing on travel behavior associated with those metropolitan enclav...

Residential greenness may positively impact diverse human health indicators through the reduction of air pollution, the improvement of psychological health, and the promotion of physical activity. Previous studies indicate a weak but positive association with pregnancy outcomes. Our aim was to test the multiple pathways from residential greenness t...

Background: Senior centers offer important opportunities for physical activity and social interaction. Seniors who visit a senior center regularly can gain physical activity from transportation and from specific activities offered within the senior center. However, there is very little knowledge regarding the specific physical activity gains obtai...

Physical activity (PA) during pregnancy has positive health implications for both mother and child. However, current literature indicates that not all pregnant women meet the international recommendations for PA (at least 150 min/week of moderate-to-vigorous PA). The main objective of this study was to assess PA levels among pregnant women in the c...

Having identified a set of geographic-based considerations, this study aims to analyse physical activity (PA) engagement and its relationship with its hosting environment in a Mediterranean metropolis. This is conducted based on GPS and accelerometer data from a sample of young adults living in different neighbourhood types. The results of the stud...

Walking is the most accessible form for seniors to engage in daily light or moderate physical activity. Walking activity depends on both individual and environmental factors, the latter including how walkable a given setting is. Recent papers have pointed at the relevance of also considering meteorological conditions in relation to the walking beha...

Urban green spaces (UGS) have been linked with a series of benefits for the environment, and for the physical health and well-being of urban residents. This is of great importance in the context of the aging of modern societies. However, UGS have different forms and characteristics that can determine their utilization. Common elements in UGS such a...

El estudio de los espacios verdes urbanos (UGS en inglés) ha recibido una gran atención tanto de los académicos como de los planificadores urbanos, ya que ofrecen una gama de servicios suponiendo una mejora de los valores para la sociedad. Los espacios abiertos urbanos provistos de elementos naturales se han relacionado con una serie de beneficios,...

Williams, Florence (2017)The nature fix: Why nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creativeNova York: W. W. Norton Company, 304 p.ISBN 978-0-393-24271-3

The expansion of metropolitan areas globally has had an impact on the daily life of its residents through the increase in the distances they must travel to carry out their daily activities, which affects their quality of life and, at the same time, the sustainability of these territories. However, additional questions must be raised: Beyond the ter...

The present study delves into the explanatory factors of the walking patterns of residents in metropolitan regions, who tend to be pressed for time when travelling to their daily destinations or activities. We particularly focus on the effects of the commuting distance on the amount of walking that can be achieved, which has health, socioeconomic a...

Being physically active in natural environments has been linked with multiple mental and physical health benefits. However, not all urban contexts can provide their residents the same access to green areas for walking and sport activities. Mediterranean cities provide open spaces for physical activity that differ from those of Northern European cit...

The aim of this study was to explore the exposure to green elements of residents in a compact and dense Mediterranean city, with a main focus on the exposure to traditional green elements such as parks and gardens and also less-explored elements such as public squares, boulevards, and beaches. Differences between walking and residential environment...

The spatial dimension of daily mobility depends on where people choose to perform their daily activities in urban environments. This study explores the influence of multiple geographical scales, characterising metropolitan regions on the cognitive images of individuals, whose daily mobility is restricted by an interurban daily commute to a universi...

This study explores the spatial extent of daily mobility by analysing the activity spaces of suburban commuters. It deepens knowledge of the transport-related consequences of functionally segregated areas within metropolitan regions, detecting the most significant factors (personal and environmental) affecting the size of activity spaces of people...

The region of Camp de Tarragona is little explored in suburbanization literature. It forms a highly complex area since it has two main cities, Reus and Tarragona, and contains some outlying residential areas which are not only part of its urban expansion but also contain secondary homes and are tourist destinations. Using data from the Residential...

Daily habits and perceptions of people in relation to urban space have been studied from the behavioural geography from the 1970s. Concepts such activity spaces have been used, among other functions, to measure the degree of mobility of people (Gesler & Meade, 1988). The main objective of this research is to study of the activity spaces of the memb...

En la planificación del transporte público, la proximidad a estaciones o paradas ha sido identificada como un criterio básico en la elección modal en nuestros desplazamientos cotidianos (Murray et al., 1998; Gutiérrez et al., 2011). Este estudio muestra el trabajo de mapificación de las residencias del colectivo universitario a partir de sus direc...

RESUMEN: Los datos que las tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación (TIC) nos ofrecen son un interesante recurso para el campo de la investigación geográfica y, especialmente, para los estudios centrados en la movilidad. Esta comunicación es una primera aproximación al papel que juegan dichas tecnologías en el ámbito de los desplazamiento...