Development of an age friendly environment index and its application on Dhaka city corporations

Abstract

Age Friendly City has become a cross-cutting issue in this current time. However, there has been little to no study regarding this issue in our country. Therefore, this study has been conducted to create an Age Friendly Built Environment Index suitable in our local context. In order to create the index, comprehensive study has been carried out through reviewing various literatures. Based on the literature review, a set of parameters and variables has been selected for this study. After that Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) has been organized depending on the selected parameters and variables via the literature review. Next an initial set of variables has been formulated.The initial list of variables has been validated by the experts and later weighed by the experts using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). In the process, the experts also suggested the evaluation criteria for assessing the variables. In order to observe the age friendliness of Dhaka city in a map format, weighted sum overlay analysis has been conducted in ArcGIS. Afterwards the study area has been classified into three categories which are – low age friendly area, medium age friendly area and high age friendly area. The result of the map portrays thatmore Wards of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) are high and medium age friendly area compared to Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC). However, there are less low age friendly Wards in DNCC compared to DSCC. This is because DNCC has less number of Wards in comparison to DSCC. The index generated in this study could be useful while making local level planning. Besides, the maps could be used to compare the age friendliness of Dhaka city with other cities over a period of time.