Assessing Walking and Cycling Environments in the Streets of Madrid: Comparing On-Field and Virtual Audits.
Audit tools are useful for exploring the urban environment and its association with physical activity. Virtual auditing options are becoming increasingly available potentially reducing the resources needed to conduct these assessments. Only a few studies have explored the use of virtual audit tools. Our objective is to test if the Madrid Systematic Pedestrian and Cycling Environment Scan (M-SPACES) discriminates between areas with different urban forms and to validate virtual street auditing using M-SPACES. Three areas (N = 500 street segments) were selected for variation in population density. M-SPACES was used to audit street segments physically and virtually (Google Street View) by two researchers in 2013-2014. For both physical and virtual audits, all analyzed features score significantly different by area (p < 0.05). Most of the features showed substantial (ICC = 0.6-0.8) or almost perfect (ICC ≥ 0.8) agreement between virtual and physical audits, especially neighborhood permeability walking infrastructure, traffic safety, streetscape aesthetics, and destinations. Intra-rater agreement was generally acceptable (ICC > 0.6). Inter-rater agreement was generally poor (ICC < 0.4). Virtual auditing provides a valid and feasible way of measuring residential urban environments. Comprehensive auditor training may be needed to guarantee good inter-rater agreement.
Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain. pgullon@isciii.es.|Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain. pgullon@isciii.es.
Pedro
P
Gullón
Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Hannah M
HM
Badland
Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain.
Silvia
S
Alfayate
Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain.|Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Usama
U
Bilal
Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain.|Department of Geology, Geography and Environment, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain.
Francisco
F
Escobar
Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain.
Alba
A
Cebrecos
Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain.
Julia
J
Diez
Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain. mfranco@uah.es.|Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. mfranco@uah.es.|Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain. mfranco@uah.es.
Manuel
M
Franco
D001642:Bicycling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002947:Cities / Q000453:epidemiology; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D004779:Environment Design; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
Omnidirectional image; Physical activity; Urban environment; Validation studies; Virtual image