Smart City Tools to Evaluate Age-Healthy Environments

The urban population is aging and the elderly people desire to age in place and to continue in the environments chosen by them. Accordingly, the environment should be healthy-age orientated, improving health and fulfilling the United Nations Global Goals, including the aging-related ones. Using the case study of Madrid, the biggest city in Spain, this research analyzes the quality of the spaces to grow old in terms of environmental health. To do so, we have selected a number of variables, drawing on open data provided by the city council, using an age-oriented perspective. We propose a comparative analysis of the 21 districts in Madrid in terms of air pollution, noise, urban fitment adapted to moderate physical activity, and green spaces in the city, as those are very important aspects for healthy aging. According to our results, central areas of the downtown of Madrid offer a worse potential quality of life in terms of the environment than peripheral areas.