Comparing conventional and PPGIS approaches in measuring equality of access to urban aquatic environments

Assuring equal accessibility to public outdoor and recreation services is important because of the potential health and social welfare implications. The focus has primarily been on parks and other green spaces but should be expanded to include also the aquatic environments and the numerous recreational opportunities they have to offer. As the accessibility standards and approaches on ensuring equal accessibility to green spaces are often based on purely spatial measurements, this research examined the equality of accessibility of aquatic environments by combining spatio-temporal dimensions of accessibility with person-based measures. Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) method used in the study provided multifaceted knowledge on the person-based accessibility patterns related to aquatic environments in Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. This paper demonstrates how an advanced GIS-based analysis combining both objective and subjective measurements of accessibility can result in more detailed and even contradictory outcomes compared to traditional spatial measures. The results indicate that a common presumption of a nearest service available made in studies on accessibility and environmental justice may have notable impacts on results or even return unfounded interpretations. Results also indicate that there are significant (p < 0.05) differences in accessibility in the study region related to income status and car ownership. We conclude that PPGIS approaches can provide valuable information to accessibility research, studies on environmental justice and provide additional approaches for the planning and management officials of public recreation and outdoor services.