Digital data to support urban planning processes to develop women safety cities: an application to the city of Naples

Urban planning is increasingly focused on solutions for sustainable urban mobility, including the achievement of “walkability”, i.e. ease to walking, meeting criteria of neighbourhood services, street connectivity, comfort of public spaces, and others. Urban administrations in some countries, partially as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, have adopted short and long-term plans for reassignment of vehicular space in favour of cyclist and pedestrian infrastructures, however traditional approaches to urban planning still fail to consider different categories of urban users in terms of their individual characteristics, which can significantly impact their perceptions of walkability for streets and public spaces. Women in particular face harassment, aggression and other safety concerns that can inhibit their mobility in streets and public spaces, especially when it gets dark. Despite robust research on other aspects of walkability in cities, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the intersections of mobility and gender. Addressing the need for further investment in qualitative, and particularly in quantitative analysis, the current contributions proposes and reports on the use of GIS-based methodology, with data collected directly from women in urban contexts, and from open-access location-based data, producing analyses that can support decision-making on policies for walkability. In particular, the contribution summarizes the first product of a new, replicable methodology, focused on urban planning and gender inclusion, applied to the city of Naples, Italy.