Walking access to public facilities in the touristic historic centre of Bologna: gaps and unbalances for residents and tourists

Promoting active mobility has become a critical challenge highly influenced by the quality of public spaces. The spatial distribution of urban destinations plays a relevant role in ameliorating the quality of the urban environment. Italian historic centres, in particular, are frequently touristic destinations where the attractiveness of pedestrians and the urban quality is relatively high. However, this high attractiveness especially for tourists and city users may undermine the possibility for residents to satisfy their needs due to the tourism impacts. Indeed, the rise in tourist numbers, driven by high-quality public spaces, accelerates touristification, reshaping the spatial layout and distribution of public facilities in historic centres. In this context, this study aims to evaluate the walking accessibility of public facilities to residents and tourists in historic centres, in order to highlight gaps and overconcentration of public facilities. Taking the historic centre of Bologna as a case study, this study uses ArcGIS geospatial analysis and the network analysis to calculate walking accessibility and spatial inequalities of public facilities from resident and tourist perspectives. The findings offer actionable recommendations for optimizing the use of public spaces and the land use layouts in Bologna and offer valuable insights for similar contexts.