Healthy Cities, New Technologies and Sustainability: A Collaborative Mapping of Informal Sport Activity in the Public Space of Cities as an Innovative Tool for Understanding City Sport Phenomena.

Abstract

Urban public space has become one of the main infrastructures for informal sports in cities. However, despite the high impact of that practice, local records only show the sports activity at the urban spaces specifically designed and regulated for that purpose. More information about where this practice arises and what attributes of urban space promote it would allow the adoption of specific measures in urban and sports policies. This paper proposes a methodology mainly based on the mapping of this informal sport activity and urban places where it appears by local communities and sportspeople. These collaborative maps are supported by the use of geographical information system (GIS) technologies and surveys on local communities. The research establishes a double objective of identifying urban spaces where citizens perform outdoor sports and deepen the knowledge of the physical attributes of public spaces that promote sports and local demands related to public space requirements. This methodology has been tested in the city of Malaga, the European City of Sport 2020, as a reference of a city with a growing outdoors’ sport activity. The main contribution is focused on the use of new tools that offer subjective information: opinions and habits of citizens in relation to sport urban practice. This information—which is difficult to obtain through other resources—should be considered for the design of urban and sports policies according to citizens’ demands.