Leader: Stefania Bandini (UNIMIB); Other collaborator(s): Roberto Garrone (UNIMIB); Paola Salvatore (UNIMIB)
Care provision accessibility in different territorial contexts requires the analysis and the design of innovative methods to meet needs and sustainable proposals of directions/solutions. In an age-friendly urban environment, policies, services and structures support/enable people to age healthily by anticipating and responding flexibly to ageing-related needs and care preferences, in respect to their decisions and lifestyle choices, and promoting inclusion and contribution to all areas of community life. A study of different territorial context (portion of a metropolitan city, town and country villages) in terms of case provision accessibility is useful to establish programs that support families and family caregivers and making formal care provision available where needed, thereby supporting the intersection between formal and family care. Accessibility by transportation systems and walking activity produces benefits including perception of safety and security, inclusion in a social system, sense of autonomy, and fitness and healing improvements. In this perspective, new forms of analysis of walkability in different territorial contexts to enhance health policies in urban territories are emerging. Through the application of innovative technologies (e.g., wearable sensors, AI-based simulation) and their integration with different data sources, it is possible to assess walkability and the level of stress of elderly and care givers walking in urban areas, interacting with traffic, vehicles and accessing to mobility services.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results. In the period between November 2023 and March 2024, Task 1 set common goals for the coming months and identified research directions exploring the supporting role of innovative technologies for informal carers and the accessibility of care in remote areas. In this respect, Task 4 and Task 1 worked together in a broad collaboration to facilitate the creation of a data platform designed to monitor older adult-informal caregiver dyads using statistical demographic data and local walkability dimensions. Task 1 initiated and concluded the development of a mobile app interface designed to meet the needs of informal caregivers and to support personal mobility (walkability) in an urban context. Task 1's research activity focused on developing ad hoc walkability indicators for rural areas, starting with a case study in the municipality of Premeno. As a result of looking into the physical accessibility of the territory, a first map was made of the services available in Milan's Municipality 3. Other Italian municipalities, like Orvieto, Petrella Tifernina, and Legnano, also expressed interest in working together on the territorial analysis. With Task 6, Task 1 is developing an ontology-based approach for the implementation of a conversational agent to support informal caregivers in accessing the labour law regulations present in Italy. In collaboration with Task 4, Task 1 is working on a methodology for assessing fairness in the distribution of health services (pharmacies) using an approach based on the use of a kernel matrix for the images produced by the convolution procedure.
In the period between March 2024 and June 2024, Task 1 prosecuted the activities of collecting the state of the arts regarding the involved technologies applied on the domain and the study of distributed services in the selected municipality (Premeno) to define walkability new indexes for inner areas. Thanks to previous connections with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (The University of Tokyo, Japan) similar territorial problems within the problem of inner areas and the accessibility to services have been individuated in order to plan comparisons. The participation to the Age-it event in Venice, common collaborations with Task 6 have been presented.
In the period between July 2024 and September 2024, Task 1 finalized scientific publications in collaboration with Task 4 and Task 6. A special session has been coordinated within the Summer School “Advances in Artificial Intelligence” (September 23-27, 2024) in collaboration with the Working Group “Artificial Intelligence for an Ageing Society” of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence and the WP1. A Japanese delegation from the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (The University of Tokyo, Japan), Prof. Yukio Ohsawa and Prof. Sae Kondo visited the municipality of Premeno to study analogies with the inner area of the Mie Prefecture (Japan).
In the period between October 2024 and December 2024, Task 1 developed the first prototype of the integration of QGis and the NetLogo agent-based simulation platform and modeled the Municipality of Premeno to test the system. The results have been presented at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Dec.15-18, 2024. The international Workshop “DISTANCES 3: The Multidimensional Implications of Distancing: Rethinking and Reshaping Spaces in a Multidisciplinary Framework,” Kyoto (JAPAN) November 15-16, 2024 has been co-organized (https://iseas-kyoto.org/workshops/e6145).
In the period between January 2025 and March 2025, the design of a questionnaire to be submitted to familiar caregivers of the Municipalities of the two selected case-studies Premeno (VB) and Petrella Tifernina (CB) has been developed. This activity regards data collection from a set of involved caregivers about their efforts and mobility characteristics. The purposes of data collection are mainly two: run the developed prototype on real data; analyze data with statistical tools. An international collaboration with Japan (Prof. Yukio Ohsawa, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo and Prof. Sae Kondo, Mie University – RCAST The University of Tokyo) started, in order to investigate the possibility to perform comparisons between the two Countries about the sustainability of caregivers efforts in remote areas. Opportunities of collaboration between Japan and Italy have been investigated through a visiting period in Japan where presentations and seminars about our research have been held at prestigious Japanese institutions: Mitsubishi Research Institute, Tokyo, Dr. Tomoo Matsuda, Research Director and Chief Producer on Active Aging and Local Vitalization; School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Prof. Katsuhiro Nishinari; School of Engineering, Chuo University, Tokyo, Prof. Toshi Kato.
In the period between March 2025 and June 2025, the activity of data collection through areal data started flying a drone on the Municipality of Premeno (VB), in order to individuate and measure slopes and stairs to access main services (Municipality services and medical labs) to define walkability indexes, allowing Municipality objective data to support the new allocation of that services in a more accessible location. The collaboration between Japan and Italy continued through a visiting period and the presentation of our research at the First World Longevity Summit (Kyotango, Kyoto Prefecture), EXPO Osaka2025 Agevity event (organized by Assolombarda), School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo.
In the period between June 2025 and September 2025, the main activity regarded the administration of the previously designed questionnaire to 26 participants in Premeno (CB) and 25 participants in Petrella Tifernina (CB) and posterior related analisys. In parallel, the acquisition of areal data continued and detailed, allowing the organization of data to be integrated on GIS maps of the Municipality of Premeno. Another main activity regarded the design of experimental protocols for physiological data acquisition with wearable sensors during walking in the Municipality of Premeno (VB) in presence of slopes and stairs to access main sercices.