Playability Index, Built Environment and Geo-Games Technology to Promoting Physical Activity in Urban Areas

The natural and built environment has an impact on the amount of daily physical activity that people do, being less than the minimum recommended by international organizations. However, some characteristics of the environment may incentive physical activity more than others. While technological advances in geospatial information can be regarded as powerful enablers to identify and analyse these main features of the built environment, there is still a large gap between health-related professionals and the proper use of such technologies to address the prevalence of physical inactivity. This paper presents the research plan being conducted for a doctoral thesis with two major objectives: to identify a Playability Index that gives insights about how friendly is a city from the perspective of physical activity, and to develop a technological framework that eases the development of software-driven, effective interventions for promoting physical activity for young people in urban areas.