Concept of Assessment of Age-Friendly Residential Areas (AFRA): A Case Study of Gdańsk, Poland

(1) Background: Local governments are facing a considerable challenge to accurately verify cities, as well as to diagnose the condition of housing estates in the context of their friendliness to life of older people in order to be able to pursue a sustainable pro-ageing policy. In response to these needs, universal methodology for identifying age-friendly residential areas (AFRA) in cities was developed and tested. Thus, the main objective of the research was to develop an innovative methodological approach to the AFRA assessment, taking into account integrated functional-spatial and aesthetic indicators with particular emphasis on the ways of presenting results. (2) Methods: The methodology was based on the general, international assumptions of “ageing in place”, “age-friendly city”, “active ageing”, and an in-depth analysis of contemporary trends in this field, using international guidelines and recommendations, as in the case of survey data from the target international population and information provided by experts. (3) Results: The overall result of the project is a universal methodology for diagnosing housing estates in cities, taking into account infrastructural and landscape determinants in terms of their friendliness to older people, including a presentation of the usefulness of GIS tools to create thematic maps visualising the degree of friendliness. (4) Conclusions: This innovative approach to AFRA visualisation will expand the knowledge about the possibilities of diagnosing age-friendly spaces in the city that are conducted at the level of the city’s settlement units. The developed list of criteria influencing the friendliness of housing estates for older citizens can be useful for public entities in creating city and housing planning policies for private entities to manage their own investment plans and implement the concept of on-site ageing in their planning and for real estate agents to explore the real estate market for the needs of older clients.