Evaluation of Residential Environment Adaptability for the Elderly in the Shantytown Reconstruction

Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the elderly-oriented physical environment of shantytown reconstruction.Background: Over the past decade, it has vigorously promoted the shantytown reconstruction projects in China.As it shows that the proportion of the "empty nest" elderly with low income in the relocated residents is relatively much higher, and the extent to the elderly-oriented physical environment of shantytown reconstruction remains to be further studied. As the LESE-ILE scale is an evaluation model with multiple targets, dual-scale and variable weight, which aims at the constituent elements of the living system, the elderly living independently. Methods:Taking 3 communities in the south of Baotou Beiliang New District as an example, the paper introduces LESE-ILE scale as an evaluation to get a objective fraction in elderly-oriented physical environment, and combines semi-open interviews with elderly residents to carry out an evaluation study on the adaptability for the elderly of physical environment in the new shantytown reconstruction area.Results:Quantitatively evaluates in 4 domains: residential buildings, community supporting facilities, community service network, urban functional support and other environmental dimensions in Beiliang New District. The elderly-oriented physical environment has been greatly improved with the fraction reaching the level of the general residential system. The indoor physical environment is relatively perfecthowever, the supporting facilities and service network in the community need to be strengthened. It remains to be improved the poor urban service support function due to being on the edge of the city in the future.Conclusions: The paper analyses the results evaluated from the LESE-ILE scale and puts forward the improvement strategies for the aging design in the shantytown modification and construction projects to improve the elderly-oriented physical environment. The paper also supplies a feedback and demonstration for the better of the LESE-ILE evaluation scale.