Redesigning urban parks for active living in dense urban areas: a remote audit approach

The widespread use of virtual audits has transformed the assessment of urban design attributes by eliminating the necessity for on-site visits. However, there remains a lack of virtual audit tools specifically designed for evaluating urban parks in dense urban environments. This study aims to (1) adapt the Audit Tool for Activity-friendly Parks in Dense Urban Areas (TAPS) into a remote audit tool (R-TAPS), and (2) evaluate its reliability and validity. Trained auditors used R-TAPS to conduct remote audits of urban parks (n = 53) in Tokyo, with on-site audits for a subset (n = 25). Kappa statistics and percent agreement assessed inter-rater reliability, and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) verified convergent validity. R-TAPS showed moderate to almost perfect agreement in 89% of the items. Remote and on-site audits exhibited a high positive correlation (ICC = 0.73). R-TAPS offers a reliable tool for virtually evaluating urban parks to promote physical activity in dense urban settings.