Health-Oriented Evaluation of Park Walking Environments for Older Adults: Developing an Age-Friendly Assessment Tool Across Multiple Park Types

Against the backdrop of accelerating urbanization and population aging, urban parks have emerged as significant venues for enhancing the physical and mental well-being of older adults. The age-friendly quality of these spaces is directly linked to health equity and urban inclusiveness. Using the high-density historic district of Beilin in Xi’an as a case study, we developed an innovative assessment tool to evaluate the age-friendliness of park walking environments. Guided by the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) framework, this tool integrates subjective perceptions and objective data to diagnose environmental strengths and weaknesses across four dimensions: accessibility, safety, comfort, and health-related interactivity. Based on multi-source data and quantitative analysis, the study revealed key variations in the age-friendly attributes of different parks. Our field assessment focused on three representative park types: urban comprehensive, historic–cultural, and community leisure parks. The key findings are: (1) Safety was perceived by experts as the most critical dimension for older adults’ health experience, with a weight of 0.49, accounting for nearly half of the total. However, significant variations exist in safety quality across different types of parks. (2) Age-friendly performance differed profoundly among park types. Benefiting from systematic management, the urban comprehensive park achieved balanced performance and a total score of 84.87. In contrast, the historic–cultural park, constrained by its linear morphology and historical functions, scored the lowest at 66.03, exhibiting notable deficits in safety and comfort. The community leisure park, while vibrant in community activity, attained an intermediate score of 74.76 due to insufficient attention to safety details. (3) The assessment outcomes highlight the association of park typology, site selection, and design sophistication with the lived experience and potential health benefits for older adults. This study provides a refined evaluation tool and tailored optimization strategies for the age-friendly renovation of diverse park types.