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The purpose of this paper is to review factors influencing the development of age-friendly communities, pressures arising from context of economic austerity, and issues which need to be considered for further work.

A synthesis of academic literature covering both age-friendly research and other relevant studies.

Pressures on the age-friendly movement include: cuts to the budgets of local authorities; impact of urban regeneration; and high levels of deprivation in inner city communities. Responses need to consider: closer links with other urban programmes (e.g. healthy cities); prioritising the challenge of social inequality; exerting great control over urban development and regeneration; and devising new approaches to delivering age-friendly interventions at a neighbourhood level.

Although the age-friendly movement has many achievements to its name, economic pressures are raising question marks about its future progress. The paper identifies several options for future development. Central to these must be linking age-friendly debates to the inequalities and injustices which affect city life.

Aging-friendly environments have been encouraged to develop at the city level, district level and community level in China. In the process of rapid urbanization, the state of aging-friendly communities in old and new neighborhoods is disparate. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate aging-friendly communities and identify the disparities in old and new neighborhoods.

A total of 1,172 elderly respondents completed the survey. Of these, 576 seniors lived in an old community developed before 2000, and 596 lived in a new community developed after 2000. In total, 17 physical environment factors and 10 social environment factors were identified.

The results indicated that public spaces, facilities and transportation in old neighborhoods were inferior to those in new neighborhoods. Most social environment factors in new neighborhoods achieved higher satisfaction levels than those in old neighborhoods. The satisfaction levels of aging-friendly community factors in both old and new neighborhoods were below the expectation levels of elders.

In order to improve physical aging-friendly environments in old neighborhoods, it is suggested that full use is made of school facilities and the renovation of old buildings. The locations of public transportation stations in new neighborhoods are recommended to be revised within 5-min walking distances of senior residents. Both old and new neighborhoods are encouraged to improve social aging-friendly environments by increasing the coverage of medical services and creating multiple approaches to recreation activities.

These findings have empirical significance for urban planners and policy makers, in regard to identifying disparities between old and new neighborhoods, and understanding the equitable allocation and distribution of urban resources.

The purpose of this study is to identify the barriers that hinder the implementation of age-friendly initiatives in smart cities.

A systematic review of the literature was conducted using Scopus search engine. Relevant keywords were used to discover 81 publications in academic journals. The titles, abstracts, keywords and full texts of the publications were examined to select 39 publications that were relevant for identifying the barriers that hinder the implementation of age-friendly initiatives in smart cities. The contents of the 39 relevant publications were analysed to ascertain the key barriers. A system thinking approach was adopted to understand the interaction among the barriers.

The study identified five key groups of barriers – namely physical barriers and environmental characteristics, technological barriers, social barriers, financial barriers and political barriers – that smart cities encountered or are likely to encounter in implementing age-friendly initiatives. Moreover, practical examples of good age-friendly implementation practices were highlighted.

A limitation of this study is in the number of publications reviewed. Despite the comprehensive review, the number of publications reviewed may not be exhaustive. This is justified by the inapplicability of considering all possible keywords in one review study.

The systemic perspective of the barriers that hinder the implementation of age-friendly initiatives in smart cities would support policymakers in formulating policy recommendations to improve age-friendliness in cities.

This study underscores the variable and dynamic nature of developing age-friendly smart cities and forms novel basis for gaining insights into the multiple factors that can promote the integration of age-friendly initiatives within smart cities.

This study aims to indicate the reasons and provide practical suggestions to financial viability of the age-friendly housing as a sustainable construction.

The paper reviews the primary and secondary literary sources, logical approach and comparisons of real estate and socio-economic regional statistics and conducts analysis of case studies.

The study contains the results from empirical analysis on the topicality of an age-friendly built environment in the scientific literature. Key principles are identified for a current early stage of the development of a concept of the age-friendly housing. A research on the current socio-economic aspects of the creation of an age-friendly built environment is made. The practical cases of the age-friendly housing are inspected. Timely developed age-friendly housings may expect growing demands, but thorough calculation on future income is required.

The research is carried on a scale of two countries – the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Latvia.

The paper provides new developments in construction sector of Latvia and the Netherlands in terms of intention to further scientific and practical activities. The research has to identify the socio-economic aspects and the impact and importance of those in determining the revenues of age-friendly construction.

Age-friendly construction is going to become the standard of the sustainable property development, whereby the developers and investors will not make additional investments as they are compensated up front, and society as a total gets the revenues on the long term. Once this “wheel is turning”, the benefits will be permanent.

Latvia is being analysed in comparison with the Netherlands. The authors challenged to find opportunities to both countries from the economic viability’s point of view for the age-friendly housing developments.

The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed account of the work and contribution of the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities, a platform established to support the development of age-friendly communities across the UK.

This paper draws on a review of both external and internal working documents, communications with network representatives, and an in-depth interview conducted with the current manager of the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities.

Since its formation, the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities has provided cities with an important platform for knowledge exchange and peer support, and helped build commitment to the age-friendly agenda at the local, national and international level. Through the presentation of various examples, the article illustrates that network members have not only helped drive this agenda forward by developing a collective voice, but also by developing a wide range of initiatives at the local level.

Despite an increased interest in documenting age-friendly experiences around the world, the experience of national programmes remains under-explored in the age-friendly literature to date. To the knowledge, this paper is one of the first to describe the work and contribution of the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities.

The life expectancy for persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) has increased significantly, resulting in an increasing number of aging persons with ID. To promote healthy and active aging of persons with ID, discussions on new initiatives to design age-friendly communities have begun at local and international levels. The purpose of this paper, a qualitative research study, is to identify features of an age-friendly community, and facilitators and barriers from the perspectives of older adults with mild ID and their caregivers who live in the city of Winnipeg in Canada.

Seven older persons with mild ID were interviewed, and 15 caregivers participated in focus group discussions. All participants were asked questions about features of community living and their experiences in eight broad topic areas (i.e. transportation, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, opportunities for community involvement, communication and information, community support and healthcare services, and outdoor spaces and buildings).

The results indicated that many of the current features of the city of Winnipeg do not adequately address the needs of aging persons with ID; specifically, participants revealed that issues related to accessibility, social participation, social disrespect and inclusion, and lack of resources were important barriers to independence.

The findings will increase awareness of the needs of aging persons with ID and inform programme planning, service delivery, coordination of community-based services and policies to support healthy and active aging for this vulnerable population.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the age-friendliness of local environments and self-reported loneliness for a representative sample of community-dwelling adults aged 55+ in Ireland.

Data were from the Healthy and Positive Ageing Initiative Age friendly Cities and Counties Survey (n=10,540) (2016). Several age friendly indicators, as proposed by World Health Organisation, were included in this study: outdoor spaces and buildings; access to social services; social participation; respect and social inclusion; and transport. Loneliness was measured using five items from the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Informed by an ecological approach to ageing, multi-level negative binomial regression models were used to investigate the association between each age friendly indicator and social loneliness. Models were adjusted for known demographic, socio-economic and health correlates of loneliness.

Average loneliness scores were significantly higher for those in poorer health, who lived alone, were materially deprived and those never or formerly married. Lower ratings and poorer outcomes for several interrelated age friendly place-based factors were significantly associated with higher loneliness scores: difficulty with transport, difficulty accessing social services, barriers to community activities, lower social engagement, and experiences and perceptions of ageism in the community; however, the effect sizes were small.

This study identified several modifiable age friendly features of local environments that are associated with loneliness in this older population. The results of this study can inform coordinated local and national efforts to enhance the age-friendliness of local environments and reduce the risk and experience of loneliness among the ageing population in Ireland.

The inclusion of the elderly in community life is a major factor in achieving an age-friendly city. However, there has been little research investigating the constraints preventing the elderly's interaction with society. With that in mind, this paper is pioneering the investigation of such constraints.

This paper used the results from the “Questionnaire towards an Age-Friendly City” by Japan's Akita City, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities.

This paper reveals two constraining factors. First, living solo discourages elderly to interact with society. Second, the elderly who cannot drive a car tend to be reluctant to participate in social activities.

To be age-friendly that encourages the elderly to participate in community life, municipalities may apply the following “implementations for practice”: implementing regular visits to the elderly who live alone; giving young people some incentives (e.g. tax reductions) to live with their aged parents/relatives; increasing the number of community buses in order to encourage the elderly to go out; and increasing community taxis by deregulating the industry.

This paper contributes significantly to the study of the elderly's inclusion in community life, which is a major component of an age-friendly city. Although little research has analyzed the constraints preventing the elderly's social interaction due to data limitations, this pioneering paper identifies at least some of the constraints. This research can help to improve the health and wellbeing of elderly individuals in our society and it can help to create more age-friendly cities.

The aim of the study is to propose an ontology-based approach that provides a framework as a strategy decision tool for urban service design. The research methodology includes two phases to acquire the knowledge needed for urban service management of a city, as a case study. The first phase provides the priority list, through the Principal Component Analysis, for an age-friendly city determined by the citizens through a quantitative research. The second phase is a qualitative research among the public service providers, focusing on 'adequate community support and health services' feature which was the top priority of phase one. The repertory grid as a mapping tool consists of elements (age-friendly cities' features) and constructs (municipality provided services) that interconnect the tacit knowledge with the external knowledge. The findings indicated the importance of the necessity of a shared understanding and conceptualization of what a service is among service providers and consumers. This paper makes an important contribution to urban service management by making the interconnection between tacit and external knowledge as a strategic decision support tool.