Purpose: This paper aims to analyse the impact of public investments in facilities on the potential housing market for older persons by expanding the generally used approach of modelling working-age population to the approach of modelling the cohort of older population. Design/methodology/approach: The paper introduces an asymmetric approach and normalization to the special case of spatial interaction models, i.e. the Lowry-like model, to analyse significant factors that influence migration flows structured by age cohorts. The model uses publicly available and free databases at the mezzo level in a state. The analysis was performed for inter-municipal interactions of migrants structured by age cohorts. Findings: The results show the different influences of Lowry’s main factors that influence the migration flows in industrial societies. The higher the average age of migrants, the lower the influences in the Lowry model. But, this is also valid for the impact of investments in public facilities and their management at the mezzo level on older migrants. Furthermore, institutional care facilities in a local community were proven to be an important factor to attract older persons. Research limitations/implications: The results show that there are other important factors that influence the migration flows of older persons. So, for better results, more structured data on investments and management of the facilities and other more subjective factors should be included in the model. Practical implications: The paper gives suggestions for further development of the models to analyse the potential housing market for older persons. Originality/value: In addition to the suggested approach to study the impact of investments in facilities on the older population, this paper also identifies a need for more in-depth studies into this topic in the near future.

Walkable access is recognised as one of the most important factors for deciding to walk instead of using other modes of transport. Distance has been less accurately taken into consideration in previous walking accessibility measures, however, as they are often based on an isotropic approach or on a fixed distance threshold. The objective of this paper is to present a method of modelling continuous walking accessibility to different amenities in a city, with an integrated network-based and distance-decay approach, applied to a case study of the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The approach is based on a web survey to obtain data on acceptable walking distances to different types of amenities. Several distance decay functions were analysed for each type of amenity from the cumulative frequency of responses. The best fitting functions were used to model the walking accessibility surfaces for individual amenities in the network, representing five domains (retail, services, recreation, education and transportation) and an overall walking accessibility index. Despite certain limitations and a further need to assess the validity of the methods, our distance-decay network-based approach is more accurate than the isotropic or even network-based modelling of walking distances in continuous or threshold approaches, as it enables the researcher to take into account the differences in propensities to walk to different amenities. The results can be used by city authorities and planners for implementing actions to improve walking accessibility in the most problematic areas.

The view from the window is an important parameter of living comfort. Previous studies have defined several important characteristics of views, but there are very few studies that addressed window views in dense urban environments and their influence on the perceptual elements of the view. The scope of the study was to define the influence of design elements in window views that can trigger negative reactions from viewers. In our study the questionnaire survey was used as a method for obtaining the research data. A group of architecture students who participated as respondents selected different reactions to views and reasons for such responses. Only the window views that received poor responses were further investigated. The results were statistically analyzed according to the most frequent responses and the variability of responses. The homogeneity of the groups of responses as well as the groups of reasons was tested using the Fischer-Snedercor test. The analysis showed that the negative response to a window view depends not only on the short distance between the buildings, but also on the visual aesthetics, especially the composition quality, the surface characteristics and the maintenance of the observed building. The results show that interventions, especially natural elements such as vegetation, can increase the dynamics of the window view.

The article presents the results of suitability analysis of land use records of agricultural and forest land from the Slovenian ministry responsible for agriculture, for the purpose of land use change monitoring in Slovenia. To date, these data are the only systematically gathered data concerning land use in the country. For qualitative land use change detection, the metadata of land use datasets are of crucial importance. In the article, the changing criteria for land use data acquisition of agricultural and forest land are exposed. For the case of the Pomurska Statistical Region, the analysis of land use change has been conducted based on land use data of the agricultural ministry in the period 2002–2011. The main objective has been to provide the basic information on the quality of used datasets in order to assist the critical and correct interpretation and use of land use data of the agricultural sector.