Development of a method for assessing the safety of the urban environment based on the analysis of the communication practices of city residents in geoinformation services

Abstract

Issues related to the safety of the urban environment are widely discussed around the world. The security factor plays a crucial role for residents of large cities when choosing a place to live, relax and work. The way a person defines comfortable places for himself is closely related to social communication. The main communication processes are currently mediated and occur in the information space of social networks through the exchange of opinions and comments. It can be said that the popularity of certain places, parks, attractions is closely related to the information image, subjective assessments of the inhabitants of these places as safe and comfortable. In this paper, we decided to focus on analyzing the communicative practice of city residents who leave reviews in geoinformation services about parks and squares in order to identify markers of safety and comfort. The study was conducted on the example of parks and squares in 19 districts of St. Petersburg. 302 objects of improvement (parks, gardens, squares) were selected, reviews were uploaded for each object. Based on a social survey, a dictionary describing the communicative field of the concept of urban environment security was prepared, and a search was conducted in the database of problems related to the safety of green spaces, which users write about. All reviews are depersonalized. Such data can be used by city authorities when planning new facilities and tracking improvement problems.