Public spaces in Bangkok and the factors affecting the good public space quality in urban areas

Abstract

Public spaces are an important component of the urban area used to support public activities. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of public spaces where subdivided into districts of Bangkok city area. A methodology is carry out preliminary site surveying in a 31 public parks based on four main good public space indicators, which including accessibility, imageability, usability and sociability. In this study, the Z-score or standard score is defined as a statistical measurement of the associate of site characteristics score, has been apply to determine quality of public spaces. The results reveal that the all of public spaces are outstanding scores in terms of imageability and usability, and their Z-score values are consistently coherent, especially the high-quality public spaces located in the inner zone of Bangkok. While accessibility and sociability factors are poor quality, their values show on some public spaces that mostly located in the middle and in the outer zones of Bangkok. These results can be helpful to given a priority when managing city facilities in the Bangkok’s urban space and maintaining or improving its public space value.