Urban Open Public Spaces Research Articles

Integrating GIS, 3D-Isovist, and an NSGA-II multi-objective optimization algorithm for automation of design process in urban parks and public open spaces

Integrating GIS, 3D-Isovist, and an NSGA-II multi-objective optimization algorithm for automation of design process in urban parks and public open spaces

Accurate and efficient feature classification of urban public open spaces: A deep learning-based multivariate time-series approach

Urban public open spaces (POS) are pivotal in sustainable urban planning, recognized for their positive impacts on the health of residents and environments. However, understanding their physical features in detail via remote sensing remains challenging due to the small and complex area characteristics. Advanced approaches struggle with the requirement for extensive training datasets, which are difficult to obtain and potentially inaccurate in certain settings. Sparse sampling of training data may offer a solution to these challenges, but its inability to consider useful contextual characteristics from objects remains as a significant barrier.To address these challenges, we propose an innovative methodology utilizing the Multivariate Long Short Term Memory–Fully Convolutional Network (MLSTM-FCN). This approach is adept at capturing subtle temporal and spectral variations from sparsely annotated data, making it particularly suited for optical remote sensing in urban POS. Our novel approach has achieved 97.86% accuracy in classifying POS features into 11 classes using only 1,870 annotated sample points and maintained over 90% of accuracy even with 187 samples or 10% of total samples, significantly outperform comparison models. This methodology allows for detailed and efficient monitoring of POS and enhances management strategies with minimal resources and effort. Our research opens new pathways for precise urban landscape study.

Examination of the Placemaking Concept on Bursa Historical Cumhuriyet Street

In historical cities, urban public open space’s identity is a fundamental aspect that contributes to shaping the identity of communities. The architectural elements succeeded in expressing the identity of the community and maintaining the continuity of identity. The city's identity is determined by the city's geographical context, cultural level, architectural elements, local traditions, and quality of public open spaces. In recent years the multi dimensional place-making concept become an interesting study area in increasing urban identity. The concept of place-making coines to describe a multi-disciplinary approach in planning, designing, and urban public open spaces management to improve the urban environment and the quality of life. In this study, the conceptual framework of the topic was drawn by putting forth the concept of place and place-making to improve the quality of places in historical public open spaces. The studying area is Cumhuriyet Street in the historical center of Bursa City, which is located in the traditional trade center as a pedestrian road. The historical background is examined to demonstrate its potential in creating a place-making concept in the city's historic core.

Measuring soundscape quality of urban environments using physiological indicators: Construction of physiological assessment dimensions and comparison with subjective dimensions

Residents and designers typically pursue healthy urban acoustic environments. The soundscape community has established internationally recommended standards for subjective questionnaires to evaluate soundscape quality; however, much work is still needed to standardise physiological assessments. This study measures the physiological responses and subjective evaluations of participants in 20 common sound sources (scenarios) in urban public open spaces, and discusses the potential dimensions when assessing the quality of urban soundscapes through physiological indicators. Categorical principal components analysis are employed to reduce the dimensionality of the physiological data. The results indicate that physiological Dimension 1 represents the Natural–Artificial dimension, and physiological Dimension 2 potentially represents the Regular–Irregular dimension, providing a rough estimate of regularity or predictability in soundscapes. Subjective data are used as a control for physiological data, subjective Dimension 1 can be summarised as the Calm (Pleasant)–Chaotic (Annoying) dimension, whereas subjective Dimension 2 can be summarised as Familiar (Congruent)–Unfamiliar (Incongruent). Through comparing and discussing the distributions in physiological and subjective models under different sound sources, it is found that both physiologically and subjectively, the foremost dimension (Dimension 1) represents comfort and pleasure, and natural sounds can be distinctly differentiated from noise through this dimension. Although its physiological significance is not clear, the two-dimensional physiological indicator model reveals distinctions between sound sources of various categories. These findings have implications for the planning and design of liveable and comfortable urban environments from the perspective of physiological indicators.

The Role of the Spatial Network in Urban Disaster Risk Variations: Reimagining the Notion of Spatial Vulnerability at the Urban Scale

The notion of “spatial vulnerability” is present in most disaster studies with a strong geographical connotation and accordingly is adopted at all scales, including the urban. While enabling mapping and visualizing risk patterns at macroscales, this geocentric foundation fails to capture disaster risk dynamics associated with the urban spatial network—an element that plays a significant role in the everyday and emergency functioning of cities, enabling users’ movement and interaction. Yet, urban vulnerability assessment overlooks this aspect and thus leaves urban disaster risk mechanisms partially unexplored. This study investigated the role of the network of urban public open spaces (UPOS) in the creation and progression of urban disaster risk in earthquake-prone settlements. Through a multimethod approach that integrates quantitative and qualitative methods and explores spatial configuration, planning policies, and practices of use of UPOS in everyday and emergency scenarios, our study demonstrated that UPOS configuration plays an active role in urban disaster risk. Urban public open spaces impact risk by influencing the exposure of pedestrians and their capacity for self-protection. The study further reconceptualized spatial vulnerability at the urban scale, as the fraction of vulnerability associated to the spatial network, highlighting the interplay of planning policies and spatial practices in its production and progression. Our findings make the notion of spatial vulnerability less ambiguous at the urban scale, by viewing the variable as an imbalance in capacities and exposure that generates spatially unsafe conditions. This refined conceptualization of spatial vulnerability becomes a lens for a more granular approach to urban disaster risk reduction and city planning by identifying and integrating sociospatial considerations.

Exploring the Impact of Accessibility on Place Attachment in Urban Public Open Spaces: A Case Study of Jiamusi City, China

Urban public open spaces are crucial for residents’ well-being, yet accessibility issues persist, affecting activities and social interactions. To this end, we take the main urban area of Jiamusi City, the most northeastern city in China, as an example. We start by examining both spatial and perceptual dimensions, using the Gaussian two-step moving search method to measure spatial accessibility, combining online data with multi-source data from questionnaires. Furthermore, we utilize structural equation modeling to explore the impact of accessibility on place attachment within urban public open spaces. The results show that (1) accessibility has a positive effect on place attachment, while place satisfaction plays a mediating role. (2) There were significant differences in spatial accessibility across modes of travel. Car travel had the best spatial accessibility, followed by bicycle, and walking had the lowest spatial accessibility. (3) Perceived accessibility and spatial accessibility differ, but perceived accessibility it is more persuasive in explaining and illustrating place attachment. Reducing travel costs and meeting the user needs will effectively increase place attachment and place identity. (4) Social factors such as age, education, and residency length also affect accessibility, satisfaction, and attachment. By understanding the impact of accessibility on place attachment, this study helps urban planners to better design urban spatial layout and transportation networks. It enhances people’s attachment to specific places by improving the convenience of traveling, promotes sustainable urban development, and enriches the discourse on the enhancement of psychological motivation in urban public open spaces.

Towards discovering human urban activity—tactics of human spatial behavior

ABSTRACT The study of human spatial behavior primarily focuses on recognizing their spatial diversification and indicating their distribution, which is well described in the literature. In addition to exploring the phenomenon and its description, the essence of human geography is also to explain it. In this context, it is valuable to learn about the practices carried out by users of urban spaces and the tactics they adopt that result in specific spatial behaviors. To date, most research has been concerted on identifying the determinants, needs, and perceptions of space by its users and, in recent years, on psychophysical responses to the surrounding environment. This research investigates how people strive to realize their needs in urban public open spaces. The study was conducted among users of the Liberty Square in Poznań, Poland. Two methods were used during the qualitative field research: observation and individual in-depth interviews of a casual nature. The obtained data were subjected to qualitative analysis using CAQDAS software. The results of the study identified three human spatial behavioral tactics (SBTs) oriented toward (1) space, (2) people, and (3) needs. SBTs mark the course of human activity and determine where it occurs, its duration and intensity. A person chooses one dominant tactic, while the others influence their spatial behavior but play a complementary role. A person determines the proportions between tactics each time, which affects a great deal of flexibility in the course of their spatial behavior.

Developing a theory of tranquility in urban public open spaces for future designs

Urban tranquil areas can optimize the urban environment and enhance social well-being; however, a theoretical framework for such areas has yet to be constructed. To establish a clear definition of urban tranquil areas and explore the constituent elements and their interrelationships within the theory of tranquility, this study examines the subjective understanding of urban tranquil areas based on data from interviews with 50 respondents. We generated a theoretical framework for the sense of tranquility in urban public open spaces and defined urban tranquil areas. The five categories of the theoretical framework included tranquility needs, context, perceptions, experiences, and outcomes, which were categorized under sensory and mental perception levels. “Perceptions” was the core category, comprising environmental and spatial perceptions. Positive perceptions of tranquility were easily affected by visuospatial perceptions, while acoustic environmental perceptions easily influenced negative perceptions. Finally, we identified three dimensions of “experiences”: a state of relaxation, a state of calmness and pleasantness, and a state of immersion and concentration. The state of mental relaxation was affected mainly by acoustic environmental perceptions, whereas the other two states were affected mainly by visuospatial perceptions. The results provide a reference for future theoretical and practical work in the design of urban tranquil areas to improve the quality of urban habitats.

New Urban Governance in Controlling Public Green Open Spaces in Indonesia

This study aims to describe how new urban governance controls public green open spaces in Indonesia. Cities in Indonesia experience an imbalance of public green open space that must be provided. There should be around 20% of the total land area for public green open space. The city of Jakarta still has around 0.07% of available public green open space. While the city of Surabaya is also still available around 16.31%. So that management is needed that must be immediately carried out by various parties including the government, stakeholders, and the community to jointly control public green open spaces provided in urban areas according to predetermined minimum requirements. This study uses a type of qualitative research with the help of Nvivo 12 Plus software to analyze data obtained from secondary data sources. The results of this study indicate that controlling public green open spaces in Indonesia still does not have strong coordination between actors. Multi-level government still often experiences overlapping authorities, unification of goals between stakeholders, the government, and the public who still have different interests.

Current Situation and Optimization Suggestions for Ageing-Appropriate Development of Urban Public Rest Facilities

With the increasing proportion of elderly people, China has long since entered an aging society, and the development of aging has continued to deepen. In the construction of the humanization level of the city, the development of age-appropriate public rest facilities has attracted much attention. This study will take the current aging society as the background and meet the physiological and psychological needs of the elderly group as the starting point to investigate in depth the current situation of the construction of urban public open space facilities. Based on the degree of aging, the level of urban construction, and social concern, this study selects the public rest facilities in Changning District, Shanghai, as the research object, and conducts a comprehensive analysis of the level of construction of aging-appropriate rest facilities. The study found that the construction of existing urban public rest facilities is still characterized by a variety of problems such as scarcity, single type, poor comfort, safety hazards, and lack of consideration for the physical scale of the elderly population and suggested corresponding improvements. Public rest facilities must follow the people-oriented principle, be based on the many different needs of the elderly, fully integrate the living habits of China's elderly population, and comprehensively improve the quality of life of the elderly population. This study is of great significance for the subsequent promotion of the construction of public rest facilities and the implementation of the construction of the humanization level of the city.

Identifikasi Fungsi Dan Aktivitas Pada Taman Janggan Sebagai Ruang Terbuka Publik Kota Denpasar

Identification of Functions and Activities in Janggan Park as a Public Open Space in Denpasar City. Janggan Park is an urban public open space, located in Denpasar City, Janggan Park has two parts of the park, namely the western and eastern parts, Janggan Park is also a park for relaxing the people of Denpasar City and is predicated as a child-friendly playground. This research was carried out to find out the irregularities in the activities and functions of the park between the western and eastern parts of the park and with this research it can provide advice to the government regarding future management. The method used in this research is field observation, interviews, and questionnaires. From the results of the study, it was found that park visitors prefer to have activities in the eastern part than the western part, which is the difference in activity between the western and eastern parks, namely because of differences in park management, so that the treatment patterns for both hardscape and softscape are different, the eastern part of the park is managed by the city government. Denpasar, while the western part is managed by the provincial government of Bali. The difference in management is what makes the vision of the park differ that effect the park condition. Plants selection and maintenance are two aspects that cause differences in visitors preferences in using the park.

Urban environment, unhealthy buildings as a root of inequalities and importance of SDGs

Abstract The current pandemic reinforced inequalities and injustice on multiple levels: health, social, and especially urban environment. Cities represent human prosperity and wealth, but also inequity, and health detrimental environments lacking green spaces and sufficiently good air quality, transportation, water supply. Emergencies like COVID-19 pandemic, but also other natural disasters like earthquake and humanitarian crisis have brought a renewed interest in the urban environment and healthy living. With the special circumstances, last year's special attention from public health has become an urban environment concern. The built natural environment, various public spaces like urban parks and forests, transportation hubs and urban open public spaces, are not only significant factors influencing the spread of infectious diseases, but those spaces also have protective roles for health, particularly mental health. There are a lot of examples which reflect increased inequalities in urban areas. Various urban facilities and buildings are in very unhealthy conditions and produce a lot of risks for their inhabitants. Public spaces revealed influential properties for older patients, whereas middle and young-aged adults were more influenced by traveling and the location of business services. The ethnic and minority vulnerability has also a legacy of historical issues in urban planning and unhealthy buildings. This is characterized by diverse racial and minority group populations, with the increased risk from COVID- 19, but also noticeably lower accessibility to green open areas for physical activity. It seems that the Covid crisis have increased the risk of slowing down the achievement of sustainable development goals in urban areas: It is especially important to re-examine the goals and prevent the slowdown in progress towards goals 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 10 (inequalities) in connection with SDG 3 Health) and SDG 17 (strong global partnerships).

Evaluation and Optimization of Urban Public Space Accessibility for Residents’ Satisfaction: A Case Study of Nanshan District, Shenzhen City

In order to meet the people’s growing aspirations for a better life and to improve the efficient supply capacity of the citizens’ diversified needs, our government has made the optimization of the supply of public services in urban communities a key task in urban planning and construction and has taken the community living circle as a starting point to make up for the short boards of urban public services, which is of great practical significance in improving the quality of urban life and optimizing the spatial structure of the city. As an important carrier of urban residents’ public life, urban public open space plays an indispensable role in improving the quality of life of urban residents. Accessibility is an important indicator to characterize the publicity and service level of a public open space. This study focuses on the construction of the community living circle, optimizing the GIS-based, Gaussian, two-part mobile search method to quantitatively calculate and evaluate the accessibility of a public open space within a 500 m walking distance for the residents in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. On this basis, social survey methods, including the questionnaire survey method via a field survey and the interview method, were used to conduct field research on the residents’ accessibility satisfaction. Comparing the differences and correlations between the two results, the deep-seated reasons affecting the residents’ accessibility satisfaction are explored at the levels of the construction system, management services, and structural layout and spatial design of the public open space, and targeted guiding countermeasures are put forward to guide the development and construction of public open space in the future.

The difference in the elderly’s visual impact assessment of pocket park landscape

As an important part of urban public open space, pocket parks have become an important activity place for the elderly in the context of the aging society in China. With the pocket parks in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China as research object, this paper set six landscape features to be studied, namely, Height of trees, Green color richness, Stratification of green landscapes, Green space ratio, Leisure facilities, and Water landscape. The elderly respondents with different demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, education level and residential type, were subjected to the picture stimulation experiment whose results were then statistically analyzed. The results indicate that gender and residential type exert certain influence on the elderly’s visual impact assessment of pocket park landscape. To be specific, the male elderly prefer the pocket park landscape with 3-6 m high trees, medium green space ratio, and more leisure facilities; the female elderly are in greater favor of pocket park landscapes with 0-3 m high trees, five or more colors, three or more layers; the elderly who live with their families prefer pocket park landscapes with medium green space ratio and more leisure facilities; to the elderly who live alone, pocket park landscapes with trees which are 0–3 m high, five or more colors, and medium leisure facilities are more attractive. This study can provide valuable reference for pocket park design in China.

Thermal–Acoustic Interaction Impacts on Crowd Behaviors in an Urban Park

As urbanization accelerates, parks, as vital urban public open spaces, and their acoustic and thermal ambience directly impact visitors’ comfort and the sustainability of parks. Selecting Xihu Park in Fuzhou, China located in the subtropical region as a typical example, this study utilizes covert observational experiments with different typical sounds (grass cutting, music, and no sound source) across temperature levels to examine the influence of thermal–acoustic interactions on crowd behaviors in the park. The findings are as follows: (1) melodious music can attract more tourists, while strong stimulating grass cutting noises under high temperatures reduce crowd flow. Excluding unpleasant audio sources, park soundscapes across temperatures have a relatively limited influence on attractiveness to people flow. (2) High temperatures diminish tourists’ interest in landscape experiences and persons staying, especially when the soundscape quality is poorer. Under non-high temperatures, audio environments have a minor impact on the staying time. (3) The soundscape quality plays a role by affecting people’s path choices of approaching or avoiding sound sources, where grass cutting noise has the most negative influence. Music, grass cutting sounds, and natural sounds demonstrate conspicuous differences in their effects under varied temperatures. (4) Comfortable acoustic environments can draw larger crowds and decrease the walking pace. High temperatures make crowds take slower steps. Different sound types have significant influences on crowd movement velocity under three typical temperature levels. This study comprehensively investigates the mechanisms of typical thermal–acoustic environments’ impacts on park crowd behaviors, providing important references for optimizing the acoustic and thermal environments of urban parks, while also enriching related research on landscape design and environmental psychology. Future studies can conduct in-depth explorations by creating more abundant thermal–acoustic combinations and probe differences across diverse populations.

Prediction approach on pedestrian outdoor activity preference under factors of public open space integrated microclimate

This study conducted measurements of microclimates and investigations of spatial environments and human activities in six typical waterfront public spaces in Shanghai. The aim was to explore the synergistic influence mechanism of public open space (POS) integrated microclimate (POSIM) on pedestrians’ activities to predict the utilization of public space. The measurement period was during the spring and early summer when outdoor activities were more diversified. 121 observation points were set up in urban waterfront public spaces, and an outdoor activity characteristic database of 25,583 people was established. In addition, multiple linear regression and nonlinear neural network models were introduced to analyze data from different types of activities to calculate the fitness of the models and the influence weights of the variables. The results indicated that the neural network had stronger predictive ability for the spatial integration of microclimate demands of different activities. The prediction degree for strolling and sitting activities was the highest, with R2 (goodness of fit) of 0.704 and 0.844, respectively, while the prediction degree for viewing and sports activities was lower (R2 < 0.5). This study integrated the synergistic influence of urban waterfront public open spaces and microclimates factors on pedestrian outdoor activities to predict the preference patterns of different activities for spatial types. Focus on the requirements of space occupants, this study analyzed the public space environment from the bottom up and provided reference and inspiration for subsequent design optimization of urban waterfront areas.

The impact of heatwaves on human perceived thermal comfort and thermal resilience potential in urban public open spaces

Climate change increases the likelihood of heatwave events, causing human thermal discomfort and even mortality. However, it is not clear to what extent humans with long-term and short-term experience of hot-summer exposure can adapt to thermal comfort in urban public open spaces when both experience their heatwave periods. Therefore, this study aims to investigate outdoor perceived thermal comfort in urban public open spaces during heatwave periods between two groups of people who have long-term and short-term experience of hot-summer exposure. Field surveys were conducted in public squares and parks during the heatwaves in Chongqing, China and Reading, the UK. Chongqing is known as a ‘furnace city’ and people have been living in a hot summer for a long time, while in Reading the summer is warm and people unusually experience the heatwave. The main results show that Chongqing respondents living in a hot climate for a longer period can endure more heat than Reading respondents during the heatwaves, indicating that Chongqing respondents have more thermal resilience. Besides, different behavioural adaptation measures show that people are active participants to choose their thermal preferences, rather than passive recipients of the thermal environments. The research implication contributes that protective measures against heatwaves need to be taken for pedestrians, including more shaded places with efficient ventilation design for sheltering and handy facilities such as drinking fountains and water spray. The research has novelty in deepening the dynamic theory of human thermal comfort and providing empirical evidence of thermal adaptation in extreme-high temperature events.

Assessment of public open space research hotspots, vitalities, and outlook using CiteSpace

ABSTRACT Urbanization is essential for human development and progress. Therefore, it is urgent to study urban public open space (POS) under the dual impact of urbanization construction and the global COVID-19 outbreak. Bibliometric visual analysis is currently popular in academia, as it can be used to analyze specific fields. This research summarizes the development history, hotspots, and trends in POS, with theoretical and data support based on the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. The study period was from 2002 to 2022. A total of 398 papers were collected, with the number of papers increasing over time. The research covers various fields, including environment, architecture, ecology, geography, design, behavior, etc. The results show that POS research hotspots include form layout, social value, and sustainable renewal. This paper demonstrates that there is a lack of vitality in urban POS. Although affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the fundamental reason for this is that the vitality of POS is not created from multiple dimensions. Vitality should be enhanced according to the space’s terrain, ecology, environment, and other factors. POS research lacks crossdisciplinary collaboration and the fusion of multiple fields. Thus, cooperation between the various disciplines involved must be strengthened. In the future, POS research should change its design concept, continue to place the “human” in the leading position, establish a multidisciplinary research system, use local empirical cases, and develop applicable theories that can be extended upon. Thus, it will be possible to build harmonious open spaces that enhance the relationship between the people and the land and provide practical solutions for other countries in which urbanization is advancing.

Determining behavioural-based risk to SLODs of urban public open spaces: Key performance indicators definition and application on established built environment typological scenarios

A behavioural-based approach can be used to assess how users’ reactions to surrounding environmental conditions can alter the urban Built Environment (BE) risk to Slow Onset Disasters (SLODs). Public Open Spaces (POSs) in the BE are relevant scenarios, due to micro-climate-related stress, users’ vulnerabilities (e.g., age, health frailty) and exposure time. Simulation methods can support behavioural-based risk-assessment, but results are generally site-specific. Performing analysis on BE Typologies (BETs) can improve robustness, since BETs represent archetypes from real-world scenarios. This work adopts a behavioural-based approach to evaluate time-dependant users’ risks of POSs in different BETs due to SLODs-related stress (i.e., heat, air pollution). UTCI and AQI values are mapped within each BET. Users’ distributions are then calculated depending on thermal acceptability correlations. Key Performance Indicators are developed associating users’ distribution to SLODs effects on health (i.e., sweat rate, water loss; health affection rate probability). The approach is applied to Italian BETs, under one relevant climate, rating their heat and air pollution risks. Results suggest critical conditions for toddlers. In detail, about 2-hour high heat exposure could result in dehydration, while 1-hour exposure to low NO2 concentration could result in +1% mortality probability. This approach could potentially support decision-makers on BE risk-assessment.

Exploring adults' passive experience of children playing in cities: Case study of five urban public open spaces in Copenhagen, Denmark

People's passive experience constitutes a major part of their public life in urban public open spaces. While many public life studies examine the influence of the physical environment, others show people influence other people's public life. How children influence others' public life is rarely studied.This article studies sensory experience – examining whether adults' passive experience of children playing is pleasant or unpleasant, and sensory attention – descriptively studying various factors influencing adults' attention to children playing.The study was conducted through an on-site questionnaire-based survey (N = 1810) at five study sites in Copenhagen, Denmark. The sites were selected through a systematic analysis of the spatial characteristics of the physical environment, which describes different spatial and visual relationships between playgrounds and their adjacent public open spaces providing for the varying spatial potential for adults' passive experience of children playing.The study reveals that children playing overwhelmingly creates pleasant experiences for adults at the study sites. Besides the different spatial characteristics from the spatial analysis, the sites' shape, the playground's spatial proportion within the sites, and adults' site familiarity may also influence sensory attention to children playing. While the article does not present precise design guidelines, it provides valuable insights into urban design practices.