A New Approach for Assessing Secure and Vulnerable Areas in Central Urban Neighborhoods Based on Social-Groups’ Analysis

Abstract

Current urban planning of central neighborhoods is focused on mobility transformation towards more sustainable methods of public transportation and walkability that increase social interactions. Central urban neighborhoods in many cities may suffer from deterioration due to lack of personal security that result in diminished walkability. The lack of personal security might exclude residents from those areas and create a troublesome circle of deterioration, and may emphasize spatial inequality. It may also establish different patterns of the neighborhood infrastructure usage for different social groups, such as using specifically more secure streets and public spaces. The main goal of this paper is to define the routes and spaces where people walk and use in their neighborhoods in which they feel safe, and to understand how different social groups walk-through and use the same urban environment. This is analyzed by the security rating index (SRI) model, a GIS-based mapping model, which is used to identify and rate secure urban areas for better walkability. The SRI results are compared to an interview, which was given to different social-group representatives, urban data that was collected using a mobile application, and to vandalism data analysis from the municipality. The security and walkability analysis assessment took place in the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa, Israel.

Spatial analysis of leisure land uses in Tehran: Assessing inequity using the MARCOS method within a GIS framework

“…Measuring and evaluating urban planning outcomes can effectively assess the effectiveness of adopted programs and policies in creating livable cities [ 84 ]. Various indicators, both objective and subjective, quantitative and qualitative, can be utilized across different spatial scales [ [85] , [86] , [87] , [88] , [89] ]. This study focuses on objective indicators, including parks and green spaces, social and cultural amenities, recreational facilities, sports amenities, commercial establishments, and religious institutions.…”

Maintaining Community Resilience through Urban Renewal Processes Using Architectural and Planning Guidelines

“…The present study builds on the results of Shach-Pinsly and Ganor (2021) [15], who found that different communities living in the same neighborhood use different urban spaces. Each community finds the streets, urban spaces, and uses suitable for it, and resides and moves in and through them, with certain overlaps and interphases with other communities.…”

Do University Students’ Security Perceptions Influence Their Walking Preferences and Their Walking Activity? A Case Study of Granada (Spain)

“…Certain environmental characteristics of particular neighborhoods may generate fear and can discourage people from walking [57,[60][61][62][63], since fear or the feeling of insecurity can be felt subjectively, regardless of the real crime rate in the city. Certain individual socioeconomic factors, such as age or gender, also influence the perception of insecurity [64,65], although there are urban zones where people from all groups prefer not to walk due to the high level of perceived insecurity [66]. In addition, it has been established that security is not perceived by zone in a homogeneous way, but that there are certain urban elements in cities [66], acting as environmental markers that decrease the probability of walking [67][68][69][70].…”

“…Certain individual socioeconomic factors, such as age or gender, also influence the perception of insecurity [64,65], although there are urban zones where people from all groups prefer not to walk due to the high level of perceived insecurity [66]. In addition, it has been established that security is not perceived by zone in a homogeneous way, but that there are certain urban elements in cities [66], acting as environmental markers that decrease the probability of walking [67][68][69][70]. Elements that fragment the space and increase the perception of insecurity include darkness; the presence of garbage or graffiti; lack of maintenance; unkempt and abandoned buildings; small gardens; and stairways [4,7,63,68,[71][72][73].…”