Open Space Evaluation Methodology and Three Dimensional Evaluation Model as a Base for Sustainable Development Tracking

Abstract

Sustainable development, as a concept of controlled development, is a management characteristic. Adaptation to progress is important to achieve sustainability. The research focus here is on developing an evaluation methodology for determining the characteristics of urban open space. A method was designed for use in the comparative analysis of environmental perception evaluation between different time sequences. It allows us to compare results before and after spatial interventions or spatial development tracking over time. The newly-developed SEC model (suitable for everyone, environmentally-accepted, and cost-effective) was an essential element used in the research methodology. The model was designed using the systematic principle, the top-down approach, and the decomposition method. Three basic dimensions were divided into six factors. Factors were divided into eighteen indicators that are either quantitatively or qualitatively assessed. Indicators were divided into several aspects. An instrument (questionnaire) was developed to support the evaluation methodology of urban open space characteristics. Every aspect belongs to a question in the questionnaire. The applicability of the SEC model was demonstrated in two case studies. Evaluation took place during two different time sequences, once during the day-time and once during the night. Obtained results provide useful information of the current spatial situation needed for sustainable development strategy preparation.

The Cause and Evolution of Urban Street Vitality under the Time Dimension: Nine Cases of Streets in Nanjing City, China

“…Street form consists of street density, street continuity, and street height-width ratio. Street density (D s ) is highly related to street vitality, which means the percentage of total building area (A b ) compared with the total allocated building area (A s ) of the street, which can be calculated using Equation (1). Typically, low street density will not facilitate high street vitality.…”

“…Loose texture density cannot help form a desirable business atmosphere. Figure 3 shows the building density along the nine streets calculated using Equation (1). The findings showed that the building density of buildings constructed in the new urban streets was less than the building density in the old and main streets.…”

“…An urban built environment can be understood as a system that covers many interconnected spaces supported by social progress and technological capabilities [1]. Urban public spaces give a sense of visibility to buildings and public life, as a precondition for the development of open space, and are highly related to urban sustainable development [2,3].…”

An investigation of the visual features of urban street vitality using a convolutional neural network

“…After 40 years of rapid urbanization, Chinese urban construction has started to pay attention to the urban space's quality in a more humanized way. As being considered our dominant sense by many people (Hutmacher 2019), vision is vital to sense the space and play a key role in our activities in the urban spaces (Cafuta 2015). However, most studies on street vitality were based on spatial factor assessments such as transportation condition (Fitch, Rhemtulla, and Handy 2019; Ikioda 2016; Galanis, Botzoris, and Eliou 2017; Aslam, Cheng, and Cheshire 2019) as well as other physical factors of the built environment (e.g., Peiravian, Derrible, and Ijaz 2014;Wang et al 2018;Ewing and Clemente 2013).…”

Human-Scale Sustainability Assessment of Urban Intersections Based upon Multi-Source Big Data

“…Sustainable development of the city should be primarily based on the user's spatial perception and spatial needs in order to ensure safety of the roadway users. Everything else is subordinate to this fact [19].…”