Operationalizing Jane Jacobs’s Urban Design Theory

Abstract

Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) had an enormous influence on urban design theories and practices. This study aims to operationalize Jacobs’s conditions for a vital urban life. These are (1) mixed use, (2) small blocks, (3) aged buildings, and (4) a sufficient concentration of buildings. Jacobs suggested that a vital urban life could be sustained by an urban realm that promotes pedestrian activity for various purposes at various times. Employing multilevel binomial models, we empirically verified that Jacobs’s conditions for urban diversity play a significant role with regard to pedestrian activity.

Urban Vitality Area Identification and Pattern Analysis from the Perspective of Time and Space Fusion

“…Therefore, the vitality in each spatial unit of the city can be reflected by the intensity of human activity, namely "space vitality". In previous studies, it was difficult to obtain large-scale population activity data, and the related research was mainly based on questionnaire data [10,11] or quantitative description data of urban spatial morphological characteristics [21,22]. For example, from the perspective of a quantitative evaluation of urban vitality construction factors, the geography information science (GIS) spatial statistical analysis method has been used to analyze physical environment indicators, such as the distance from an urban center, the number of urban road network junctions, and building density, to characterize urban vitality.…”

“…The emergence of big data has provided us with an opportunity to study the dynamic distribution of populations, and it is available to measure the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of urban vitality quantitatively [7][8][9]. Compared to traditional questionnaire data and residents' travel survey data [10][11][12], urban vitality analysis based on big data greatly saves time and labor costs and has a qualitative leap in sample size. It also excludes errors caused by the reporter's subjective factors.…”

Urban human activity density spatiotemporal variations and the relationship with geographical factors: An exploratory Baidu heatmaps‐based analysis of Wuhan, China

“…The GWR model has also been successfully applied in the field of urban spatial analysis for urban landscapes (Gao & Li, ), land uses (Tu & Xia, ), urban transport (Cardozo, García‐Palomares, & Gutiérrez, ), etc. In addition, some POI data, such as variables that reflect convenience facilities (e.g., education, company, shopping), that are related to residents’ lives show high correlation with human activities (Bakillah et al, ), while the densities of transport facilities and land use perform well in some models (Nadai et al, ; Sung, Go, et al, ; Sung, Lee, et al, ). However, the construction environment has no significant impact on human activities (Ewing & Cervero, ).…”

“…POI data, such as variables that reflect convenience facilities (e.g., education, company, shopping), that are related to residents' lives show high correlation with human activities (Bakillah et al, 2014), while the densities of transport facilities and land use perform well in some models (Nadai et al, 2016;Sung, Go, et al, 2015;Sung, Lee, et al, 2015). However, the construction environment has no significant impact on human activities (Ewing & Cervero, 2010).…”

“…Malleson and Andresen (2016) explored the relationships between the types of POIs in different neighborhoods in London and the crime rate of theft. Therefore, the support of POI data has helped to enrich the model and better explain the relationships between urban elements and human activities (Sung, Go, Choi, Cheon, & Park, 2015;Sung, Lee, & Cheon, 2015).…”