Speaker
Description
With the rapid progress of urbanization in China, the demand for urban public spaces has grown significantly. However, many public spaces lack the vitality needed to meet the diverse needs of residents. Enhancing public space vitality is crucial for optimizing relationships between people and between people and spaces. Establishing a scientific quantitative assessment framework and indicator system is a key step toward achieving this goal.
Crowd behavior trajectories, as an essential characteristic of public space vitality, serve as a vital link connecting human behavior and spatial elements. By analyzing crowd trajectories, the spatiotemporal distribution of activities can be uncovered, and the underlying spatial environmental factors can be evaluated. The point-line network model constructed from activity trajectories provides an intuitive representation of the physical and dynamic attributes of urban vitality.
This study uses Three Gorges Plaza in Shapingba District, Chongqing, as a typical case. Data on crowd activity trajectories and the spatial conditions of the plaza were collected through field observations and surveys. Key activity nodes and flow relationships were extracted. By integrating GIS technology and Gephi software, and employing spatial morphology analysis and complex network analysis methods, the study constructed a weighted complex network model comprising 123 nodes and 605 directed edges. Through visualization and analysis of the model's spatial vitality distribution, key factors influencing vitality were identified, leading to the development of a quantitative index system for public space vitality. This system spans both overall and localized levels, encompassing three indicator categories—accessibility, cohesion, and contact opportunities—and employs metrics such as graph density, average path length, degree centrality, clustering coefficient, and betweenness centrality to quantify spatial characteristics and activity patterns.
In the empirical analysis of Three Gorges Plaza, the study applied the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method to conduct spatial interpolation analysis of each indicator. The findings reveal the spatial distribution patterns of vitality: nodes with high accessibility are concentrated in central areas and entrances/exits; nodes with strong cohesion are located in functionally diverse public spaces; and nodes with high contact opportunities are concentrated at critical hubs, such as road intersections.
The results show that high-accessibility nodes in Three Gorges Plaza play a pivotal role in connecting surrounding areas; variations in the cohesion index are significantly correlated with the distribution of functional modules; and nodes with high betweenness centrality serve as core hubs for pedestrian flow conversion and aggregation. Based on these insights, the study proposes the following optimization strategies: (1) enhance the utilization of peripheral spaces by adding entrances to shopping malls and improving the quality of street-level businesses, thereby optimizing transitions between internal and external spaces; (2) increase the functional diversity of the plaza to boost usage frequency and stimulate spatial vitality; (3) strengthen traffic management and evacuation capacity in high-vitality areas to improve traffic mobility; and (4) explore the latent potential of the space by adding leisure facilities to balance vitality distribution.
Through the empirical study of Three Gorges Plaza, this research addresses the limitations of traditional spatial assessment methods in terms of quantification and objectivity. It provides new perspectives and methodologies for the quantitative evaluation of public space vitality, offering significant practical applications and reference value.
References
1.Zhong, W. and Wang, D. (2019) ‘A study on the spatial characteristics of nighttime vitality in the city center of Shanghai’, City Planning Review, 43(6), pp. 97–106, 114.
2.Lang, W. and Webster, C. J. (2017) ‘Urban vitality in compact cities: Seeing Hong Kong through Kelvin Lynch’s lens’, Urban Planning International, 32(3), pp. 28–33.
3.Tong, M. (2014) ‘How urban fabric can help sustain the vitality of cities’, Urban Planning Forum, (3), pp. 85–96.
4.Ye, Y., Zhuang, Y., Zhang, L. and van Nes, A. (2016) ‘Designing urban spatial vitality from a morphological perspective – A study based on quantified urban morphology and activities’ testing’, Urban Planning International, (1), pp. 26–33.
5.Yang, L. and Hu, Y. (2018) ‘The space composition and crowd behavior study on entrances of urban scenic area’, Chinese Landscape Architecture, 34(S2), pp. 134–139.
| Keywords | Urban Vitality; Crowd Trajectories; Spatial Morphology; Network Analysis |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
