Mapping the relationship between traffic accidents, road network configuration, and urban land use.

Understanding the nature of traffic accidents in relation to urban access networks is crucial for building safer and more resilient cities. This paper examines the issue of traffic accidents through the lenses of urban configurational theory and urban land use. Three data layers were used in the study, including space syntax analysis conducted in Depthmap X, geotagged traffic accidents collected by the police department, and geotagged land-use data. The method involved superimposing these data layers and exploring potential correlations using a geographic information system (GIS). The findings indicate significant correlations between the spatial frequency of traffic accidents and the choice measure (at 2500 m), local integration, and active land use. The findings of this study can help inform planners and policymakers about the best location to implement safety measures to reduce the risk of traffic accidents in urban access networks.

Exploring Campus Configuration and Patient Arrival Behaviors at Large Hospitals: An Integrated Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) Protocol.

BACKGROUND: This study addresses the challenges in hospital navigation, particularly focusing on the sequence of arrival experiences through foot traffic or driving within a medical campus. While previous research has emphasized wayfinding in interiors, this study recognizes the importance of transition from outdoor to indoor spaces in the hospital arrival zone. OBJECTIVES: Twofold research efforts include: (1) Exploring vehicular and pedestrian behaviors in a hospital arrival zone using Space Syntax Analyses (SSA), and (2) Validating the SSA results using empirical data collected from onsite observations and behavior mapping. METHODS: A series of axial map analyses were conducted on the hospital campus and building arrival zone regarding spatial connectivity and integration, depth of spaces, and wayfinding intelligibility based on vehicular and pedestrian movement paths. Systematic behavioral data collection includes vehicle shadowing (10 h) and pedestrian mapping (20 h) in the building arrival zone. RESULTS: Space Syntax Analyses indicates high intelligibility scores for vehicles (R = .91) and pedestrian (R = .78) circulation patterns; traffic situations were visualized via axial maps. A dataset of 219 vehicles and 2,096 pedestrian behaviors was analyzed and visualized using diagrams and heatmaps, identifying different occupancy patterns within the space. Correlational analyses indicated strong correlations between the results: connectivity and integration scores are significantly correlated with both vehicular and pedestrian traffic volumes. CONCLUSION: Preliminary findings of the study validated an integrated protocol to evaluate the impacts of campus configuration and building approach design on patient arrival and spatial navigation at large hospitals, serving as a POE protocol involving SSA.

Inpatient Corridor Visibility and Care Team Communication.

OBJECTIVE: This article aims to investigate the impact of fine-grained differences in unit layout on care staff corridor communication. BACKGROUND: Corridor design can be undertaken with greater emphasis on space and cost efficiency or with greater emphasis on affording quality knowledge workspace. Building on prior research on care team communication and inpatient unit design, this study aims to gain a better understanding of how corridor layout properties affect care team communication. METHOD: This study used space syntax analysis to characterize inpatient unit design, specifically floor-plan layout. Two approaches were used to capture care team communication: behavior mapping with recording of care team member locations and whether they were communicating and the HDR CARE Scale, Inpatient Version. The two units were part of a vertical tower expansion project, and, though constructed at separate times, they maintain the same organizational culture, floor plate, and location of key vertical elements. RESULTS: The newer unit was found to be more visually open using three measures from space syntax. More nursing staff verbal communication was observed on this unit. Across both units, nursing staff were more likely to be observed verbally communicating in locations that were more visually connected (i.e., at locations with larger viewsheds). There were no significant differences between nursing staff self-report on work using the HDR CARE Scale, Inpatient Version. CONCLUSION: We conclude that care team communication may tend to be encouraged by visual connectivity that can be promoted through floor-plan layout.

Interior automobile seats: A syntactical and perceptual study.

This study investigated the seat layout of automobile interiors and its impact on the fluidity and privacy of interior space using spatial perception and space syntax research methods. The interior of an automobile is a typical "miniature" passenger space. First, to explore the perception characteristics of interior space fluidity and privacy across different seat configurations, we conducted a perception experiment on the interior space of seven automobile models with various seat layouts. The depth, connection, global integration degree, and standardized integration degree values were obtained using spatial syntax to perform topological calculations on the experimental automobile models. We conducted a correlation analysis in conjunction with the results of the perception experiment and the spatial syntax analysis. The calculation results of spatial syntax analysis are consistent with the experimental results of perception of automobile interior space layout on the fluidity and privacy. The different layout of automobile seats can affect people's perception on the fluidity and privacy of automobile interior space. At the same time, spatial syntax can provide an effective design analysis tool for the fluidity and privacy of automobile interior space.

Urban design and cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the built environment may be associated with cardiovascular disease via its influence on health behaviours. The aim of this study was to estimate the associations between traditional and novel neighbourhood built environment metrics and clinically assessed cardio-metabolic risk factors among a sample of adults in Canada. A total of 7171 participants from Albertas Tomorrow Project living in Alberta, Canada, were included. Cardio-metabolic risk factors were clinically measured. Two composite built environment metrics of traditional walkability and space syntax walkability were calculated. Among men, space syntax walkability was negatively associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure (b = -0.87, 95% CI -1.43, -0.31 and b = -0.45, 95% CI -0.86, -0.04, respectively). Space syntax walkability was also associated with lower odds of overweight/obese among women and men (OR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.87, 0.99 and OR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.79, 0.97, respectively). No significant associations were observed between traditional walkability and cardio-metabolic outcomes. This study showed that the novel built environment metric based on the space syntax theory was associated with some cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Entropy and a sub-group of geometric measures of paths predict the navigability of an environment.

Despite extensive research on navigation, it remains unclear which features of an environment predict how difficult it will be to navigate. We analysed 478,170 trajectories from 10,626 participants who navigated 45 virtual environments in the research app-based game Sea Hero Quest. Virtual environments were designed to vary in a range of properties such as their layout, number of goals, visibility (varying fog) and map condition. We calculated 58 spatial measures grouped into four families: task-specific metrics, space syntax configurational metrics, space syntax geometric metrics, and general geometric metrics. We used Lasso, a variable selection method, to select the most predictive measures of navigation difficulty. Geometric features such as entropy, area of navigable space, number of rings and closeness centrality of path networks were among the most significant factors determining the navigational difficulty. By contrast a range of other measures did not predict difficulty, including measures of intelligibility. Unsurprisingly, other task-specific features (e.g. number of destinations) and fog also predicted navigation difficulty. These findings have implications for the study of spatial behaviour in ecological settings, as well as predicting human movements in different settings, such as complex buildings and transport networks and may aid the design of more navigable environments.

Using Space Syntax Analysis to Measure Patient Aggression Risk.

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigates whether space syntax offers appropriate tools for identifying risks of aggression, interventional opportunities, and environmental design strategies to reduce the risk of Type II violence in emergency departments. BACKGROUND: Although healthcare workers are a relatively small percentage of the U.S. workforce, they sustain almost 75% of workplace assaults. Poor environmental design has been identified as an antecedent to aggression by patients and/or their companions. METHOD: Guided by Rational Choice Theory, Lifestyle Exposure Theory, Routine Activity Theory, and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), the study uses five visibility graph analysis (VGA) measures: visibility, control, controllability, mean visual depth, and occlusivity. Three U.S. hospital-based emergency departments were selected. First, a VGA was performed on all three layouts. A second VGA was performed after excluding unconnected spaces, and a third was performed on key patient and staff areas. Last, a fourth VGA was conducted after performing physical modifications to the three departments. RESULTS: Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in VGA measures not only between different layouts but also between the original and modified layouts. Specifically, small changes created by architectural features can affect visual access and exposure as measured by space syntax. Alcove-style spaces in key staff areas are also associated with limited visual control of the local environment. Typically, in smaller zones, central staff workstations afford better control of patient spaces. CONCLUSION: This study shows that space syntax analysis is a useful tool for identifying risks of aggression in hospital spaces and for identifying interventional opportunities.

The Evaluation of Geographical Health Facilities Structure in Makassar City, Indonesia.

Cities across the world, during the last period, have been shocked by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world of planning has since persevered in providing a response, in terms of how to anticipate this outbreak in the future. Various kinds of concepts have been issued, with various views and points of view. However, one of the needs for this planning is an appropriate evaluation of the geographic structure of existing health facilities, in order to properly provide consideration for future urban planning. This study attempts to provide an integrated model of how to evaluate the geographic structure of health facilities with a case study in Makassar City, Indonesia. By combining big data and spatial analysis, it is expected that it will find patterns and directions for acceptable health facilities planning.

Contribution of Accessibility to Urban Resilience and Evacuation Planning Using Spatial Analysis.

Cities evolve and change with economic development and population growth, and urban planning laws in Taiwan have regulations that should be comprehensively reviewed every six years. Most current government policies aim to add new disaster prevention shelters or rescue stations. An economical way to improve the disaster prevention capabilities of urban planning is through examining or reviewing spatial structures and disaster prevention plans from the perspective of citizens or residents. The UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) launched the Making Cities Resilient Campaign policy to enhance disaster-resistant and sustainable urban environments through integrated disaster mitigation, reduction, response, and evacuation plans. This study used space syntax to ascertain evacuation route features using geometric distance analysis. There was 31.61% efficiency in relation to accessible roads on a comprehensive map. We could clearly see that since the areas in the first quadrant were relatively close to accessible roads, and there was an area that was not connected to the existing evacuation channels. The increased number of channels was more accessible and extensive. Such suggestions are helpful for government departments to prepare for disaster management. The spatial characteristics of the physical environment are explained by the accessibility and efficiency of axial maps and visibility analyzed by space syntax. Our findings reveal that space syntax is an important application when examining evacuation maps.

Exploration patterns shape cognitive map learning.

Spontaneous, volitional spatial exploration is crucial for building up a cognitive map of the environment. However, decades of research have primarily measured the fidelity of cognitive maps after discrete, controlled learning episodes. We know little about how cognitive maps are formed during naturalistic free exploration. Here, we investigated whether exploration trajectories predicted cognitive map accuracy, and how these patterns were shaped by environmental structure. In two experiments, participants freely explored a previously unfamiliar virtual environment. We related their exploration trajectories to a measure of how long they spent in areas with high global environmental connectivity (integration, as assessed by space syntax). In both experiments, we found that participants who spent more time on paths that offered opportunities for integration formed more accurate cognitive maps. Interestingly, we found no support for our pre-registered hypothesis that self-reported trait differences in navigation ability would mediate this relationship. Our findings suggest that exploration patterns predict cognitive map accuracy, even for people who self-report low ability, and highlight the importance of considering both environmental structure and individual variability in formal theory- and model-building.

Perception of Spatial Legibility and Its Association with Human Mobility Patterns: An Empirical Assessment of the Historical Districts in Rasht, Iran.

Achieving legibility within the context of historical districts has become a controversial problem due to their widespread growth and unconventional constructions within, which has led to inconsistencies in the urban context system, and a decrease in the level of urban sociability. This paper aims to provide an empirical assessment towards facilitating the perception of spatial legibility and its association with human mobility patterns. To this end, a novel mix method was developed in order to comprehend the association between spatial legibility and human mobility patterns using Space Syntax, cognitive sketch maps, and time-lapse photography. The results revealed that there is a significant association between spatial legibility and human mobility patterns, such that the incorporation of objective and subjective factors affecting legibility, including highly integrated morphological characteristics along with the saliency of landmarks featuring historical values, can lead to increased human mobility patterns in terms of use frequency. Accordingly, this research aids urban planners and designers in recognizing how to deal with historical districts in order to foster the sociability of these areas and create a lively and socially sustainable urban environment.

A Broad Study to Develop Maternity Units Design Knowledge Combining Spatial Analysis and Mothers' and Midwives' Perception of the Birth Environment.

OBJECTIVES: This article investigates how the physical birth environment is perceived by the users (women and midwives) in different settings, a midwife-led unit and an obstetric-led unit, placed in Italy. BACKGROUND: In the field of birth architecture research, there is a gap in the description of the spatial and physical characteristics of birth environments that impact users' health, specifically for what concerns the perception by women. METHODS: The study focuses on multi-centered mixed methods design, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods (questionnaire, spatial analysis) and covering different disciplines (architecture, environmental psychology, and midwifery). RESULTS: The results revealed significant differences between the two settings and some associations between perceived and spatial data concerning: calm atmosphere, greater intimacy, spacious birth room, clarity of service points, clarity in finding midwives, sufficient space for labor, noise, privacy, and the birth room adaptability. CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm the importance of the spatial layout and indicate documented knowledge as an input to consider when designing birth spaces in order to promote user well-being.

Socio-spatial vulnerability assessment of heritage buildings through using space syntax.

This research aims to assess vulnerable spaces around heritage buildings concerning their socio-spatial properties. Additionally, the research explores the predictive relationship between these properties and contextual anthropogenic hazards. The research's methodology relies on multi-methods applied to twenty-eight heritage buildings in historic Cairo, Egypt. Firstly, the research employed the Delphi technique and ICCROM-CCI-RCE method to assess the potential rates of contextual anthropogenic hazards in the study area. Afterwards, the literature review was conducted to explore a new paradigm for assessing vulnerable spaces using the space syntax-based methodology. Space syntax provides a better understanding of space, its structure, and how it affects human behaviour. Moreover, the research employed two main analytical methods of space syntax, axial graph, and visual graph analyses, which were achieved by "Depthmap 4" software to investigate the syntactic context of the study area. Furthermore, the exploratory factor analysis was employed to statistically analyse the syntactic output data to develop fewer factors of socio-spatial vulnerability. These factors served as inputs for multiple linear regression analysis as predictive models of the influence of socio-spatial vulnerability on the assessed contextual anthropogenic hazards. Finally, the resulting models highlighted the importance of investigating the socio-spatial properties around heritage buildings to predict human destructive behaviours based on quantitative analytical methods. Such results would help authorities formulate suitable and sustainable strategies for the adequate performance of heritage buildings. Also, the predictive models can potentially be used in other livable historic cities.

Understanding Spatial Characteristics of Refugee Accommodations Associated with Refugee Children's Physical Activity in Microenvironments: Six Case Studies in Berlin.

Refugee children often spend a considerable amount of time in refugee accommodations with limited space and limited access to communal facilities. Such environmental settings make it difficult for refugee children to engage in physical activity (PA), which is essential for their health and social inclusion. While there is a strong evidence base for environmental attributes associated with non-refugee children's PA, only a few studies have focused on refugee children. This article presents an exploratory study on the spatial characteristics of six refugee accommodations in Berlin and their relation to school-aged refugee children's opportunities to engage in PA. Micro-environmental attributes included building typology and availability, size, and access to communal PA spaces using Space Syntax. PA opportunities were assessed using staff surveys, interviews, and field trips. Results indicated that none of the case studies provided a comprehensive range of PA opportunities. They also revealed unequal access within the facilities. Whereas the role of size was inconsistent, vital predictors included fewer floors and corridors with easy access to internal and external PA spaces. Our recommendations include prioritizing compact buildings with moderate heights when retrofitting existing facilities and raising awareness for the importance of active play for this vulnerable group.

Spatial data and workflow automation for understanding densification patterns and transport energy networks in urban areas: The cases of Bergen, Norway, and Zürich, Switzerland.

A better understanding of how the spatial configuration of cities, understood as urban structure and forms, can achieve sustainable development is needed. This paper presents spatial data and an automated workflow for studying the urban structures (i.e., road and transportation networks) and forms (i.e., building size, position, function and density) of two medium-sized European cities - Bergen, Norway and Zürich, Switzerland. The data focuses on examining correlations between the densification patterns and transport energy usage of these cities de Koning et al., (2020). Spatial and tabular datasets for (i) urban structures, (ii) urban forms, (iii) building density, (iv) road centre lines and (v) transport energy usage are obtained as georeferenced files from OpenStreetMap (OSM) and upon request from collaborating local and national authorities. Transport energy data is derived from traffic data collected from the Norwegian Public Road Authorities or simulated via a traffic model. Open-source data is used wherever possible. Data gaps within proprietary data are supplemented with proxies or open-source data. Hand-drawn axial maps drawn by the authors using the Space Syntax methods and analysed via depthmapX software are a crucial dataset presented here. All analysed data are then returned to a Geographical Information System (GIS) platform and processed via an automated workflow of 19 steps built via the ModelBuilderTM tool in ESRI® ArcGIS. The automated workflow allows for repetitive cross-city comparison and the compilation of diverse spatial data sources for analysis. In combination with the novel workflow, the dataset can be used for future comparative studies in spatial planning, transport planning and management of energy systems to facilitate informed decision-making towards more sustainable developments.

Assessing personal exposure to COVID-19 transmission in public indoor spaces based on fine-grained trajectory data: A simulation study.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed substantial challenges to worldwide health systems in quick response to epidemics. The assessment of personal exposure to COVID-19 in enclosed spaces is critical to identifying potential infectees and preventing outbreaks. However, traditional contact tracing methods rely heavily on a manual interview, which is costly and time consuming given the large population involved. With advanced indoor localisation techniques, it is possible to collect people's footprints accurately by locating their smartphones. This study presents a new framework for the assessment of personal exposure to COVID-19 carriers using their fine-grained trajectory data. An integral model was established to quantify the exposure risk, in which the spatial and temporal decay effects are simultaneously considered when modelling the airborne transmission of COVID-19. Regarding the obstacle effect of the indoor layout on airborne transmission, a weight graph based on the space syntax technique was further introduced to constrain the transmission strength between subspaces that are less inter-visible. The proposed framework was demonstrated by a simulation study, in which external comparison and internal analysis were conducted to justify its validity and robustness in different scenarios. Our method is expected to promote the efficient identification of potential infectees and provide an extensible spatial-temporal model to simulate different control measures and examine their effectiveness in a built environment.

Environmental Justice in Greater Los Angeles: Impacts of Spatial and Ethnic Factors on Residents' Socioeconomic and Health Status.

Environmental justice advocates that all people are protected from disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards. Despite this ideal aspiration, social and environmental inequalities exist throughout greater Los Angeles. Previous research has identified and mapped pollutant levels, demographic information, and the population's socioeconomic status and health issues. Nevertheless, the complex interrelationships between these factors remain unclear. To close this knowledge gap, we first measured the spatial centrality using sDNA software. These data were then integrated with other socioeconomic and health data collected from CalEnvironScreen, with census tract as the unit of analysis. Finally, structural equation modeling (SEM) was executed to explore direct, indirect, and total effects among variables. The results show that the White population tends to reside in the more segregated areas and lives closer to green space, contributing to higher housing stability, financial security, and more education attainment. In contrast, people of color, especially Latinx, experience the opposite of the environmental benefits. Spatial centrality exhibits a significant indirect effect on environmental justice by influencing ethnicity composition and pollution levels. Moreover, green space accessibility significantly influences environmental justice via pollution. These findings can assist decision-makers to create a more inclusive society and curtail social segregation for all individuals.

Research on the Aging-Friendly Kitchen Based on Space Syntax Theory.

As a result of aging populations globally, a growing number of older adults prefer to age in place; therefore, it is essential to study the spatial adaptability of the house. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the efficiency of daily activities and the spatial layout of home kitchens in the elderly population, and to assess the moderating role of cognitive function. Twenty-one elderly participants completed the experiment, including non-cognitively impaired (n = 12) and cognitively impaired groups (n = 9). Their home kitchen space was partitioned in plan and elevation based on space syntax theory. They were required to complete three tasks (i.e., an easy task, a medium task, and a difficult task) in their respective kitchens. The relationship between the efficiency of different tasks' completion and the corresponding kitchen space attributes (integration, mean depth) was examined. The results showed a significant association between the home kitchen space layout of homebound older adults and their kitchen activity efficiency. In addition, a positive moderating effect of cognitive ability was found in the association between moderate and difficult tasks (p < 0.05), and its effect appeared to be stronger under challenging tasks (p < 0.01). The results of this study may help provide a basis for future design and optimization of aging-friendly residential spaces.

Analyzing the Layout of Long-Term Care Facilities: A Psycho-Spatial Approach.

When planning long-term care facilities (LTCFs), architects strive to design buildings that support high well-being (WB) levels for those who live and work in them. To achieve this goal, architects must understand what defines WB in old age and how these qualities can be achieved through the designed physical layout. This task must be achieved while tackling additional challenges, such as considering the official planning guidelines, codes, and additional requests given by the client. During the planning process, architects use their subjective impressions by visiting similar institutions, their personal experience as architects, and their subjective assumptions on what residents and caregivers may consider desirable. Once built, there are a lack of methodological ways to evaluate an existing LTCF unit's plan as a supportive tool for higher levels of WB. The current study aims to create a methodological tool to analyze LTCF units' layout, giving scores to each plan based on five aspects of WB that they support. In our article, we demonstrate this methodology's application on 40 plans of LTCFs, demonstrating its effectiveness. We believe that the approach presented in this article will contribute to furthering the quality of planning of LTCFs benefiting residents and caregivers alike.

Spatial characteristics and influential mechanism of the coupling coordination degree of urban accessibility and human development index in China.

To optimize the accessibility algorithm and quantify the potential relationship between human development index and traffic comprehensive accessibility system, this paper analyzed the spatial distribution pattern of urban accessibility and human development index of highway, railway, and aviation transportation systems using data on highway, railway, and aviation schedules based on GIS spatial analysis method. Furthermore, the coupling degree between human development index and accessibility and its influence mechanism on the city level in China were explored based on the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis model. Results showed as follows: (1) Spatial distribution of human development index from high to low was gradually changing from east to west. The spatial distribution of urban accessibility of the three traffic systems had an evident "Hu Huanyong Line" effect. (2) The coordination degree of urban accessibility and human development index spread in a ladder mode. High coordination of cities in North and East China and the central Yangtze River region forms the spatial distribution of urban development circles connecting an urban development belt. (3) Railway connectivity and control value were highly sensitive to human development index in cities where serious imbalance between accessibility and human development index. Highway connectivity and control value were highly sensitive to human development index in cities where high coordination between accessibility and human development index. The results would provide scientific references for spatial planning of transportation, economic, and social development of cities and coordinated development of urban agglomeration in China.