Prioritizing Micro-Scale Urban Renewal Through Behavioral Tracking and Participatory Mapping of Community Public...

Area of Science:

• Urban Planning
• Environmental Psychology
• Geographic Information Science

Background:

• Effective renewal of community public spaces necessitates integrating physical conditions with user experiences.
• Conventional assessments often silo behavioral observation from user perception, limiting holistic understanding.
• A gap exists in methods that spatially integrate objective usage data with subjective user feedback for public space evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel mixed-methods framework for evaluating community public spaces.
• To combine observed usage patterns, perceived environmental quality, and spatial feedback for a comprehensive assessment.
• To develop a reproducible, spatially grounded protocol for diagnosing public-space deficits and prioritizing renewal interventions.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods framework integrating physical site audits, pedestrian observations, trajectory tracing, intercept surveys, and participatory mapping.
• Data streams were synthesized using a weighted multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) framework.
• Eight neighborhood public spaces were evaluated, generating extensive observational and survey data.

Main Results:

• Renewal urgency is not solely determined by physical deterioration; it requires a convergence of factors.
• High-priority sites exhibited intensive routine use coupled with low perceived quality and negative spatial feedback.
• Behavioral indicators (e.g., pedestrian count, trajectory complexity) and subjective measures (e.g., comfort, safety) provided complementary insights.

Conclusions:

• The developed protocol offers a reproducible and spatially grounded method for urban researchers and planners.
• It enables a more accurate diagnosis of public-space deficits by integrating objective and subjective data.
• The findings underscore the importance of user experience and spatial feedback in prioritizing urban renewal efforts.