Abstract
Vitality and Urbanity, as conditions for economic vibrancy and social diversity, are central objectives of policies for urban sustainable development. Vitality and urbanity are herein defined as distinctive urban qualities emerging from the combination of diverse practices, integrated into urban form and influencing the sense of place. The proposed study investigates the components of urban form that influence urbanity and vitality. A broad literature review on the formalization and operationalization of the concepts of urbanity and vitality is presented. The comparative analysis of selected articles investigates five aspects: i) conceptualization of urbanity and vitality; ii) identification of factors impacting urbanity and vitality; iii) definition of indicators and protocols; iv) co-relations among urban form factors and levels of vitality and urbanity and v) relevance and impact of investigated methodologies on planning processes. This study aims to define the theoretical foundation of a methodology that utilizes space syntax and spatial analysis techniques to address three issues related to sustainable urban development: clear representation of conditions of urbanity, understanding of criticalities and formulation of policies and strategies for reinforcing vibrant urban spaces. The proposed theoretical framework thus contributes to the application of the Geodesign paradigm to the urban realm by supporting the essential understanding of the spatial culture of a place.
This paper is the result of the joint work of the authors. ‘Abstract’ ‘Methodology’, ‘Results’ and ‘Definition of key aspects’ were written jointly by the authors. Alfonso Annunziata wrote the ‘Introduction’ and ‘Concepts and methods’. Chiara Garau wrote the ‘Discussion’ and ‘Conclusions’.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the project “Space Syntax and Multicriteria Analysis for the Measurement of Walkability in the Build Environment”, founded by the programme “Bando 2019 Mobilità Giovani Ricercatori (MGR)”, financed by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (under the Regional Law of 7 August 2007, n. 7 “Promotion of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in Sardinia”). This study was also supported by the MIUR) through the project “WEAKI TRANSIT: WEAK-demand areas Innovative TRANsport Shared services for Italian Towns (Project protocol: 20174ARRHT_004; CUP Code: F74I19001290001), financed with the PRIN 2017 (Research Projects of National Relevance) programme. We authorize the MIUR to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes, notwithstanding any copyright notations thereon. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the MIUR.
This study was also supported by the project ‘Investigating the relationships between knowledge-building and design and decision-making in spatial planning with geodesign’, founded by the Foundation of Sardinia and Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Fondazione di Sardegna – Convenzione triennale tra la Fondazione di Sardegna e gli Atenei Sardi Regione Sardegna 2018).
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Annunziata, A., Garau, C. (2021). A Literature Review on the Assessment of Vitality and Its Theoretical Framework. Emerging Perspectives for Geodesign in the Urban Context. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021. ICCSA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12958. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87016-4_23
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