SPACE SYNTAX AS A TOOL TO MEASURE SAFETY IN SMALL URBAN PARKS—A CASE STUDY OF ROD EL FARAG PARK IN CAIRO, EGYPT

• Noha Ahmed Abd El AZIZ 

Author information

PhD and Associate Professor at Urban Design Department, Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University

History

Abstract

Decoding the relationship between crime and place has been the focus of researchers in both design and social fields for a few decades. Space syntax theory offers the possibility of examining the configuration characteristics of the environment and their potential influences on people’s activities and crime patterns; however, its implementation in landscape architecture has been limited. This study responds to such a gap by exploring the effectiveness of applying space syntax theory to predict safety levels in a park in Cairo, Egypt. depthmapX was used to analyze the spatial configuration of the park. Crime records from 2019 were collected through site observation and staff interviews, and analyzed using ArcGIS 10.3 software. Results indicated a strong correlation between space depth / integration / connectivity and crime pattern distribution. The park visibility graphs indicated the different impacts of vegetation (evergreen tree / deciduous trees) in summer and winter on visual connectivity and crime types. The research concluded that applying space syntax theory to landscape architecture is challenging; nevertheless, it represents a promising approach to predict committing crimes in urban parks, and the findings can be adopted to enhance park conceptual designs to achieve higher safety level.

Keywords

CPTED / Space Syntax / Cairo’s Parks / Safe Parks / depthmapX / Environmental Design

空间句法作为衡量小型城市公园安全性的工具——以埃及开罗罗德·艾尔·法拉格公园为例

• Noha Ahmed Abd El AZIZ 

作者信息 

开罗大学城市和区域规划学院城市设计系博士和副教授

历史 

摘要

几十年来，解码犯罪与场所之间的关系一直是设计和社会领域研究者关注的焦点。空间句法理论提供了检查环境的配置特征及其对人的活动和犯罪模式的潜在影响的可能性；然而，它在风景园林中的实施受到了限制。这项研究通过探索应用空间句法理论来预测埃及开罗一个公园的安全水平的有效性来应对这种差距。利用depthmapX对公园的空间形态进行分析。2019年的犯罪记录通过现场观察和工作人员访谈收集，并使用ArcGIS 10.3软件进行分析。结果表明，空间深度/整合/连通性与犯罪模式分布之间有很强的相关性。公园能见度图显示了夏季和冬季植被(常青树/落叶树)对视觉连通性和犯罪类型的不同影响。研究认为，将空间句法理论应用于风景园林是具有挑战性的；尽管如此，它代表了一种有希望的方法来预测城市公园中的犯罪，并且该发现可以被采用来增强公园概念设计以实现更高的安全水平。

关键词

CPTED / 空间语法 / 开罗的公园 / 安全公园 / 深度地图 / 环境设计

1 Introduction

  Over the past decades, the world has experienced an extraordinary increase in urbanization where many metropolitan cities, such as Cairo City, Egypt, are challenged to offer better, safer urban public open spaces like parks, which are wellacknowledged for their profound impact on the quality of the citizens’ life by providing places to relax, play, interact, and connect with nature, and to enhance the physical and psychological health of communities[1][2]. When analyzing the factors shaping the use of parks, studies concluded that safety is a prominent factor, controlling and maneuvering the users’ behaviors and attitudes. Lacking a sense of safety in urban spaces results in underuse, consequently hindering their benefits to the community[3]. So how to design safe parks? Achieving the sense of safety is not easy, as it is a very complicated feeling and combines a wide range of factors, including environmental cues, architectural, social, and ecological dimensions[4].

Environmental design is one of the approaches tackling safety in the urban context. It offers a platform to understand the interconnected relationship between physical environments and complex individual needs and behaviors. Such an approach advocates that crime can be reduced by designs that deter potential offenders from committing the crime[5]. The first attempts to examine the relationship between crime and the physical environment and other social factors started during 1830 ~ 1880 under the name of the “Cartographic School” in Europe[6]. From 1920s till 1940s, immerged the Social Disorganization Theory, a theory issued by the “Chicago School of Criminology,” and the work of Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay sought to understand why crime and delinquency rates were higher in some neighborhoods than others[5][7].

  In the 1960s, in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs declared the impact of wellplanned urban neighborhoods in endorsing public safety[8]. Another influential figure is Ray Jeffery of Florida State University, who introduced the concept of “Crime Prevention through Environmental Design” (CPTED) in his book with the same title, and identified how architectural and landscape design could discourage possible offenders from committing crimes[5]. Completing the rally, Oscar Newman’s book Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design claimed that properties with high degrees of ownership and control and making criminals exposed and vulnerable could discourage crime[5][9]. From the late 1970s to early 1980s, the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) theory was developed at the British Home Research Office; it suggested that more crime opportunities lead to more crimes[10]. Many others contributed to the development of CPTED. For example, Paul and Patricia Brantingham examined burglaries in Florida, USA and their relation to urban design[11]. James Wilson and George Kelling developed the “Broken Windows Theory,” and claimed that in order to prevent escalating crimes it is a must to repair and improve dilapidated urban sites to build a sense of control and ownership[5][11]. Nonprofitable organizations also joined the ride. For example, Safe Design Council in Canada has developed traditional environmental crime prevention approaches to reduce the public fear of crime by using architectural and landscape design[5]. More recent studies introduced geo-spatial technologies; for example, at Texas State University, USA they were applied to identify and predict crime. Other studies included using space syntax theory in studying the impact of the spatial configuration on crime in neighborhoods or cities. Nevertheless, applying space syntax theory in detecting crime in parks or small spaces is rare.  

    Therefore, this paper seeks to fill this gap by integrating CPTED concepts with space syntax theory to evaluate landscape design impact on crime appearance and typology in small urban parks.

1 引言

   在过去数十年间，全球的城市化进程十分迅速，包括埃及开罗在内的许多大都市区都面临着如何提供更好、更安全的城市开放空间（如公园）的挑战。城市公共开放空间可供人们休闲娱乐、亲近自然，有利于促进居民的身心健康[1][2]，对生活品质具有深远的影响。有研究指出，安全性是影响公园使用情况的主要因素之一，对使用者行为和态度起决定性作用，令人缺乏安全感的城市空间使用率较低[3]。那么，如何设计安全的公园？首先需要承认的是，实现这一目标并非易事，因为“安全感”是一种复杂的感受，受到环境诱因，以及建筑、社会和生态维度等多种因素影响[4]。

城市环境中的安全性可以借助环境设计手段来提升，在这个过程中，设计师需要了解物质环境与复杂的个人需求和行为之间的相互联系，从而通过设计来预防潜在的犯罪行为[5]。早在1830～1880年间，欧洲的“制图学派”已开始尝试研究犯罪与物质环境及其他社会因素之间的关系[6]。20世纪20～40年代，“芝加哥犯罪学派”提出的“社会解组论”，以及克利福德·R·肖和亨利·D·麦凯伊的研究关注于解释为何某些社区的犯罪率要高于其他社区[5][7]。

20世纪60年代，简·雅各布斯在《美国大城市的死与生》一书中强调，规划良好的城市社区有助于保障公共安全[8]。美国佛罗里达州立大学雷伊·杰弗里的著作《通过环境设计预防犯罪》所提出的同名理论（CP T ED）阐述了如何通过建筑和景观设计预防犯罪，亦颇具影响力[5]。奥斯卡·纽曼在《防御空间：通过城市设计预防犯罪》一书中进一步指出，地产所属权明确、管控得力且容易使犯罪者暴露或有所忌惮的地区的犯罪率较低[5][9]。

20世纪70年代末至80年代初，英国家庭研究办公室提出了“情境犯罪预防”理论，认为犯罪机会的增加导致了更多的犯罪[10]。另有许多其他研究为CPTED理论的进一步完善做出了贡献。例如，保罗与帕特丽夏·布伦蒂汉姆研究了佛罗里达州的盗窃案及其与城市设计的关系[11]；詹姆斯·威尔逊和乔治·科林提出了“破窗理论”，认为修复和改善残旧的城市空间以营造此处有人使用或占有的感觉是遏制犯罪率上升的必要举措[5][11]。非营利组织对此也有所贡献，例如，加拿大“安全设计委员会”提出了传统的环境犯罪预防方法，即在提高安全性的同时通过建筑和景观设计减少公众对犯罪的恐惧[5]。

近期的一些研究已开始将这一领域与地理空间技术相结合，例如美国德克萨斯州立大学运用该技术识别和预测犯罪；另一些研究则运用空间句法理论分析空间布局对邻里社区或城市中犯罪的影响，但基于该理论研究公园或小型空间中犯罪情况的案例相对不足。因此，本文试图通过将CPTED概念与空间句法理论相结合来填补这一空白，以评估景观设计对小型城市公园犯罪发生情况和犯罪类型的影响。