Open and civic space
Open and civic space is a type of Urban object that encompasses the public realm, urban squares and public parks and recreation space. It is a sub category of the urban object type Social facilities, open and civic space
Contents
Description
Open space, for the purposes of urban Securipedia, is broken into the following archtypes:
| Type of open and civic space | Description | Icon |
|---|---|---|
| Public realm | the public realm is defined as public space including streets, pathways, parks, publicly accessible open spaces and any public/civic building and facilities. |  |
| Urban squares | A planned open public space, usually rectangular in shape with clearly defined borders. These locations usually have significant footfall as public meeting places, concerts, markets or public rallies. |  |
| Public parks and recreation space | Recreational space in the urban environment encompasses those areas which are publicly accessible and conducive to citizens refreshing their mind or body through passive or active activity. Recreation space can broadly be grouped as formal (e.g. playing fields, tennis courts, etc), informal (e.g. city parks, linear river walks, incidental open space within residential schemes, etc) and children's playing space (e.g. playgrounds). |  |
Hereinafter, wherever an aspect specific to one of these archetypes is described, the corresponding icon will be displayed.
Functions
Social
- Contribute to community health and well being – physical and mental health and quality of life;
- Enhance the public realm;
- Passive and active recreation, including relaxation and children’s play;
- Role in reducing crime and vandalism, and in developing stable communities;
- All-inclusive: regardless of age, gender, mobility, ethnic origin or social class;
- Social contact and integration, not least in underprivileged neighbourhoods.
Economic
Providing the urban environment with goods and services such as recreation, tourism, cultural inheritage, food, drinking water, and safety against natural threats, open and civic space are major contributors to the public well being. Hence, open and civic space create a positive economic impact such as:
- A positive contribution to property value of land and real estate; e.g. to attract business and industry to a region;
- Avoided costs for public authorities due to the environmental services such as waste water disposal, filtering of drinking water, etc.
- Economic spin-off of recreation and tourism.
- Jobs for the management and the upkeep of the open space.
Moreover, open and civic space can be regarded as a public asset that in time will increase in value, in contrast to many other urban developments. The economic impacts can be estimated with the help of economic tools/techniques. However, some of these benefits are not easy to measure though and one easily double-counts effects.
Most of the security threats are crime related (e.g., vandalism, assault, robbery, etc.). Crime generates costs in anticipation of crime (e.g. locks, surveillance, etc.), as a consequence of crime (loss of property) and in response to crime (police investigation, legal system, etc.). Indirectly, crime has (amongst others) an impact on, for example, the local real estate value in the area around the open and civic space[1].
Security measures have an economic impact (in terms of costs and benefits) which can be considerable. Another way to enhance security is by design, e.g. the designing out approach, or as an aspect of sustainable design, which seeks a balanced consideration of social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects in urban design[2]. In general, these measures demand larger investments than traditional security measures, but at the same time they are able to avoid future costs due to the long-term prevention of crime.
SP: Important attractor for major enterprise is a quality urban environment (for staff, etc) – enhancement and attracting business and industry;
|
Mobility
- Good access encourages use of facilities – public transport is encouraged;
- Align the scale of open space with the level of attraction and accessibility (e.g. a large regional park should be proximate to a major transport interchange to facilitate use and visitation by large numbers);
- For sports stadia – large crowds travelling by all modes.
Safety
- Navigation routes between urban objects;
- Meeting points;
- Passive surveillance of public areas;
- Passive surveillance of urban objects.
Security Issues
- What are the security issues an urban planner needs to consider when assessing or planning open/civic space or social facilities?
- What issues are unique to each representative urban object?
Measures
- What can the urban planner do to enhance the safety of new/existing objects under this category?
Footnotes and references
- ↑ There can be a negative effect on real estate value, especially for single family dwellings due to the potential negative externalities that may surround open and civic space, for example, criminal activities in the evenings in public parks. Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_open_space
- ↑ Including fundamental issues such as how affordability can be reconciled with a secure/safe place to live, and how an imbalance between affluence and deprivation can be prevented.
MAP
<websiteFrame> website=http://securipedia.eu/cool/index.php?concept=<replace with pagename> width=100% border=0 scroll=auto align=middle </websiteFrame>
<headertabs/>
