Social aspects

Social aspects

Social aspects are ...

Description

Design features of urban infrastructure influence citizens’ perception of the risk that infrastructure is at, or that it is assumed to mitigate or prevent. Design features also influence the general perception of criticality of that infrastructure. These two are important aspects of security culture. While urban sociology and socially concerned urban planning have gained much insight on environments such as "pleasant", "calming" or "exciting", "secure environments" have been addressed to a far lesser extent.

Secure environments facilitate the meeting of social needs by help of built infrastructure. Commonly, societal needs are addressed in is goal for::urban planning (such as need for recreation area, need for public transport improvement, need for bike routes, need for social gathering places and culture resources, special needs of vulnerable groups (such as children, disabled, elderly etc.). Many of them have security/safety relevance. Examples are:

1. Lighting of or video installation at urban spaces, bus stops, etc., which helps reducing crime rates, robberies, sexual harassment etc.
2. According standardized constructions to avoid chemical leaching from/around industrial sites and to avoid substance harassment and environmental pollution;
3. According physical protection of urban rivers and channels (also sewage) to avoid flooding /overflowing;
4. Child friendly construction norms and standards for schools and preschools to avoid injuries (e.g. safety areas near streets);
5. Additional parking houses/garages to provide for increased drivers’ needs – improvement of ventilation systems to control exhaust fumes and avoid health problems;
6. Counter-terrorism design measures to avoid terrorist attempts;
7. etc.

The "socio-spatial perspective"

How built social infrastructure and society interact is for example addressed by the socio-spatial perspective in urbanism research.

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