Paper presented at Walk21-VI Everyday Walking Culture, The 6th International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century, September

22-23 2005, Zurich, Switzerland www.walk21.ch www.walk21.com

Evaluating urban ambience an investigation into quantifying the qualities of the walkable city
Paul Osmond University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Contact details Paul Osmond Environment Unit University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney 2052, Australia Email: p.osmond@unsw.edu.au

Abstract
Positive ambience represents a significant indicator of the liveable city; in turn liveability is an important dimension of sustainability. Qualities such as permeability (alternative ways through an environment), legibility (which makes a place comprehensible to an observer moving through it), and diversity of visual experience have particular resonance for the pedestrian. Insofar as these qualities reflect the shape of urban form, which is measurable, their physical expression may be evaluated and compared between areas of differing morphology. This paper presents a case study from Sydney, Australia which compares a densely built-up, walkable inner-city neighbourhood with an outer suburban site from the perspective of the urban design qualities outlined above, based on the evaluation of several measurable morphological parameters associated with those qualities. Space syntax analysis is employed to determine the configurational metrics of integration (depth of the street network), street connectivity, and intelligibility (correlation between connectivity and integration). Fractal geometry is applied to calculate the fractal dimension (the degree of selfsimilarity) of street networks and views from the vantage point of the pedestrian, which can provide insights into legibility and visual diversity. The measured values of these physical properties are compared to estimate the relative performance of the study sites in terms of the associated urban design qualities, and on the basis of this gap analysis some practical design interventions are proposed to achieve a more pedestrian-friendly suburban environment.

Biography Paul Osmond manages the UNSW Environment Unit, which runs a range of programs focusing on campus greening, applied research and consultancy, community outreach and related teaching activities. With a background in environmental management and urban design practice, he is currently researching the relationships between urban morphology, metabolism and ambience.

Evaluating urban ambience an investigation into quantifying the qualities of the walkable city
Paul Osmond University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Introduction Design of built form may be understood as a process of structuring relationships (Manzini, 1990) among the various elements which comprise the city, and between its physical features and its human occupants. Good city form (Lynch, 1981) wholeness (Alexander et al., 1977; 1987) or responsive environments (Bentley et al., 1985) imply effective relationships amongst these elements, reflected in widely acknowledged urban design qualities such as permeability, legibility, coherence, diversity and adaptability. These qualities are crucial to the development of a walking culture. Moreover, a walkable city is not only more liveable (socially/culturally sustainable), but also more environmentally sustainable through reducing material and energy throughputs from motorised transport and urban sprawl. Urban design qualities as conventionally articulated (i.e. predominantly visual) are a subset of the more inclusive domain of urban ambience, which arises from the observer/participants perception and interpretation of the interactions between urban form, natural phenomena and human activities (Dupagne and Hgron, 2002), including factors such as microclimate and thermal comfort, soundscape and ambient light. While these aspects have a major influence on pedestrian preferences and behaviour, this paper focuses on the multidimensional urban design attributes of permeability, legibility and visual diversity. The subjective interpretation of these three qualities varies across cultures, times and individual tastes. However, insofar as they reflect the physical configuration of urban form, which is measurable, the degree to which they are expressed in a given situation may be evaluated and compared between areas of differing morphology. Methods for assessing how the city looks, works and feels range from the phenomenological to the highly abstract and mathematical. To be of practical value to the urban designer, assessment methods should be fast and frugal, minimising data collection and processing requirements and the need for specialist interpretation. A further criterion for this project is that the selected qualities or more accurately, their physical expression as urban form can be quantified. Space syntax and fractal analysis were identified as meeting the above criteria. A comparative analysis of two study sites in Sydney, Australia was carried out to determine the space syntax values of integration, connectivity, and intelligibility of street networks, and the fractal dimensions of street networks and street-level views. The results are compared to estimate the relative performance of the sites in relation to the identified urban design qualities. On the basis of this gap analysis some practical design interventions are suggested towards more pedestrian-friendly suburbs.

Selection of study sites The study sites were selected as representative of specific urban structural units, a typological construct developed to facilitate assessment of the metabolism of urban systems (Pauleit and Duhme, 1998). USUs are defined as areas with physiognomically homogeneous character, which are marked in the built-up area by a characteristic formation of buildings and open spaces (Wickop, 1998: 50). Applications of the USU method have been restricted to evaluation of biophysical aspects of the urban environment; however, the intent of its originators was to provide a framework to address a broader range of planning and design questions (Pauleit, pers. comm.). Locations are shown on the map of greater Sydney below.

S2

S1

Figure 11: The study sites S1 = Paddington, S2 = Quakers Hill. Site 1 comprises a 0.53 km2 section of the suburb of Paddington, located 2 km from the Sydney CBD. The 1.5 km2 suburb has 11,200 inhabitants, 6353 dwellings, and a residential building density of 42.35 per hectare. 56.2% of dwellings are terrace (row) houses, 28.4% flats and only 2.2% detached (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). Paddington represents a largely intact example of 19th Century urban development, based on a dominant typology of one- to three-storey terraced buildings on narrow lots. The street network is variable and intricate, the western half characterised by short, angled narrow streets, while to the east (developed during the later C19th) alternating wider streets and rear lanes are laid out in a rectangular grid. Beneath a superficial homogeneity of built form is a diversity of detail, reflecting the suburbs phases of development. The predominantly residential matrix includes a mix of shops and hotels, commercial buildings and a few remaining light industrial and warehouse buildings. Landscape features include pocket parks, mature street trees, public open space created by street closures, residential and institutional gardens and several significant sports/open space reserves outside the study area (Woollahra Municipal Council, 1999).
1

Source: Department of Lands, Panorama Avenue, Bathurst 2795, www.lands.nsw.gov.au

Figure 22: Paddington study site.

Figure 32: Quakers Hill study site.

Source: Department of Lands, Panorama Avenue, Bathurst 2795, www.lands.nsw.gov.au

Site 2 comprises a 1.9 km2 section of the suburb of Quakers Hill, 38 kilometres from the Sydney CBD. Quakers Hill has a population of 22,800 housed in 7504 dwellings spread across 9.9 km2, giving a residential building density of 7.58 dwellings per hectare, less than one fifth that of Paddington. 78.6% of dwellings are detached houses; only 0.4% are flats, with most of the remainder being townhouses (ABS, 2001). The study site was developed in the 1990s and the street network follows the conventional feeder road/cul-de-sac pattern of outer subdivisions of the era. Large one and two-storey brick residences, set well back from the street with sizeable front and rear yards and substantial garages typify the built form. A small number of school, religious and community buildings complete the picture. Open space elements include remnant native woodland reserves, extensive cleared floodways along former watercourses, sporting facilities and school grounds. Few street trees have been planted, and are not yet mature. Methodology Space syntax is based on the premise that the architectural structuring of space provides the material preconditions for social patterns of movement, encounter and avoidance (Hillier and Hanson, 1984). Space syntax analysis aims to describe configured, inhabited spaces in a way which recognises and articulates their underlying social logic. The two primary tools are the convex and axial maps. The former is used particularly for analysing building plans, and is generated by partitioning a given spatial setting into the least set of fattest convex spaces. The latter represents the least set of straight lines which passes through each convex space of a building or area of urban fabric, corresponding to the set of most efficient potential paths through an environment which enable accrual of maximum visual information (Zimring and Dalton, 2003). The object of analysis is the abstracted graph of the axial map, as the intent is to describe the topology rather than the geometry of the configured space. A variety of metrics may be derived from the graph (Hillier and Hanson, 1984; Hillier, 1996), of which three are considered here: Connectivity is a local measure of how many nodes are connected to each node (e.g. how many intersections a given street has). Integration measures the degree to which a node is integrated with or segregated from the system as a whole (global integration) or from a partial system consisting of nodes a set number of steps away (local integration), based on calculation of the nodes depth, i.e. the number of steps from it to all other nodes. Intelligibility is a measure of the correlation between the connectivity and global integration values for each node in the system, giving an insight into the global structure of an environment through interpretation of its local properties.

Axial maps of Paddington and Quakers Hill were drawn as layers on plans of the respective street networks and analysed using Depthmap software (Turner, 2004), to generate connectivity and integration data for each street. Intelligibility measures were derived from connectivity vs. integration scattergrams for the two sites. Space syntax concentrates on extrinsic (configurational, topological) properties rather than intrinsic properties of shape, scale, texture etc, based on the theoretical justification that the interrelations among elements are more important than properties of individual spaces to the structure and functioning of the system (Hillier and Hanson, 1998). However, it is argued here that combining

analysis of both aspects can provide a more complete description of urban form. Fractal analysis may help shed light on intrinsic properties such as visual diversity, and properties which share intrinsic and extrinsic aspects, such as legibility (Cooper, 2000). Fractals are objects of irregular spatial form, whose irregularity is (usually) repeated across many scales (Mandelbrot, 1977). This irregularity is measured by the objects fractal dimension, interpreted as a measure of the extent to which an object fills the space in which it exists. A number of city-wide features exhibit fractal properties, for example city edges, land use boundaries and road and rail networks (Batty and Longley, 1994). At the building scale, fractal geometry has been used both to evaluate and simulate architectural design (Bovill, 1996). Research at the urban design meso scale has focussed on factors such as street networks, vistas, urban skylines and building elevations (Cooper, 2000; 2003). Only mathematically defined entities display true fractality, i.e. are self-similar across infinite scales. Real world objects demonstrate fractal characteristics over more limited scales, so measurement methods must allow for upper and/or lower cut-off points to focus on the scales relevant to the particular object. Box counting (Bovill, 1996) provides one means of achieving this. A grid with an upper limit mesh size is superimposed on an image, and the number of grid squares containing some of the image is counted. The process is repeated at increasingly smaller scales to the lower cut-off point and the results averaged over the selected range of scales. This project investigates the fractality of street networks, and digital images of typical views within the study sites. The photographs were taken at a 30o angle from the footpath towards the opposite side of the street. A digital camera with 50 mm lens allowed a viewing angle of 46o, which approximates that of the human eye (Bovill, 1996). Rectangular grids (Paddington: 100 m; Quakers Hill: 200 m) were superimposed over drawings of the street layouts. Photos were taken from footpath locations nearest to the points where the grid intersections fell on or within 10 m of a street, giving statistically representative samples of 29 images of Paddington and 21 of Quakers Hill. Figures 4 and 5 show the street network images used in the fractal analysis, with photo locations added in red. The proprietary software Benoit 1.3 (TruSoft International, 2004) was used to analyse the street network data. However, as photo analysis in Benoit 1.3 is subject to significant background noise necessitating complex pre-processing (Cooper, 2000), the shareware program Fractop (Weymouth, 2003), which incorporates automatic noise reduction, was used to analyse the photographs. Figure 4: Paddington street layout with locations of digital images.

Figure 5: Quakers Hill street layout with image locations (note relative scale).

Results Figures 6 11 depict the axial maps of Paddington and Quakers Hill, illustrating relative connectivity, global integration (Rn) and integration-3 (R3) values for each street (highest in red, lowest in blue). Rn measures the mean depth of a street (number of turns required) from all other streets in the system; R3 measures the same property with reference to all streets up to three turns distant.

Figure 6: Paddington connectivity.

Figure 7: Quakers Hill connectivity.

Figure 8: Paddington Rn.

Figure 9: Quakers Hill Rn.

Figure 10: Paddington R3.

Figure 11: Quakers Hill R3.

Numerical analysis indicates significantly higher connectivity and integration values for Paddington compared to Quakers Hill (Paddington: connectivity mean = 3.956, Rn mean = 1.275; Quakers Hill: connectivity mean = 2.531, Rn mean = 0.966). High Rn values correlate well with observed vehicular and (in Paddington) pedestrian movement. The most integrated lines (in red in Figures 8 and 9) coincide with the main vehicle routes. Globally, Quakers Hill exhibits a more ringy structure, reflecting the hierarchy of roads distributing commuter traffic to the segregated residential culs-de-sac, and providing access to

public reserves and a primary school. Global integration values for Paddington highlight the differences between the older, more organic western part of the suburb and the grid-based eastern section which is both significantly more connected (connectivity mean = 3.864) and integrated (Rn mean = 1.633) than the study site as a whole. While the R3 map of Quakers Hill reinforces the ringiness evident in Figure 9, the R3 map of Paddington suggests much stronger local integration in the western half of the site than is evident from the global values. The central area of Paddington the retail/services core is also more integrated than the global average. Scattergrams of connectivity vs. integration (Figures 8 and 9) show the correlation between local and system-wide properties, i.e. the intelligibility of the system. The results suggest both sites are only moderately intelligible, Quakers Hill slightly more than Paddington (Table 2).
20 18 16 14 12 10 4 8 6 4 2 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 2 1 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 9 8

y =7.8607x - 6.068 R2 =0.4537 Connect ivit y mean =3.9563 Int egr at ion mean =1.2752

7 6 5

y =5.2263x - 2.5169 R2 =0.4951 Connect ivit y mean =2.5310 Int egr at ion mean =0.9659

I n t e g r a t i on

I n t e g r a t i on

Figure 12: Connectivity vs. global integration Paddington.

Figure 13: Connectivity vs. global integration Quakers Hill.

Given that Paddington is regarded as an inherently walkable suburb, these results may seem odd. However, R2 gauges the extent to which local properties predict global structure it is a measure of predictability, not walkability. For example, the connectivity vs. integration graph for the griddy eastern part of Paddington shows significantly greater intelligibility (R2 = 0.6028). Although eastern Paddington may be easier for visitors to navigate, it is no more or less walkable than the west. Further, if the two sites are similarly intelligible, the question is to whom? A motorist and a pedestrian will perceive this differently, since the rate at which visual information is presented is a function of the distance travelled in a given time. As the mean axial length of the Quakers Hill street network is nearly twice that of Paddington, it seems logical to suggest that the Quakers Hill value reflects intelligibility from the motorists perspective, as distinct from Paddingtons pedestrian viewpoint (Table 1). Table 1: Summary of comparative space syntax indices for the study sites.

No. of nodes 229 Paddington Quakers Hill 113 Site

Mean axial length (m) 113.9 224.5

Mean connectivity 3.956 2.531

Mean Rn 1.275 0.966

Mean R3 1.864 1.262

Intelligibility 0.4537 0.4951

Table 2 sets out the fractal (box counting) dimension Db and associated metrics for the Paddington and Quakers Hill street networks. Table 2: Fractal dimensions, Paddington and Quakers Hill. Site Paddington Fractal dimension (Db) 1.708 1.778 1.623 1.556 1.643 1.518 Side length of largest box (m) 225 225 16 459 459 56 Side length of smallest box (m) 2.6 21 2.6 5.3 71 5.3 Number of boxes 18 10 8 18 8 10

Quakers Hill

Db is considered a synthetic measurement of overall street network complexity (Cooper, 2000), indicating the Paddington street network on average (bold text in Table 2) is significantly more complex than that of Quakers Hill. Both networks demonstrate multi-fractal characteristics, i.e. different fractal dimensions at different scales. Fractal analysis appears to have identified the fine structure of the networks for Paddington, the back alleys and pedestrian paths, and for Quakers Hill, the culs-de-sac (italics).

Figure 14: Paddington streetscape.

Figure 15: Quakers Hill streetscape.

The fractal dimensions of street-level views within the study areas are listed in Table 3. The difference between the data sets is significant at the 1% level. Cooper (2000) found fractal dimension, particularly for photographs of street-level vistas, to be a reliable indicator of relative visual diversity, based on a strong correlation between Db and qualitative judgements. The present results suggest that fractal analysis has achieved a realistic assessment of the relative visual

diversity of the two sites. Higher Db values appear to be associated with enclosure, presence of mature trees, building details and texture, and also parked cars, consistent with Coopers findings.

Table 3: Fractal dimensions of street-level views. PADDINGTON Image Db 1 1.683 2 1.840 3 1.618 4 1.871 5 1.789 6 1.579 7 1.601 8 1.839 9 1.695 10 1.922 11 1.775 12 1.860 13 1.686 14 1.867 15 1.774 Image Db 16 1.545 17 1.781 18 1.653 19 1.829 20 1.719 21 1.756 22 1.760 23 1.603 24 1.748 25 1.759 26 1.750 27 1.708 28 1.699 29 1.917 Mean = 1.746 SD = 0.100 QUAKERS HILL Image Db 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1.626 1.630 1.804 1.601 1.566 1.698 1.657 1.693 1.632 1.523 1.634 Image 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Db 1.731 1.546 1.440 1.568 1.657 1.649 1.726 1.745 1.649 1.578

Mean = 1.636 SD = 0.083

Discussion and conclusions How well do the quantitative metrics of space syntax and fractal analysis elucidate the qualitative characteristics of permeability, legibility and visual diversity which contribute to a walkable urban environment? An integrated system is one in which spaces are topologically close, implying good access (Lynch, 1981). Moreover, an integrated street network, particularly if it also shows relatively high connectivity, offers a variety of alternative ways through an environment (Bentley et al., 1985). Integration is strongly correlated with the presence of people (Haq, 2003) and observed movement of both pedestrians and vehicles (Penn, 2003). Thus space syntax would seem to provide a functional method for quantifying permeability, which further research could test against subjective user assessments of a range of urban spaces. The quantification of legibility is more complex. It is clearly not synonymous with intelligibility. Intelligibility assumes that cognition of small-scale spaces (e.g. as achieved by walking through a continuous, interconnected series of them) facilitates cognition of large-scale spaces (Jiang et al., 2000). Penn (2003) proposes that cognitive space how we grasp spatial configurations may in fact be topological rather than metric. Nevertheless, topology is only one factor underpinning legibility as an urban design quality. If a route is essentially a sequence of vistas and transition points which connect vistas, where new environmental information is gained (Haq, 2003), what kind and amount of information enables the user to perceive one urban environment as legible, and another not?

Lynchs classification of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks provides one acknowledged framework for assessing urban legibility (Lynch, 1960; 1981). More generally, Salingaros (1999) refers to the information field of urban space generated by surrounding surfaces building facades, pavements and local nodes such as trees and street furniture which define space visually, acoustically and through physical contact. From this perspective legibility is a function of optimising both the content and accessibility of information input either too much or too little information compromises legibility. The results of this study suggest that metric distance also has a role to play in explaining legibility. Mean axial length has been postulated as an indicator of the human scale of an urban space (Asami et al., 2001). If it is accepted that a pedestrians perception of what is human is based on the information field of the space in question, it is conceivable that there is an optimal or preferred range of axial length with respect to the amount and accessibility of information inherent in the surfaces visible within the pedestrians field of view. A more visually diverse environment without verging on the chaotic is more legible as well as more intrinsically stimulating than one in which all views are similar. Fractal analysis of street-level views appears to be a useful method for evaluating relative visual diversity, and by implication the level of interest and informational (as distinct from configurational) legibility. Other aspects being equal, an urban space where the view from the footpath is characterised by a relatively high fractal dimension should be more walkable. As noted in the introduction, the urban structural unit method is potentially extendable to planning and design applications outside the domain of urban metabolism. This study confirms that space syntax may offer a practical quantitative means of disaggregating structural units based on the configurational properties of the street network, as evidenced by the clear syntactical distinction between eastern and western Paddington. Application of space syntax and fractal analysis has enabled a comparative quantification of the urban design qualities of permeability and visual diversity, and tentatively, legibility (if both intelligibility and mean axial length are taken into account) for the two study sites. The results suggest Paddington is objectively more walkable than Quakers Hill, which tallies with observation and subjective experience. On the basis of these results, what can be done for Quakers Hill? Cardependent outer suburbs present an enormous challenge for walkability, let alone environmental sustainability. Even restricting the discussion to walkability demands a holistic planning and design response, incorporating inter alia mixed use development, diversity in housing density, provision of shade, adequate footpaths, seating and lighting. The following proposals are limited to the urban design qualities discussed in this paper; they are necessary, but by no means sufficient. Table 4: Some recommendations to improve walkability Quality to be enhanced Permeability Design intervention Introduce pedestrian links between existing streets, starting with spatially adjacent but topologically segregated culs-de-sac. (Interestingly, a number of informal pedestrian paths on vacant land and rights-of-way have appeared on the site, suggesting that pedestrians are making their own choices.)

Legibility

Visual diversity

Provide footpaths the majority of streets within the study site have only a single footpath and the culs-de-sac have none. Plant street trees for example plantings themed to the street hierarchy (cul-de-sac, feeder, main vehicle route) would markedly increase legibility. Encourage tree planting in residential front gardens. Encourage landmark buildings on suitable remaining undeveloped sites. Use different paving materials, colours and/or widths for footpaths according to the street hierarchy. Encourage variety of building types on remaining undeveloped sites. Install street furniture. Introduce public art in vacant land and open space reserves. Plant street trees, encourage tree planting in front gardens.

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