An evaluation of public spaces with the use of direct and remote methods

Abstract

Public spaces play many important roles and constitute a vital component of the urban fabric, in particular in towns with historical centers. Effective management of public space should be based on the results of qualitative assessments. The quality of public space is usually evaluated directly during field surveys. However, field methods require considerable effort and time, which is why a remote sensing method based on satellite images and the Street View technology was proposed in this paper. Two Polish towns were evaluated, and the results generated by the direct and the remote approach were compared. The assessment focused on public spaces which constitute public property and promote direct human interactions. Both methods produced highly similar results, which indicates that remote sensing is a suitable technique for assessing the quality of public spaces.