Effect of counterterrorism on public space performance: A syntactical analysis of Al-kadhimiya city

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of counterinsurgency strategies on the efficiency and performance of public spaces within the context of Al-Kadhimiya city. The methodological approach relied on space syntax-Depthmap X to perform a syntactical comparative analysis of two morphological phases for the years 2003 and 2007 of the case study. These two phases represent the spatial accessibility before and after the application of various counterterrorism strategies. The syntactical analysis encompassed the values of integration, connectivity, choice, and control within the spatial system in order to analyse the networking attributes of public spaces. The analysis results indicated that the counterterrorism strategies have reduced the spatial networking and accessibility of public spaces within Al-Kadhimiya city.