Prioritizing Micro-Scale Urban Renewal Through Behavioral Tracking and Participatory Mapping of Community Public Spaces

Summary

This protocol presents a mixed-methods framework integrating pedestrian trajectory tracking, participatory mapping, and multi-criteria evaluation to assess community public spaces and identify evidence-based urban renewal priorities.

Abstract

The effective renewal of community public spaces requires an integrated understanding of physical conditions and user experiences. However, conventional assessment approaches often separate behavioral observation from user perception. This protocol presents a mixed-methods framework for evaluating community public spaces by combining observed usage patterns, perceived environmental quality, and place-specific spatial feedback. The workflow includes physical site audits, repeated pedestrian observations, trajectory tracing, intercept surveys, and participatory mapping. These data streams are integrated within a weighted multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) framework to determine site-specific renewal priorities. To demonstrate the protocol, eight neighborhood public spaces were evaluated, generating 336 observation blocks, 240 intercept surveys, and 96 coded micro-spatial units. Behavioral indicators, including pedestrian count and trajectory complexity, were analyzed alongside subjective measures such as comfort and perceived safety. The representative findings demonstrate that renewal urgency cannot be determined by physical deterioration alone. Instead, high-priority sites were characterized by the convergence of intensive routine use, low perceived quality, and concentrated negative spatial feedback. This protocol provides urban researchers and planners with a reproducible and spatially grounded method for diagnosing public-space deficits and prioritizing targeted urban-renewal interventions.

Introduction

Historically, urban renewal was associated with large-scale, top-down redevelopment. Contemporary planning approaches, however, increasingly emphasize micro-scale and user-centered community regeneration. Within this context, community public spaces serve as primary environments for daily urban activity, accommodating movement, rest, and social interaction. Foundational urban theorists, including William H. Whyte and Jan Gehl, demonstrated that the social value of public space extends beyond physical infrastructure alone. Gehl’s distinction between “necessary” and “optional” activities further suggests that high pedestrian volume may refl....

Protocol

All methods involving human subjects were conducted in compliance with the institutional Ethics Committee guidelines at City University of Macau (Approval Number: PIOM771899). The research tools used in the protocol are listed in the Table of Materials.

1. Study site selection and preparation

1. Establish a typological matrix based on local morphological characteristics and demographic distributions. Select eight representative community public-space types, including a pocket park, neighborhood square, community garden, transit-edge plaza, waterfront walkway, street-corner resting space, senior act....

Results

The protocol generated a structured analytical dataset comprising eight monitored sites, 336 valid observation blocks, 240 completed intercept surveys, and 96 coded micro-spatial units. The retained analytical sample is summarized in Table 5 and Figure 4. All scheduled observation blocks were completed without statistical imputation.

Site ID

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Discussion

The analytical findings successfully demonstrate the operational viability and diagnostic sensitivity of the proposed mixed-methods approach. The primary objective of this protocol is to provide urban researchers and planners with a reproducible, mixed-methods framework capable of diagnosing public space performance by triangulating objective behavioral tracking, subjective perception ratings, and georeferenced participant mapping. The representative results validate the core premise of this methodology: high routine use.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Intercept survey questionnaire	Self-prepared by authors	Structured questionnaire form	Collection of demographic, perception, and renewal-demand data
Microsoft Excel	Microsoft Corporation	Microsoft Excel 365	Spreadsheet validation and data organization
Participatory mapping sheet	Self-prepared by authors	Segment-coded mapping form	Recording positive and negative spatial feedback
Printed base maps	Self-prepared by authors	Site-coded field maps	Pedestrian trajectory tracing and participatory mapping
Python	Python Software Foundation	Version 3.11	Data cleaning, aggregation, and statistical processing
QGIS	QGIS Development Team	Version 3.34	Base map verification and trajectory digitization