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Spatial transformation through pedestrian dynamics
Last modified: 2015-08-27
Abstract
Introduction
The current work consists of the empirical part of a research that deals with pedestrian movement. The case study presented is a central square in the city of Athens, namely an open-air public space concentrating diverse samples of uses and users. This is the presentation of a work-in-progress phase of a broader research setting focus on adaptive aspects of public space and crowd behaviour as these can be intertwined during the design process.
Human crowd behaviour in realtime conditions deviates to an important degree depending on time, place, stress level, people age, and various social and psychological factors. These fluctuations in group behaviour can frequently bear the characteristics of observable features such as interpersonal space, the fluidity of formation, energy level, distribution uniformity, the style of interpersonal interactions (Lee et al, 2007).
Methodological Procedures
The selected town square is located in the city centre and constitutes a landmark and point of interest with frequent use during day and night. Its size in spite of its significant role in socio-political and commercial activities is relatively moderate compared to other European town squares. Observation data have been collected through video footage, diary log, test walks, counting, mapping, tracing. Commonly the automated extraction of data from videos is applied on controlled groups of pedestrians, carrying wearable markers. Nevertheless, during real life scenarios such markers do not exist and, therefore, such approaches are impracticable and manual extraction is required. The basic form of data collection and analysis was completed through manual procedures as the elements under investigation were gathered and compared in a selective manner. Main findings focus on the parameters and measurements that can be filtered and assembled in order to lay the foundations for a simulation model that enhances the creative process. Within this scope, the field study addresses the issue of identifying the characteristics that delineate pedestrian behaviour and could be included in the calibration of the simulation counterpart of the respective study area. Measurements of movement preferences such as walking speed, position preferences, and interpersonal distances can mostly be accurate from studies that focus on uncluttered environments. Therefore, these magnitudes can be acquired from pertinent literature, incorporating adjustments.
Studying a crowd of pedestrians, one might collect the impression of random movement, but closer observation reveals certain patterns and despite the confusing appearance of individual pedestrian behaviour, several regularities can be identified (Helbing et al, 2001; Willis et al, 2002). In this case, the spatial structure of the square and the copious infrastructure that exists in it while hinders the study of the above, provides a conducive field of study for other observations referring mostly to crowd dynamics and spatial patterns associated with personal, situational and environmental factors that characterise the context in which pedestrian movement takes place. There are infrastructure elements, predefined by the square's design, which prevail over others and are forming distinct paths, as well as pathways that have less clearly been imposed by the pedestrians and their scheme of movement.
In this work, pedestrian movement is analysed under natural conditions, trying to decipher the walking patterns that are induced from the spatial arrangements of the square.
Results
The current arrangement of the square is being studied from the viewpoint of pedestrian movement which can be considered as one of the most important aspects of human behaviour in a public space. There are features delineating the square’s design as well as traits describing human movement that appear to be interlinked, stressing the need for similarly dynamic and adaptive architectural formations. Main goal of this research phase is to identify: i) characteristics of the square’s spatial formation and allocation, ii) conditions which are influenced by the integrated urban infrastructure of the square, iii) regularities and peculiarities of pedestrian movement that can be stirred by the aforementioned.
So far the anticipated results indicate that several insights that derive from empirical literature can be substantiated throughout the observation data of the respective public area and these can roughly be summarised in the following:
Discussion
Within the field of computational creativity, theoretical emphasis is frequently given to one counterpart or another of an established duality: either studying and formalising the human creative process through analysis, or producing new systems, which exhibit such notions of creativity through synthesis. Nonetheless, extending this founded dichotomy, comes the use of computational systems to provoke augment and reshape the human creative experience through a succession of ongoing interactions (Jones, et al., 2009). In architectural design, a constant dialogue is assumed between the designer and the user, conveying needs to design guidelines and building instructions. In order to diminish the degree of obscurity that such a process entails, a level of impartiality is demanded, reflecting magnitudes in the place of intuitions while maintaining notwithstanding the integrity of creativity. Throughout a process that encompasses human behaviour, taking into count that the latter is examined in movement patterns and habituation idiosyncracies, spatial structure can be assigned functions and geometries as well as meet diverse programmatic specifications by conforming to the evaluation of users’ accomodation, whose properties can be studied in virtual context or from pertinent field research. The interpretation of space constitutes a difficult task due to the lack of precise verbal expression of perceptive properties of spatial arrangements. As Hillier (1998) explains, this is aggravated by the fact that non-discursive spatial attributes relate to generic features and thus providing openness to multiple interpretations and correlations, adequate to a wide range of possible suggestions for spatial adjustments. It is not assumed that by incorporating behavioural attributes of the users in the design process the interlinking physical form and generic function can automatically be demystified and be rendered as a straight forward process. However, the proposed approach is based on the hypothesis that these difficulties can be incorporated abiding by the users’ guidelines, as these can be defined through the users’ spatial behaviour, namely focusing on movement behaviour. Following this hypothesis, the goal of creating smart cities and adaptive environments entails the integration of information in constant flux.
The intention of this research is the development of a method that bridges the perception of space and the deployment of architectural design. In accordance with the influential factors, the collected data are thus, selectively presented in an attempt to assemble the behavioural traits that contribute to how pedestrians negotiate public urban spaces and examine how the factors can enhance the design process. The analysis of the field results is conveyed accordingly, envisaging of an approach that takes modification into account throughout the whole design process while trying to abide by the pedestrians’ movement as well as meet their needs.
The current work consists of the empirical part of a research that deals with pedestrian movement. The case study presented is a central square in the city of Athens, namely an open-air public space concentrating diverse samples of uses and users. This is the presentation of a work-in-progress phase of a broader research setting focus on adaptive aspects of public space and crowd behaviour as these can be intertwined during the design process.
Human crowd behaviour in realtime conditions deviates to an important degree depending on time, place, stress level, people age, and various social and psychological factors. These fluctuations in group behaviour can frequently bear the characteristics of observable features such as interpersonal space, the fluidity of formation, energy level, distribution uniformity, the style of interpersonal interactions (Lee et al, 2007).
Methodological Procedures
The selected town square is located in the city centre and constitutes a landmark and point of interest with frequent use during day and night. Its size in spite of its significant role in socio-political and commercial activities is relatively moderate compared to other European town squares. Observation data have been collected through video footage, diary log, test walks, counting, mapping, tracing. Commonly the automated extraction of data from videos is applied on controlled groups of pedestrians, carrying wearable markers. Nevertheless, during real life scenarios such markers do not exist and, therefore, such approaches are impracticable and manual extraction is required. The basic form of data collection and analysis was completed through manual procedures as the elements under investigation were gathered and compared in a selective manner. Main findings focus on the parameters and measurements that can be filtered and assembled in order to lay the foundations for a simulation model that enhances the creative process. Within this scope, the field study addresses the issue of identifying the characteristics that delineate pedestrian behaviour and could be included in the calibration of the simulation counterpart of the respective study area. Measurements of movement preferences such as walking speed, position preferences, and interpersonal distances can mostly be accurate from studies that focus on uncluttered environments. Therefore, these magnitudes can be acquired from pertinent literature, incorporating adjustments.
Studying a crowd of pedestrians, one might collect the impression of random movement, but closer observation reveals certain patterns and despite the confusing appearance of individual pedestrian behaviour, several regularities can be identified (Helbing et al, 2001; Willis et al, 2002). In this case, the spatial structure of the square and the copious infrastructure that exists in it while hinders the study of the above, provides a conducive field of study for other observations referring mostly to crowd dynamics and spatial patterns associated with personal, situational and environmental factors that characterise the context in which pedestrian movement takes place. There are infrastructure elements, predefined by the square's design, which prevail over others and are forming distinct paths, as well as pathways that have less clearly been imposed by the pedestrians and their scheme of movement.
In this work, pedestrian movement is analysed under natural conditions, trying to decipher the walking patterns that are induced from the spatial arrangements of the square.
Results
The current arrangement of the square is being studied from the viewpoint of pedestrian movement which can be considered as one of the most important aspects of human behaviour in a public space. There are features delineating the square’s design as well as traits describing human movement that appear to be interlinked, stressing the need for similarly dynamic and adaptive architectural formations. Main goal of this research phase is to identify: i) characteristics of the square’s spatial formation and allocation, ii) conditions which are influenced by the integrated urban infrastructure of the square, iii) regularities and peculiarities of pedestrian movement that can be stirred by the aforementioned.
So far the anticipated results indicate that several insights that derive from empirical literature can be substantiated throughout the observation data of the respective public area and these can roughly be summarised in the following:
- Walking preferences of pedestrians indicate a desired speed that corresponds to the most comfortable and thus, least energy-consuming, walking speed, providing that there is no need to reach the destination in haste.
- Pedestrian groups which are formed among acquainted individuals of certain familiarity tend to behave in similar manner to single entities of pedestrians.
- Density among pedestrians presents increased figures leading to decreased interpersonal distances when found in locations of special interest and attraction.
- Pedestrians appear to operate in an automated mode rather than pondering or expressing a specific behavioural strategy that reacts to a new situation.
- Detours or opposite movement to the desired direction seems to be worst case scenario for pedestrians and least favourable option even in cases of crowded areas, leading to the preference of direct and fast route for the predefined destination.
Discussion
Within the field of computational creativity, theoretical emphasis is frequently given to one counterpart or another of an established duality: either studying and formalising the human creative process through analysis, or producing new systems, which exhibit such notions of creativity through synthesis. Nonetheless, extending this founded dichotomy, comes the use of computational systems to provoke augment and reshape the human creative experience through a succession of ongoing interactions (Jones, et al., 2009). In architectural design, a constant dialogue is assumed between the designer and the user, conveying needs to design guidelines and building instructions. In order to diminish the degree of obscurity that such a process entails, a level of impartiality is demanded, reflecting magnitudes in the place of intuitions while maintaining notwithstanding the integrity of creativity. Throughout a process that encompasses human behaviour, taking into count that the latter is examined in movement patterns and habituation idiosyncracies, spatial structure can be assigned functions and geometries as well as meet diverse programmatic specifications by conforming to the evaluation of users’ accomodation, whose properties can be studied in virtual context or from pertinent field research. The interpretation of space constitutes a difficult task due to the lack of precise verbal expression of perceptive properties of spatial arrangements. As Hillier (1998) explains, this is aggravated by the fact that non-discursive spatial attributes relate to generic features and thus providing openness to multiple interpretations and correlations, adequate to a wide range of possible suggestions for spatial adjustments. It is not assumed that by incorporating behavioural attributes of the users in the design process the interlinking physical form and generic function can automatically be demystified and be rendered as a straight forward process. However, the proposed approach is based on the hypothesis that these difficulties can be incorporated abiding by the users’ guidelines, as these can be defined through the users’ spatial behaviour, namely focusing on movement behaviour. Following this hypothesis, the goal of creating smart cities and adaptive environments entails the integration of information in constant flux.
The intention of this research is the development of a method that bridges the perception of space and the deployment of architectural design. In accordance with the influential factors, the collected data are thus, selectively presented in an attempt to assemble the behavioural traits that contribute to how pedestrians negotiate public urban spaces and examine how the factors can enhance the design process. The analysis of the field results is conveyed accordingly, envisaging of an approach that takes modification into account throughout the whole design process while trying to abide by the pedestrians’ movement as well as meet their needs.
Keywords
Pedestrian movement; crowd behaviour; crowd analysis.
References
Helbing, D., Molnar, P., Farkas, I. J., & Bolay, K. (2001). Self-organizing pedestrian movement. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design , pp. 361-383.
Lee, K. H., Choi, M. G., Hong, Q., & Lee, J. (2007). Group Behavior from Video: A Data-Driven Approach to crowd simulation. Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGGRAPH / Eurographics symposium on Computer animation, (pp. 109-118).
Willis, A., Kukla, R., Kerridge, J. M., & Hine, J. (2002). Laying the foundations: the use of video footage to explore pedestrian dynamics in PEDFLOW. Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics , 181-186.
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