Project Portugal 2030

Summary

Urban safety is a plural concept that more than often has not been treated so. Directives of the Un-Habitat Safer Cities Agenda or the ISO Security and Resilience Standard approach it as a multi-dimensional problem, requiring a systematic response. Therefore, as a structural base (Obj. 1), I.PLACING aims to Integrate, by establishing in portuguese research (but replicable to other contexts), working practices for understanding, planning, designing and managing safer-cities between three departments: Criminology, Geography/Planning and Design. Such translational research is to be kick-started, tested and fine-tuned by the project partners, but then aims to overflow to connections with other stakeholders in the administration, police and public, and is meant to continue after the project’s lifespan. As a drive for research (Obj. 2), I.PLACING aims to produce an Interdisciplinary diagnosis, by considering the dynamics of the municipalities of Porto and Lisbon in general, and transit environments in particular, in 4 distinct pillars. The goal is to develop and implement a replicable, technologically-driven, spatial decision-support procedure for multi-domain, multi-scalar and multi-temporal diagnosis of urban insecurity and vulnerability, in order to respond to: How can insecurity patterns in cities / transit environments be explained based on the combination of objective insecurity (crime), subjective insecurity (fear of crime), socio-economic and morphological-design conditions of urban spaces? By assuming that such conditions are place-specific, variable at micro-scales and for distinct social-groups, it is expected that the research can uncover unprecedented information on environmental determinants for safety. This leads to two further operational objectives. The first, in direct support of the previous, aims to uncover How can Innovative geo-spatial and visual technologies be applied to combine big and small datasets and inform the understanding, design, management and usage of safe urban spaces? Therefore, Obj. 3 is concerned with the development of a dedicated web-GIS platform with interactive digital mapping derived from the information gathered in the 4 pillars. The platform aims to have the triple role of a) allowing spatial-statistical analysis; b) being a DST on which to discuss local diagnosis and scenarios of intervention with stakeholders; and c) be able to generate a publicly available by-product. Specifically tailored for transit environments, the goal of this app is to share with users some data of insecurity, user sentiments and activity patterns, as well as transit-specific safety information and alerts, based on location and historical data. Finally, Obj. 4 is to arrive at case-specific conclusions that can help develop innovative urban safety strategies, intervention proposals, and ultimately municipal actions plans, as instruments for social integration. The question it aims to answer is: How can urban and planning interventions in and around transit environments be designed to mitigate insecurity and facilitate cohesion and the integration of different social groups? Building on inclusive and participatory approaches, as well as the integration of scientific areas, it is expected that such proposals can both help improve city environments and assist citizens make safer and sustainable choices, thus leading to concrete changes in urban spaces and mitigate socio-spatial inequalities in their access and usage.