Identification of Local Accessibility Hubs and Leisure Amenities in Suburbanized Settlements: Case Study on the Suburban Zone of Prague

Abstract

This paper focuses on the topological definition of the system of public spaces in suburbanized settlements. It identifies hubs with the best local accessibility within the system of public open spaces using the Space syntax method and analyses their leisure amenities. The topological investigation was performed on the example of the suburban zone of Prague, the immediate surroundings of which have been developing dramatically in recent decades. About 44 rapidly developing settlements in this area were included in the study and their system of public open spaces was analyzed using the Integration HH metric and local accessibility hubs (those with the highest Integration HH value) were identified. Subsequently, the placement of existing leisure amenities with respect to these accessibility hubs was evaluated. Only 32% of leisure amenities were located in the accessibility hubs, which indicates an unfulfilled potential of locally well-accessible places. At the same time, the placement of leisure amenities within new developments in areas difficult-to-access from other parts of the settlement poses a threat to the integration of the population from these new developments with those from other parts of the settlement. This paper offers solutions for preventing these issues, for identifying natural centers with the best accessibility, and proposes possible measures for mitigation of the identified problems.