Urban Form and Socioeconomic Sustainability: Data-Driven Assessment of the Impact of the Regent’s Canal on Its Surrounding Neighbourhoods

Abstract

The spatial structure of cities results from a space-making process that develops over long processes of time. During this process, inner-urban waters as urban components have become a significant urban agenda in shaping the spatial configuration of cities and have diverse forms of interactions with the urban systems. Although there is a significant number of studies that examine the water-city relationship from social, economic, and ecological perspectives, the spatial configuration has not been identified as a determinant factor in the sustainability of waterfront settlements. In that sense, the study investigates the impact of Regent’s Canal, London, with socioeconomic properties embedded in the urban form. The case study area is located along a section of the Regent’s Canal between King’s Cross and Camden Town.  It aims to analyse the possible spatial effect of the canal on the socioeconomic culture of its surrounding neighbourhoods. Hence, the research mainly takes Bill Hillier’s study on “Sustainability of Urban Form” and Lars Marcus concept of “Spatial Capital”, which present the main variables of spatial structure to measure the performativity of urban form. A series of spatial analyses with demographic and land use data is done to investigate socioeconomic development in the neighbourhoods by applying space syntax methodology and tools. GIS is used to create Integrated Urban Model layering space syntax measures of spatial integration, population and retail density, and land use diversity on each street segment to identify differences between neighbourhoods on either side of the canal. The method enables us to understand geographic patterns of potential movement, land use distribution, and social interaction. The main finding of the research is that the spatial effect of the canal is different on each of these sides. This effect depends on the location of the waterbody and the way it is combined with the street network.