Security Opinion Map & Manual for Creating Safe Public Spaces
Edited on
31 August 2022The need to increase the quality and safety of the public areas is obvious in many Slovak cities, Michalovce not excluded. Thanks to the UrbSecurity project we have the opportunity to enhance this condition, as well as communication with the citizens in our town, who presented their comments in the Opinion map to identify the place reflecting the signs of danger and with their participatory approach to propose their own solutions.
Dimensions of urban security
Within the project intentions the municipality of Michalovce (SK) targeting the following dimensions of urban security, there are:
- Prevention, after identifying the unsafe places in the town by the residents and experts within the project tool of the Opinion map.
- Perception, with the participatory approach in the SSA Opinion map there has been the high intention to increase the citizens perception of the security.
- Social cohesion, as the one of the key issues of the urban development policy is to improve the well-being of the citizens from all backgrounds and social statuses regarding solidarity in the society which can be ensured by the sustainable economic growth mainly. It helps to break down the barriers among members of the society avoiding social exclusion. The effort of each municipality should be to create the city area prioritising the most vulnerable groups in society, improving the mobility of the elderly and disabled. In addition to it, one of our goals is to provide effective means of transport not at the expense of security.
- Governance, Opinion map was for us a great tool helping town authorities to work better with communities in sense of improving community participation to co-create safe public spaces. The Urbact Local group includes the stakeholders seen as collaborators in governing processes stressing public- community governance.
How children imagine a safe city
In the initial phase of the project, there was the opportunity to develop an activity that involves several school children. The proposed challenge was to imagine and draw their safe city. With this children, their families and teachers had the opportunity to reflect together on the theme Urban security.
These drawings that revealed a great concern for safety in the urban space had a public exhibition in one of the main avenues of the city of Michalovce.
Case study of the Opinion map
Identify unsafe areas in the city of Michalovce using the Opinion map where citizens were expressing their feelings about the place they know as well as to introduce a participatory approach to urban security through the Opinion map – the communication tool installed in Geographic informational system. It enables to choose the locality on the map and identify the problem. It is actually about the survey dealing with the safety of the public areas, the design and proposals for these areas.
The citizens were asked to participate to choose the locality on the map and specify the security issues on the website https://michalovce.web-gis.sk . On the map red vs green dots standing for the feeling of safe vs. unsufe areas.
The aim of using this tool was to get the residents to participate actively in the project. The contributions were later analysed and transformed into the graph providing various categories problems/challenges the citizens are happy/unhappy about.
Expected change after implementation of the Integrated action Plan, IAP
The implementation of the IAP will be based on the Manual for creating safe public spaces when we will make use of a unified design approach to solving the same problems. And the Manual itself will be a rich inspiration for creators of project documentation and creators of public spaces achieving the consistence, uniformity and aestheticization of the whole town with the security features.
We understand that the quality public spaces are being created with the sense of comfort limiting any kind of disturbance, paying attention to strengthening the feeling of safety, e.g. through minimalising dark spaces as the essential determinant of quality is the ability to see and be seen. Furthermore, the principe of public spaces lies in their democracy, i.e. is accessible for everyone without any restrictions and for free. And that's why, it is necessary to create safe spaces which are attractive and usable by various social groups without age difference, mobility or culture. The most vulnerable groups and their preferences, such as children, elderly, handicapped people, must be taken into account.
These examples of public participation and the tools developed by Michalovce were presented during Urbact City Festival in Paris, July 2022, (together with city of Parma, under the “Greening as a pathway to resilience in urban areas” parallel session.
Youtube video
https://youtu.be/Kax2tt5zqiM
https://youtu.be/tunHUOZS1Ts
Submitted by Patricia Moital on