The Spatial Properties of Neighbourhood Public Open Spaces in the Tel-Aviv Metropolitan Area Small- and large-scale integration and its impact on accessibility and service area

This paper demonstrates the methods and results of our analysis of the “global” spatial properties of green Public Open Spaces (POS) in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area. Global properties like centrality, integration and connectivity can influence the use and perception of green POS in multiple, complex ways. Identifying and categorizing these properties is a necessary prerequisite to understanding their influence. We therefore asked: What are the global configurational characteristics of these POS? How are they distributed and integrated spatially? How are their global properties related to their accessibility, as expressed in their service range? We defined neighbourhood POS using the head/tail breaks classification method, then calculated the Angular Integration of the road network at different scales to identify significant variability trends by preforming Principal Components Analysis. This analysis revealed two distinct spatial accessibility systems - city-scale and neighbourhood-scale - which produced four spatial categories, representing different combinations of small-scale patterns and large-scale context. We found that approximately one third of the POS in the area are in low centrality on both scales, another third in high centrality on both, and the last third high on one scale but low on the other. The two categories with high integration values on the city-scale also had the largest service area, indicating more accessibility. Finally, the configurational categories are not evenly distributed across the spatial system, which may influence the diversity of locally available social functions. Selecting a representative sample of these POSs for detailed analysis is the next step towards exploring this.