Irina Matijosaitiene - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Irina Matijosaitiene
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2020
Due to urbanization, there is a high demand for research in urban ecosystems linkage to human hea... more Due to urbanization, there is a high demand for research in urban ecosystems linkage to human health risks. By 2050, around 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas with the rising challenges of urban space, facilities, and services as well as increasing risks of safety, quality of life, health care, etc. Therefore, there is a great need to analyze the urban ecosystem as an urban planning tool to mitigate human health risks. The main objective of this research is to identify the most and the least investigated urban ecosystems linked to human well-being. The systematic review method is used to analyze the existing literature on ecosystem services' impact on human health risks. Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, and other targeted databases are used for the defined keywords, such as urban ecosystem services and human health, urban ecosystem services and human mental health, etc. Moreover, this paper uses the chronological order and "Word and Word Combination Frequency" method for identified relevant publications. In total, there are 2,498 records analyzed as matching the searched keywords. After the reduction of duplicates, screening, and full article analysis, 107 articles were left for further analysis. The results show that interest in the topic is increasing. Some ecosystem services' linkage to human health risks is more analyzed than others. The majority of analysis is done from a single urban ecosystem perspective (e.g., green infrastructure, water supply), therefore some challenges are defined, such as the lack of research. The majority of previous investigations focus on the urban ecosystem's impact on physical illness. Although the attention towards mental health risks and urban ecosystems is increasing, there are still some gaps because of expensive and long-lasting research.
European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2015
Five commercial objects (Soviet-time, fully reconstructed and newly built) located on one of the ... more Five commercial objects (Soviet-time, fully reconstructed and newly built) located on one of the most crime-ridden and problematic streets of Kaunas city, Lithuania, are researched according to crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) strategies: natural surveillance, access control, territoriality, maintenance, and activity support. Theft from motor vehicle, robbery and intentional damage of property are analyzed. Research results reveal that CPTED is poorly implemented in all analyzed objects. Though, in Soviet-time commercial objects it is even harder to implement activity support strategy. Correlation analysis demonstrates significant strong relations between the analyzed crimes and some criteria from surveillance, access control, territoriality and activity support strategies. Recommendations for safety improvement in commercial objects are proposed based on CPTED strategies.
Towards a Strategy for Safetyoriented Urban Structure
The paper represents analysis and modelling of urban spaces through their topological properties ... more The paper represents analysis and modelling of urban spaces through their topological properties in order to make them safer in terms of robberies, larceny and motor vehicle thefts, stolen properties, weapons and drugs. The research is performed on a macro-scale in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, USA. The topological properties of streets were calculated and analyzed by the application of space syntax method and DepthMap software, GIS and SPSS. The results are explained in the terms of people movement and presence on the main streets which are on the natural search paths of possible criminals, and which on the other hand have been assigned to a greater surveillance effect from movement.
Animals, 2020
Real-time identification of wildlife is an upcoming and promising tool for the preservation of wi... more Real-time identification of wildlife is an upcoming and promising tool for the preservation of wildlife. In this research project, we aimed to use object detection and image classification for the racer snakes of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. The final target of this project was to build an artificial intelligence (AI) platform, in terms of a web or mobile application, which would serve as a real-time decision making and supporting mechanism for the visitors and park rangers of the Galápagos Islands, to correctly identify a snake species from the user’s uploaded image. Using the deep learning and machine learning algorithms and libraries, we modified and successfully implemented four region-based convolutional neural network (R-CNN) architectures (models for image classification): Inception V2, ResNet, MobileNet, and VGG16. Inception V2, ResNet and VGG16 reached an overall accuracy of 75%.
Sustainability, 2019
This research aims to identify spatial and time patterns of theft in Manhattan, NY, to reveal urb... more This research aims to identify spatial and time patterns of theft in Manhattan, NY, to reveal urban factors that contribute to thefts from motor vehicles and to build a prediction model for thefts. Methods include time series and hot spot analysis, linear regression, elastic-net, Support vector machines SVM with radial and linear kernels, decision tree, bagged CART, random forest, and stochastic gradient boosting. Machine learning methods reveal that linear models perform better on our data (linear regression, elastic-net), specifying that a higher number of subway entrances, graffiti, and restaurants on streets contribute to higher theft rates from motor vehicles. Although the prediction model for thefts meets almost all assumptions (five of six), its accuracy is 77%, suggesting that there are other undiscovered factors making a contribution to the generation of thefts. As an output demonstrating final results, the application prototype for searching safer parking in Manhattan, NY ...
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 2018
Predicting the exact urban places where crime is most likely to occur is one of the greatest inte... more Predicting the exact urban places where crime is most likely to occur is one of the greatest interests for Police Departments. Therefore, the goal of the research presented in this paper is to identify specific urban areas where a crime could happen in Manhattan, NY for every hour of a day. The outputs from this research are the following: (i) predicted land uses that generates the top three most committed crimes in Manhattan, by using machine learning (random forest and logistic regression), (ii) identifying the exact hours when most of the assaults are committed, together with hot spots during these hours, by applying time series and hot spot analysis, (iii) built hourly prediction models for assaults based on the land use, by deploying logistic regression. Assault, as a physical attack on someone, according to criminal law, is identified as the third most committed crime in Manhattan. Land use (residential, commercial, recreational, mixed use etc.) is assigned to every area or lo...
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2017
The actuality of this research is determined by a significant number of recent terror attacks and... more The actuality of this research is determined by a significant number of recent terror attacks and their disastrous impacts on urban forms. The target of terror attacks has moved from developing to developed countries. Existing urban polices in most countries do not meet counterterrorism standards. Consequently, implementation of counter-terrorism guidelines while planning safe places has turned into essential factor for the 21st century design. The research comprises identification of environmental design (CPTED) factors as well as spatial urban structures that influence the choice of places for terror attacks. 14 sites with terror attacks and 21 sites without terror attacks were assessed according to the developed CPTED questionnaire. For understanding spatial urban structure 6 cases have been analyzed with space syntax method. The research results reveal that the following CPTED factors are related to the choice of place of terror attacks: Strong separation of private and public activities; Site that has a direct access to the main street; Site that has a multiple entrances and exits; Minimization of vehicle access points to the building; Access to private and public space; Site that has a direct access to the city center; Site is well-used; Redistribution of same functional buildings on the site; Presence of a medical institution nearby the site. According to the results of the automatic regression analysis, the following CPTED factors do the biggest impact on the choice of places for terror attacks: 1) vehicle access points to the buildings are minimized, 2) public and private activities are separated, 3) there are many same functional buildings redistributed in the surrounding area. Descriptive statistics reveal the weakest points on the analyzed sites: 1) public and private activities are not separated, 2) many same functional buildings are not redistributed in the surrounding area, 3) access points to the building are not minimalized, 4) the object is surrounded by an open space, 5) there is no security police presence at the site, and 6) there no minimum required setback distance between the building and site boundaries. After the visual comparison of segment maps of integration, choice, mean depth and connectivity, we have discovered that almost all terror attacks happened on the most globally integrated (R=n) street segments, except Tel Aviv case study. Finally, the recommendations for the elements of site reorganization and the elements of street network reorganization are proposed.
Model (my) neighbourhood – a bottom-up collective approach for crime-prevention in Portugal and Lithuania
Journal of Place Management and Development, 2016
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to respond to the need for comparative studies on methodolog... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to respond to the need for comparative studies on methodologies for implementing Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning (CP-UDP) at the local level, particularly in peripheral Europe where CP-UDP’s top-down standards have poor dissemination and acceptance. This paper debates how local partnerships can help reduce crime and how a CP-UDP-based model can be introduced into municipal planning. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses the challenge of CP-UDP in the framework of a post-crisis Europe and Europe 2020. Because there is a large gap between theory and practice, lack of a shared holistic approach, and scepticism, or lack of knowledge, of public authorities, at local-level planning professionals and the police have devised bottom-up initiatives based on interdisciplinary partnerships with the community. The paper describes, discusses and compares the implementation of such approaches in Lisbon (Portugal) and Vilnius (Lithua...
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2014
Combination of CPTED and space syntax for the analysis of crime
Safer Communities, 2016
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to combine both Crime Prevention Through Environmental Des... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to combine both Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and space syntax for the more detailed and overall analysis of built environment in terms of crime. The author is aiming to verify the designed research methodology by its application in cities that are similar in terms of size and population, and are very different in culture and location: New Haven (USA) and Kaunas (Lithuania). Design/methodology/approach – Based on CPTED strategies the factors of urban environment are analyzed, such as topological depth from private space to a public space, density of entrances and windows, street’s constitutedness, inter-visibility, land use, blind walls, segment’s accessibility, greenery, lighting, objects of small architecture, graffiti. Space syntax method is applied for the analysis of the following topological properties of urban spaces: integration, choice, depth, connectivity. Findings – The combination of both methods revels that ...
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2013
In 2011 the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania ordered to prepare the "Landscap... more In 2011 the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania ordered to prepare the "Landscape protection and management guidelines for roads and railways". Integration of the trends of the politics of Lithuanian Republic and the requirements of legislation, which is related to landscape protection and management, into the road development system is only a part of all the tasks of these guidelines. This part, including the analysis of Lithuanian legal acts, identification of their problems and proposal of amendments, is presented in this paper. As a result, the amendments were proposed for Lithuanian legal acts regarding the road landscape evaluation methodology, visual impact of roads on the environment, road signs, advertising regulation and planting near the roads.
European Scientific Journal, Apr 30, 2015
The contemporary environment requires policy-makers to act responsible. However, in existing lite... more The contemporary environment requires policy-makers to act responsible. However, in existing literature, there is no explicit agreement on which aspects of institutional environment, including common law are more important than others for a country's prosperity, economic growth, entrepreneurship, or innovativeness. Therefore, the paper aims to reveal whether fair, transparent and effective policy-making fosters the emergence of competitive strategies for innovation, or instead limits the range of commonly-acceptable means of fair and legal competition. The empirical research covers 60 innovation variables across 127.674 organizations, 12 core and 19 additional industrial sectors, 16 European economies and 368 institutional variables, thus pointing to the impressive scope of the research. What makes the paper original is its focus on the responsible policy-making as a contributor to competitive practices for innovation.
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2016
The research and practice in designing out crime is an absolutely new approach in Lithuania to re... more The research and practice in designing out crime is an absolutely new approach in Lithuania to reduce crime. Therefore, the application of design out crime through the prism of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) to the typical Lithuanian urban area that has high crime rates and the variance of land uses is proposed in this paper. After the assessment of current situation in the selected research area (Vilijampole in Kaunas) the urban planning and design proposals have been made according to the identified weaknesses and concerning buildings' exposition for better natural surveillance and inter-visibility, street network geometry and connectivity, differentiation of public and private spaces, greenery and its links to other spaces, maintenance, interaction between neighbors, activity support, lighting etc. The proposed urban planning and design solutions should bring more safety into the neighborhoods and businesses.
European Scientific Journal, Mar 26, 2014
From the spatial social point of view a city can be represented as a sequence of connected or dis... more From the spatial social point of view a city can be represented as a sequence of connected or disconnected open public spaces. Open public spaces (streets, squares, parks, yards etc.) can be treated as the social infrastructure of the city through which people move, where they meet, communicate and act. Even in ancient times open public spaces were used not only as people gathering places, fair or fiesta spaces, but also various shows and gambling took place on public spaces as well delinquent people were nailed to shame poles. The importance of public spaces for city dwellers and city guests is obvious. Human behavior in open public spaces can be described though movement in the spaces. The intensity and character of movement, assessed by using the space syntax method, enable us to identify the most easy/hardly accessible spaces (integration values), spaces which are the most/least likely to be passed through (choice values), and the most deep/shallow spaces (depth values). These and other social spatial characteristics of urban space are applied for the research of behaviour of city dwellers and city guests. This stage of the research revealed that some public spaces were safer than others. The authors seek to identify how urban spatial structure correlates with and impacts urban crime. As a research object ten largest Lithuanian cities were selected. All of them represent a Post-Soviet case of urban development. The results allow us to understand the dependencies of particular types of crime and spatial social structure of cities.
THE BALTIC JOURNAL OF ROAD AND BRIDGE ENGINEERING, 2014
The contemporary market laws and consumer society impose that road users are regarded to as consu... more The contemporary market laws and consumer society impose that road users are regarded to as consumers, and road landscape – as a product. In this context, consumers’ willingness to use the product is equivalent to road users’ willingness to drive on the road. Consumers’ fastidiousness induces to develop road landscape in a way which ensures satisfaction of drivers’ versatile needs, including the aesthetic ones. However, development of desirable-to-drive road landscape remains one of the challenges of land management. Hence, based on the analysis of aesthetic needs of road users, the paper proposes a framework for creation of desirable-to-drive road landscape. The research rests on photofixation, Kansei engineering, regression, correlation and descriptive analyses. The landscape of the main Lithuanian roads was investigated. The results show that the willingness to drive on a road depends on the level of tune of all the elements comprising the roadscape, the amount of positive impres...
Social Sciences, 2013
High rates of crime have always been considered a serious threat to city development. Crime and u... more High rates of crime have always been considered a serious threat to city development. Crime and urban development are strongly interconnected, therefore, local development policies cannot be successful without crime prevention strategies. One of the areas where local governments are characterized by quite a high degree of independence is that of urban planning, typically documented in a city master plan. In the light of the topic of safety in the urban space, one of the most notable measures of space evaluation is that of land use. The paper is aimed at identifying land uses, the most vulnerable to crime and the safest ones, and their permutations in the three largest cities of Lithuania: Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipeda, in accordance with both different types of criminal acts and crime as a whole. The findings have been based on the analysis of about 50 thousand incidents of antisocial behavior, committed in open public spaces, along 17 types of criminal acts and 14 types of land uses and their permutations. The underlying approach is that of space syntax, as it best integrates social and spatial elements of a city. The paper is novel in its attempt to access not only separate land uses, but also their clusters (i.e., permutations). In addition, the paper covers a broader range of antisocial behavior than most of the previously carried out research (i.e., the paper looks beyond theft, burglary, and robbery) used to. Therefore, the results might be of interest to a wider audience than the national one.
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2014
Novelty of the research presented in this paper is highlighted by the fact that first time the ro... more Novelty of the research presented in this paper is highlighted by the fact that first time the road landscape perception of the representatives of cultures of the post-Soviet countries was compared: Lithuanian, Armenian, Russian, adding to them Turkish, Arabian and African cultures. Sociological survey based on the assessment of road landscape views according to 7-rank semantic differential scale was conducted to the respondents of all six cultures. Linear regression analysis let us build a regression model of the hedonomic road landscape for each culture. The results demonstrate quite considerable differences in landscape perception by the Turkish, Arabian and especially African respondents comparing them to the Lithuanian, Armenian and Russian cultures. While landscape perception of the Lithuanians, Armenians and Russians also differs from each other in the group of the analysed post-Soviet cultures. The most contrast and different results are derived from the analysis of African culture.
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2013
Space syntax analysis is a well known method. Despite the fact of its wide usage some improvement... more Space syntax analysis is a well known method. Despite the fact of its wide usage some improvements could be offered. While preparing axial map of Kaunas it was noted that one single axial map cannot be used for evaluation of global and local integration if the correct results are expected. The possibility to use different maps for evaluation of global and local integration in Kaunas is discussed in the article. Additional arguments for usage of the concept of continuity lines are presented. The offer to not limit the axial map of the city to formal administrative border of the municipality is explained.
Cultural Heritage of Roads and Road Landscapes: Classification and Insights on Valuation
Landscape Research, 2010
Over time roads and their surroundings gained historic and cultural significance. This significan... more Over time roads and their surroundings gained historic and cultural significance. This significance is oftentimes acknowledged and numerous roads and road infrastructure objects with their surrounding environment are listed and protected. Notwithstanding this, it is necessary to note that the ways in which roads, their surrounding environment, and adjacent objects can manifest heritage values, can be complex, and are not
This paper analyzes the new method to create a safe living environment for a city. CPTED (Crime P... more This paper analyzes the new method to create a safe living environment for a city. CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) is an innovative interdisciplinary method for crime prevention in living environment implemented using environmental design and urban planning tools. This paper aims to investigate the possibilities of application of CPTEDstrategies in Lithuanian residential areas, and to identify elements of urban environment that affect crime. Calculation of crime risk and CPTED audit for determination of urban design was applied for the research of residential areas in Kaunas City, Lithuania. During the research unique database was created. For the identifications of relations and causations between crimes, id est. thefts from motor vehicles, robbery, intentional damage of property,and urban environmental factors correlation and linear regression analysis were applied. The results demonstrate that post-Soviet residential areas and the parking areas within them w...
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2020
Due to urbanization, there is a high demand for research in urban ecosystems linkage to human hea... more Due to urbanization, there is a high demand for research in urban ecosystems linkage to human health risks. By 2050, around 70% of the world's population will live in urban areas with the rising challenges of urban space, facilities, and services as well as increasing risks of safety, quality of life, health care, etc. Therefore, there is a great need to analyze the urban ecosystem as an urban planning tool to mitigate human health risks. The main objective of this research is to identify the most and the least investigated urban ecosystems linked to human well-being. The systematic review method is used to analyze the existing literature on ecosystem services' impact on human health risks. Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, and other targeted databases are used for the defined keywords, such as urban ecosystem services and human health, urban ecosystem services and human mental health, etc. Moreover, this paper uses the chronological order and "Word and Word Combination Frequency" method for identified relevant publications. In total, there are 2,498 records analyzed as matching the searched keywords. After the reduction of duplicates, screening, and full article analysis, 107 articles were left for further analysis. The results show that interest in the topic is increasing. Some ecosystem services' linkage to human health risks is more analyzed than others. The majority of analysis is done from a single urban ecosystem perspective (e.g., green infrastructure, water supply), therefore some challenges are defined, such as the lack of research. The majority of previous investigations focus on the urban ecosystem's impact on physical illness. Although the attention towards mental health risks and urban ecosystems is increasing, there are still some gaps because of expensive and long-lasting research.
European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2015
Five commercial objects (Soviet-time, fully reconstructed and newly built) located on one of the ... more Five commercial objects (Soviet-time, fully reconstructed and newly built) located on one of the most crime-ridden and problematic streets of Kaunas city, Lithuania, are researched according to crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) strategies: natural surveillance, access control, territoriality, maintenance, and activity support. Theft from motor vehicle, robbery and intentional damage of property are analyzed. Research results reveal that CPTED is poorly implemented in all analyzed objects. Though, in Soviet-time commercial objects it is even harder to implement activity support strategy. Correlation analysis demonstrates significant strong relations between the analyzed crimes and some criteria from surveillance, access control, territoriality and activity support strategies. Recommendations for safety improvement in commercial objects are proposed based on CPTED strategies.
Towards a Strategy for Safetyoriented Urban Structure
The paper represents analysis and modelling of urban spaces through their topological properties ... more The paper represents analysis and modelling of urban spaces through their topological properties in order to make them safer in terms of robberies, larceny and motor vehicle thefts, stolen properties, weapons and drugs. The research is performed on a macro-scale in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, USA. The topological properties of streets were calculated and analyzed by the application of space syntax method and DepthMap software, GIS and SPSS. The results are explained in the terms of people movement and presence on the main streets which are on the natural search paths of possible criminals, and which on the other hand have been assigned to a greater surveillance effect from movement.
Animals, 2020
Real-time identification of wildlife is an upcoming and promising tool for the preservation of wi... more Real-time identification of wildlife is an upcoming and promising tool for the preservation of wildlife. In this research project, we aimed to use object detection and image classification for the racer snakes of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. The final target of this project was to build an artificial intelligence (AI) platform, in terms of a web or mobile application, which would serve as a real-time decision making and supporting mechanism for the visitors and park rangers of the Galápagos Islands, to correctly identify a snake species from the user’s uploaded image. Using the deep learning and machine learning algorithms and libraries, we modified and successfully implemented four region-based convolutional neural network (R-CNN) architectures (models for image classification): Inception V2, ResNet, MobileNet, and VGG16. Inception V2, ResNet and VGG16 reached an overall accuracy of 75%.
Sustainability, 2019
This research aims to identify spatial and time patterns of theft in Manhattan, NY, to reveal urb... more This research aims to identify spatial and time patterns of theft in Manhattan, NY, to reveal urban factors that contribute to thefts from motor vehicles and to build a prediction model for thefts. Methods include time series and hot spot analysis, linear regression, elastic-net, Support vector machines SVM with radial and linear kernels, decision tree, bagged CART, random forest, and stochastic gradient boosting. Machine learning methods reveal that linear models perform better on our data (linear regression, elastic-net), specifying that a higher number of subway entrances, graffiti, and restaurants on streets contribute to higher theft rates from motor vehicles. Although the prediction model for thefts meets almost all assumptions (five of six), its accuracy is 77%, suggesting that there are other undiscovered factors making a contribution to the generation of thefts. As an output demonstrating final results, the application prototype for searching safer parking in Manhattan, NY ...
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 2018
Predicting the exact urban places where crime is most likely to occur is one of the greatest inte... more Predicting the exact urban places where crime is most likely to occur is one of the greatest interests for Police Departments. Therefore, the goal of the research presented in this paper is to identify specific urban areas where a crime could happen in Manhattan, NY for every hour of a day. The outputs from this research are the following: (i) predicted land uses that generates the top three most committed crimes in Manhattan, by using machine learning (random forest and logistic regression), (ii) identifying the exact hours when most of the assaults are committed, together with hot spots during these hours, by applying time series and hot spot analysis, (iii) built hourly prediction models for assaults based on the land use, by deploying logistic regression. Assault, as a physical attack on someone, according to criminal law, is identified as the third most committed crime in Manhattan. Land use (residential, commercial, recreational, mixed use etc.) is assigned to every area or lo...
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2017
The actuality of this research is determined by a significant number of recent terror attacks and... more The actuality of this research is determined by a significant number of recent terror attacks and their disastrous impacts on urban forms. The target of terror attacks has moved from developing to developed countries. Existing urban polices in most countries do not meet counterterrorism standards. Consequently, implementation of counter-terrorism guidelines while planning safe places has turned into essential factor for the 21st century design. The research comprises identification of environmental design (CPTED) factors as well as spatial urban structures that influence the choice of places for terror attacks. 14 sites with terror attacks and 21 sites without terror attacks were assessed according to the developed CPTED questionnaire. For understanding spatial urban structure 6 cases have been analyzed with space syntax method. The research results reveal that the following CPTED factors are related to the choice of place of terror attacks: Strong separation of private and public activities; Site that has a direct access to the main street; Site that has a multiple entrances and exits; Minimization of vehicle access points to the building; Access to private and public space; Site that has a direct access to the city center; Site is well-used; Redistribution of same functional buildings on the site; Presence of a medical institution nearby the site. According to the results of the automatic regression analysis, the following CPTED factors do the biggest impact on the choice of places for terror attacks: 1) vehicle access points to the buildings are minimized, 2) public and private activities are separated, 3) there are many same functional buildings redistributed in the surrounding area. Descriptive statistics reveal the weakest points on the analyzed sites: 1) public and private activities are not separated, 2) many same functional buildings are not redistributed in the surrounding area, 3) access points to the building are not minimalized, 4) the object is surrounded by an open space, 5) there is no security police presence at the site, and 6) there no minimum required setback distance between the building and site boundaries. After the visual comparison of segment maps of integration, choice, mean depth and connectivity, we have discovered that almost all terror attacks happened on the most globally integrated (R=n) street segments, except Tel Aviv case study. Finally, the recommendations for the elements of site reorganization and the elements of street network reorganization are proposed.
Model (my) neighbourhood – a bottom-up collective approach for crime-prevention in Portugal and Lithuania
Journal of Place Management and Development, 2016
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to respond to the need for comparative studies on methodolog... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to respond to the need for comparative studies on methodologies for implementing Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning (CP-UDP) at the local level, particularly in peripheral Europe where CP-UDP’s top-down standards have poor dissemination and acceptance. This paper debates how local partnerships can help reduce crime and how a CP-UDP-based model can be introduced into municipal planning. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses the challenge of CP-UDP in the framework of a post-crisis Europe and Europe 2020. Because there is a large gap between theory and practice, lack of a shared holistic approach, and scepticism, or lack of knowledge, of public authorities, at local-level planning professionals and the police have devised bottom-up initiatives based on interdisciplinary partnerships with the community. The paper describes, discusses and compares the implementation of such approaches in Lisbon (Portugal) and Vilnius (Lithua...
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2014
Combination of CPTED and space syntax for the analysis of crime
Safer Communities, 2016
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to combine both Crime Prevention Through Environmental Des... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to combine both Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and space syntax for the more detailed and overall analysis of built environment in terms of crime. The author is aiming to verify the designed research methodology by its application in cities that are similar in terms of size and population, and are very different in culture and location: New Haven (USA) and Kaunas (Lithuania). Design/methodology/approach – Based on CPTED strategies the factors of urban environment are analyzed, such as topological depth from private space to a public space, density of entrances and windows, street’s constitutedness, inter-visibility, land use, blind walls, segment’s accessibility, greenery, lighting, objects of small architecture, graffiti. Space syntax method is applied for the analysis of the following topological properties of urban spaces: integration, choice, depth, connectivity. Findings – The combination of both methods revels that ...
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2013
In 2011 the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania ordered to prepare the "Landscap... more In 2011 the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania ordered to prepare the "Landscape protection and management guidelines for roads and railways". Integration of the trends of the politics of Lithuanian Republic and the requirements of legislation, which is related to landscape protection and management, into the road development system is only a part of all the tasks of these guidelines. This part, including the analysis of Lithuanian legal acts, identification of their problems and proposal of amendments, is presented in this paper. As a result, the amendments were proposed for Lithuanian legal acts regarding the road landscape evaluation methodology, visual impact of roads on the environment, road signs, advertising regulation and planting near the roads.
European Scientific Journal, Apr 30, 2015
The contemporary environment requires policy-makers to act responsible. However, in existing lite... more The contemporary environment requires policy-makers to act responsible. However, in existing literature, there is no explicit agreement on which aspects of institutional environment, including common law are more important than others for a country's prosperity, economic growth, entrepreneurship, or innovativeness. Therefore, the paper aims to reveal whether fair, transparent and effective policy-making fosters the emergence of competitive strategies for innovation, or instead limits the range of commonly-acceptable means of fair and legal competition. The empirical research covers 60 innovation variables across 127.674 organizations, 12 core and 19 additional industrial sectors, 16 European economies and 368 institutional variables, thus pointing to the impressive scope of the research. What makes the paper original is its focus on the responsible policy-making as a contributor to competitive practices for innovation.
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2016
The research and practice in designing out crime is an absolutely new approach in Lithuania to re... more The research and practice in designing out crime is an absolutely new approach in Lithuania to reduce crime. Therefore, the application of design out crime through the prism of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) to the typical Lithuanian urban area that has high crime rates and the variance of land uses is proposed in this paper. After the assessment of current situation in the selected research area (Vilijampole in Kaunas) the urban planning and design proposals have been made according to the identified weaknesses and concerning buildings' exposition for better natural surveillance and inter-visibility, street network geometry and connectivity, differentiation of public and private spaces, greenery and its links to other spaces, maintenance, interaction between neighbors, activity support, lighting etc. The proposed urban planning and design solutions should bring more safety into the neighborhoods and businesses.
European Scientific Journal, Mar 26, 2014
From the spatial social point of view a city can be represented as a sequence of connected or dis... more From the spatial social point of view a city can be represented as a sequence of connected or disconnected open public spaces. Open public spaces (streets, squares, parks, yards etc.) can be treated as the social infrastructure of the city through which people move, where they meet, communicate and act. Even in ancient times open public spaces were used not only as people gathering places, fair or fiesta spaces, but also various shows and gambling took place on public spaces as well delinquent people were nailed to shame poles. The importance of public spaces for city dwellers and city guests is obvious. Human behavior in open public spaces can be described though movement in the spaces. The intensity and character of movement, assessed by using the space syntax method, enable us to identify the most easy/hardly accessible spaces (integration values), spaces which are the most/least likely to be passed through (choice values), and the most deep/shallow spaces (depth values). These and other social spatial characteristics of urban space are applied for the research of behaviour of city dwellers and city guests. This stage of the research revealed that some public spaces were safer than others. The authors seek to identify how urban spatial structure correlates with and impacts urban crime. As a research object ten largest Lithuanian cities were selected. All of them represent a Post-Soviet case of urban development. The results allow us to understand the dependencies of particular types of crime and spatial social structure of cities.
THE BALTIC JOURNAL OF ROAD AND BRIDGE ENGINEERING, 2014
The contemporary market laws and consumer society impose that road users are regarded to as consu... more The contemporary market laws and consumer society impose that road users are regarded to as consumers, and road landscape – as a product. In this context, consumers’ willingness to use the product is equivalent to road users’ willingness to drive on the road. Consumers’ fastidiousness induces to develop road landscape in a way which ensures satisfaction of drivers’ versatile needs, including the aesthetic ones. However, development of desirable-to-drive road landscape remains one of the challenges of land management. Hence, based on the analysis of aesthetic needs of road users, the paper proposes a framework for creation of desirable-to-drive road landscape. The research rests on photofixation, Kansei engineering, regression, correlation and descriptive analyses. The landscape of the main Lithuanian roads was investigated. The results show that the willingness to drive on a road depends on the level of tune of all the elements comprising the roadscape, the amount of positive impres...
Social Sciences, 2013
High rates of crime have always been considered a serious threat to city development. Crime and u... more High rates of crime have always been considered a serious threat to city development. Crime and urban development are strongly interconnected, therefore, local development policies cannot be successful without crime prevention strategies. One of the areas where local governments are characterized by quite a high degree of independence is that of urban planning, typically documented in a city master plan. In the light of the topic of safety in the urban space, one of the most notable measures of space evaluation is that of land use. The paper is aimed at identifying land uses, the most vulnerable to crime and the safest ones, and their permutations in the three largest cities of Lithuania: Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipeda, in accordance with both different types of criminal acts and crime as a whole. The findings have been based on the analysis of about 50 thousand incidents of antisocial behavior, committed in open public spaces, along 17 types of criminal acts and 14 types of land uses and their permutations. The underlying approach is that of space syntax, as it best integrates social and spatial elements of a city. The paper is novel in its attempt to access not only separate land uses, but also their clusters (i.e., permutations). In addition, the paper covers a broader range of antisocial behavior than most of the previously carried out research (i.e., the paper looks beyond theft, burglary, and robbery) used to. Therefore, the results might be of interest to a wider audience than the national one.
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2014
Novelty of the research presented in this paper is highlighted by the fact that first time the ro... more Novelty of the research presented in this paper is highlighted by the fact that first time the road landscape perception of the representatives of cultures of the post-Soviet countries was compared: Lithuanian, Armenian, Russian, adding to them Turkish, Arabian and African cultures. Sociological survey based on the assessment of road landscape views according to 7-rank semantic differential scale was conducted to the respondents of all six cultures. Linear regression analysis let us build a regression model of the hedonomic road landscape for each culture. The results demonstrate quite considerable differences in landscape perception by the Turkish, Arabian and especially African respondents comparing them to the Lithuanian, Armenian and Russian cultures. While landscape perception of the Lithuanians, Armenians and Russians also differs from each other in the group of the analysed post-Soviet cultures. The most contrast and different results are derived from the analysis of African culture.
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2013
Space syntax analysis is a well known method. Despite the fact of its wide usage some improvement... more Space syntax analysis is a well known method. Despite the fact of its wide usage some improvements could be offered. While preparing axial map of Kaunas it was noted that one single axial map cannot be used for evaluation of global and local integration if the correct results are expected. The possibility to use different maps for evaluation of global and local integration in Kaunas is discussed in the article. Additional arguments for usage of the concept of continuity lines are presented. The offer to not limit the axial map of the city to formal administrative border of the municipality is explained.
Cultural Heritage of Roads and Road Landscapes: Classification and Insights on Valuation
Landscape Research, 2010
Over time roads and their surroundings gained historic and cultural significance. This significan... more Over time roads and their surroundings gained historic and cultural significance. This significance is oftentimes acknowledged and numerous roads and road infrastructure objects with their surrounding environment are listed and protected. Notwithstanding this, it is necessary to note that the ways in which roads, their surrounding environment, and adjacent objects can manifest heritage values, can be complex, and are not
This paper analyzes the new method to create a safe living environment for a city. CPTED (Crime P... more This paper analyzes the new method to create a safe living environment for a city. CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) is an innovative interdisciplinary method for crime prevention in living environment implemented using environmental design and urban planning tools. This paper aims to investigate the possibilities of application of CPTEDstrategies in Lithuanian residential areas, and to identify elements of urban environment that affect crime. Calculation of crime risk and CPTED audit for determination of urban design was applied for the research of residential areas in Kaunas City, Lithuania. During the research unique database was created. For the identifications of relations and causations between crimes, id est. thefts from motor vehicles, robbery, intentional damage of property,and urban environmental factors correlation and linear regression analysis were applied. The results demonstrate that post-Soviet residential areas and the parking areas within them w...