Sustainable communities are safe, perceived as safe (low levels of fear) and are attractive (low levels of disorder). Anti-social behaviour (ASB) and physical disorder can thus be viewed as barometers of sustainability. Areas of high ASB usually have high levels of deprivation and these same areas are associated with higher levels of environmental disorder such as dumped cars (stolen), rubbish and damaged street furniture. Together these attract crime, promote insecurity and fear of crime among residents, and erode community cohesion.

Local Authority data sets such as ‘FLARE’ record all aspects of reported ASB and physical disorder in the environment. Analysis of such data alongside the configuration of the built environment (space syntax) informs thinking about effective interventions that feed into physical and social infrastructure planning, and community safety.

Project SEDUC is supported by HEFCE and DTI through the UrbanBuzz programme to work initially, in partnership, with the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking & Dagenham. The project has four broad aims:

• to put in place automated methods of data preparation and geo-coding of ‘FLARE’-type data sets ready for analysis;
• to promote the generic use of space syntax software in planning and specifically in the analysis of ASB and physical disorder against metrics of the configuration of street networks;
• to use these analyses to inform appropriate responses for minimising recurrence of ASB, design against crime and fostering community cohesion – to be brought together in a practice guide;
• to deliver the necessary knowledge transfer through capacity building and skills enhancement in the Boroughs in order to make these sustainable activities so that Local Authorities can continue to respond to the dynamics of ASB and physical disorder.

Local Authorities are already responding to the challenges of ASB. Our input to partnership working is designed to achieve a step-change in these activities.

Project SEDUC is primarily a series of knowledge transfer activities that also aims to deliver useful, well-founded tools and products to Local Authorities that will underscore their ability to develop sustainable communities.

Download a project overview

Workshop presentations - Anti-Social Behaviour: Data and Analysis

Agenda
Introduction & background
Data cleaning and geocoding
Preliminary analysis of ASB data
Space Syntax and Crime Analysis

Workshop presentations - Integrated Approaches to Anti-Social Behaviour and Urban Design

Agenda
Examples of designing out ASB in Tower Hamlets
Examples of designing out ASB in Newham
Space Syntax analysis of ASB in Tower Hamlets and in Newham

Reports

Overview of the Project Reports
Space Syntax Final Report
Case Study: London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Crime and Community: A review of the design and mapping context for practice guidelines
Anti-Social Behaviour: A Practitioners Guide

Our core team
Prof. Allan Brimicombe (Project leader, UEL)
Dr Yang Li (UEL)
Prof. Bill Hillier (UCL, Bartlett)
Prof. Alan Penn (UCL, Bartlett)
Dr Shane Johnson (UCL, JDI)
Prof. Mike Batty & Dr Andy Smith (UCL, CASA)
Prof. Paul Ekblom (CSM)
Dr Chao Li (Terra Cognita)
Alain Chiaradia (Space Syntax Ltd)