A method for assessing the vitality potential of urban areas. The case study of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari, Italy

Abstract Vitality and Urbanity emerge as key goals of strategies for urban sustainable development as necessary prerequisites for varied and prosperous cities. Vitality and urbanity are characteristics that emerge from the diversity of urban public spaces activities and have an impact on a people's sense of place. The proposed research examines the built environment components that impact urbanity and vitality and develops an analytic method for quantifying the potential of urban form to promote urbanity and vitality. The research investigates four aspects: (i) the conceptualization of urbanity and vitality; (ii) the identification of factors affecting urbanity and vitality; (iii) the definition of indicators and protocols; (iv) the application of the proposed analytic method for measuring the vitality potential of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (MCC), in Sardinia, Italy. This study underlines the relevance of combining space syntax and spatial analysis techniques in order to address four issues concerning sustainable urban development: quantitative description of urban-friendly conditions, identification of spatial manifestations of social and economic processes, understanding of criticalities, and formulation of policies and strategies for reinforcing vibrant urban spaces. Thus, the proposed analytic method contributes to the application of the Geodesign paradigm to the urban realm by supporting the understanding of the conditions affecting the vitality and urbanity of the built environment.