Neighborhood-environment assessment at CitoryTech · Tianjin Xincun, Nanjing · 2018
My role: Project lead at CitoryTech.
The question
How can neighborhood renewal respond to the spaces residents encounter on an everyday walk? In this project, we carried a 360° camera through an older residential neighborhood in central Nanjing, recording its internal lanes and shared outdoor spaces. The aim was to connect visible street conditions with how people perceive the quality of their neighborhood.
The study combined field imagery, computer vision, and perception assessment across four dimensions: perceived safety, walking comfort and convenience, the friendliness of shared public spaces, and visual character.
Field survey and video analysis
Collecting imagery on foot brought narrow residential lanes and spaces between buildings into the survey. The footage documented the surroundings along the walking route, including greenery, parked vehicles, building edges, and everyday street objects.
The analysis used front, back, left, and right views of the walking environment. Object detection and segmentation identified visible elements in the footage, providing a way to examine which features appeared alongside different assessments of neighborhood quality.
360° walking survey
Computer vision analysis
Mapping neighborhood quality
Perception ratings and image features supported comparisons across locations, while maps showed how assessments varied along the neighborhood’s walking routes. The four dimensions kept the evaluation connected to specific experiences of a place, rather than a single overall livability score.
The assessments describe perceived environmental quality. They do not establish actual crime risk or a causal effect of an individual street feature. Their purpose is to help identify locations and conditions for closer examination during neighborhood renewal.
Related projects: StreeTalk explores street-view perception and pedestrian routing; TOD Station-Area Assessment examines the environments around Beijing metro stations.
Images and videos: CitoryTech project materials.