## 2 Application of the Space Syntax Analysis to an Urban Context
### Space Syntax Analysis of Pontedera Urban Context  
The analysis has been applied to the case study town of Pontedera (near Pisa, Tuscany Region, Italy). Pontedera is a medium sized town, with a population of \(\sim\)30,000 inhabitants. Pontedera has been analysed because represents a typical town with a medieval historical district and an industrial suburb. The town is located near the confluence of the Era River into the Arno River and is bordered by two rivers--the Scolmatore Canal and the Pisa-Florence Railway--and the motorway between Florence, Pisa and Livorno (see Figure 3).  
In order to automate the space syntax analysis, the software Depthmap X v.10.14.00b has been used [45]. The input data for the software is the urban street grid of Pontedera in a vector format (dxf file). Software provides outputs such as colour charts and numeric tables which compare the calculated spatial indicators: \(I\) and _Ch_. Figures 4 and 5 show the axial and the angular segment analyses of the Pontedera urban grid, respectively. \(I\) and _Ch_ are shown with a chromatic scale where blue represents the very lowest values and cyan, green, yellow, orange and, progressively, red represent the very highest value [46].  
Figure 2: Space syntax indices calculation for the line B (marked line) in an example with 4 lines (streets). The depth between the lines B and A is 1 (because an observer performs only one change of perspective to go from B to A), between lines B and C is 1 and between lines B and D is 2. The total depth for the line B is \(D_{t}=1+1+2=4\) and the total number of lines of the system is \(k=4\), so the integration index value is \(l=3/4\). All the possible paths between the four lines are A–B, A–B–C, A–B–C–D, B–C–D and C–D (\(N_{t}=6\)). The paths containing the line B are 5 (\(N_{l}=5\)). The choice index is \(Ch=(5-3)/(6-3)=2/3\).  
The Pontedera municipality has defined 305 public roads for its urban context. Using the methods of space syntax analysis, the axial map is composed by 388 axial lines and the angular segment map is composed by 1414 segments. The values of \(I\) and \(Cl\) have been calculated for all the lines and segments and then associated to Pontedera public roads. In the association procedure, some roads could be described by several lines/segments (e.g., thinking to roads with curves); therefore, the average values of the spatial indicators of these lines/segments have been associated with the considered road. The  
Figure 4: Results of the axial analysis of Pontedera, colour maps of: integration index, \(I\) (**left**), and choice index, \(Ch\) (**right**).  
Figure 5: Results of the angular segment analysis of Pontedera, colour maps of: integration index, \(I\) (**left**), and choice index, \(Ch\) (**right**).  
Figure 3: Aerial view of Pontedera (**left**) and schematic representation of its roads (**right**).  
minimum value of the \(I\) index calculated for the axial analysis is 0.56 while the maximum is 2.48. The minimum value of the \(Ch\) index is 0, the maximum is 79,167. The minimum value of the \(I\) index calculated for the angular segment analysis is 212, while the maximum is 623. The minimum value of the \(Ch\) index is 0, the maximum is 433,465. From the graphs of Figures 4 and 5 both for the axial and the angular segment analysis, the traffic volumes distribution inside Pontedera urban context is clear. The maximum intensity of the traffic volumes is in correspondence of the axis that crosses the city from East to West.