# Effect of Space Configurational Attributes on Social Interactions in Urban Parks
## 2 Methodology
### Space Configurational Attributes: Space Syntax Analysis  
Space syntax is a theory introduced by [PERSON] and [PERSON] that quantifies and studies the relationship between human behavior and the built environment [37]. In space syntax, an \"axial map\" or a \"segment map\" is established based on a real urban map to represent the urban network configuration. Actual urban spaces are modeled as nodes linked by a road network for the quantitative measurements of space configurational attributes. In this study, the curved pathway network in parks was modeled by a series of continuous segments. A series of space syntax parameters were proposed for space relationship quantization, including depth, connectivity, control, integration, and choice [23; 26; 28; 38; 39; 40]. Four types of parameters included in the segment analysis were analyzed in this study, including:  
1. Depth. Depth is the basic measure of space syntax, which measures the spatial distance between the starting space and the terminal space [41]. Angular depth is suggested for evaluating the shortest journeys through the spatial network by considering the cost of the connection angle [42]. In this study, metric step depth (MSD) is used, which follows the shortest angular path from the whole system to the selected space. Depth to gate (DtoG) and depth to city main road (DtoR) are calculated to represent the spatial distance from the staring space to the entrance of the parks and the city road network;
2. Connectivity. Connectivity represents how many spaces are directly connected to the staring space. The angular connectivity offers a better description of space relationships by considering the weight of each connected space according to the turn angle (0 for 0 degree, 0.5 for 45 degrees, and 1 for 90 degrees). In this study, the calculation of connectivity for each space follows the rules of angular connectivity;
3. Integration. Integration is the most widely used index in space syntax and represents how easily a space can be reached from other spaces [42]. A higher integration value indicates that the space is more accessible within the given spatial network on average. To enable the comparison between systems of different sizes, normalized angular integration (NAIN) was suggested by [PERSON] and [PERSON], which was used in this study as the measure of the integration for each space [43];
4. Global integration calculates the integration of the starting space to the whole system [23; 28]. However, when focusing on people's behavior or movement patterns, the local integration is commonly used by applying a calculation radius [39; 44]. In this study, two radii, 200 and 1000 m, were first selected according to the range of the park scales to represent walking accessibility. In addition, a larger radius of 10,000 m was also selected to analyze the spatial accessibility of the whole city traffic network through multiple methods of transportation;
5. Choice. Choice is a measure of space usability that considers the potential for each segment element to be selected as the shortest path [45]. A higher choice value indicates that the calculated space is more likely to select by the through-movement in the network. Same as the integration, the normalized angular choice (NACH) with three calculation radii (200, 1000, and 10,000 m) was applied to represent local usability in this study. In total, nine configurational attributes were calculated by DepthMap X in this study. In the space syntax segment model, the spatial configurational attributes were calculated for each segment. The attributes of each pathway between two intersections were then analyzed by calculating the average value of the corresponding segments. For the activity zones, the attributes of each space were calculated as the average value of the segments directly linked to the zone. As suggested by the existing research, human behaviors are affected by various factors.