Urban public spaces are crucial to both cities and their citizens, offering places to meet, spend time outdoors, rest, and engage in various activities. Street seating like benches and chairs are seen as key elements in designing good public places. Nevertheless, the impact of spatial elements on the use of public places has been mostly assessed from the qualitative perspective. This research aimed to quantify the impact of street seating on a vitality measure for public spaces by studying 39 European public places, filmed during four different timeslots. Using object detection algorithms, a vitality score was calculated based on pedestrian trajectories. Seating attributes – including variety, edge effect, and socio-petal configurations – were collected and correlated with the vitality scores. Place characteristics, such as size, weather, and the presence of cafés or fountains, were also gathered to control for external factors. Resulting from the correlation and multiple linear regression analysis, no significant impact of street seating on the place vitality could be observed. Seating attributes with a weak positive correlation were the edge effect, the variety of seating and socio petal seating configurations. The results highlight the need for holistic approaches to public space design and call for refined vitality metrics that consider user experience and place pleasantness. The research also demonstrated the scalability and effectiveness of automated, trajectory-based vitality assessment, offering a promising tool for future urban studies.

Due to the current pandemic caused by COVID-19, its impact has again become clear that resilience is essential within cities and communities. An important aspect of this community resilience is the relationship between local institutions and local communities. To discover how this dynamic between formal and informal actors, and networks changes during crises, a literature study was done to find out how community resilience can be facilitated. From this study a conceptual framework for the facilitation of resilience was created. An exploratory case study was done of the community BoTu Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, to research in which extent a resilient attitude is embodied by local institutions in cooperation with local communities and validate the framework. Through resilient governance and community leadership, social capital can be enabled and activated to allow problem-solving within a community, fostering greater resilience within communities. Moreover, formal and informal actors made role switches to fulfil a useful function in the community. These role changes were facilitated or frustrated by several factors, ranging from absence or presence of formal actors, social network access or lack thereof and digital resources.