An Operational Assessment Index for Inclusivity in Urban Public Open Spaces

Abstract

Inclusivity in urban public open spaces (UPOS) has emerged as a central concern within the discourse on social sustainability. Despite this growing attention, inclusivity remains conceptually unsettled and practically fragmented. Existing scholarship offers rich insights into access, publicness, spatial justice, and lived experience; however, these concerns are frequently examined in isolation or translated into assessment frameworks that privilege physical form over relational, perceptual, and behavioural processes. This study undertakes a theoretical and conceptual investigation into how inclusivity in UPOS can be coherently structured and translated into an assessment framework without reducing its socio-spatial complexity. The research adopts an interpretive, literature-based approach, combining thematic synthesis across interdisciplinary scholarship with a comparative review of established empirical indices addressing livability, equity, and social sustainability. Koberg and Bagnall’s morphological framework is used as a conceptual scaffold, enabling systematic examination of relationships between physical engagement, perception, and affective response. The analysis produces a multidimensional conceptual model structured around four operational domains: physical, behavioural, perceptual, and functional, and four interrelated dimensions of inclusivity: accessibility, sense of place, conviviality, and resilience. Inclusivity is thereby repositioned as a socio-spatial condition produced through the interaction of spatial form, social practice, symbolic meaning, and governance, rather than as a fixed or purely design-led outcome. By clarifying the conceptual structure of inclusivity, this paper contributes a theoretically grounded foundation for future assessment, design, and policy-oriented research, while remaining attentive to the contextual, relational, and negotiated nature of public space.