Digital City-Surveillance Models and Urban Security: Integrating Isovist and Space Syntax in Realising Adaptive Decision Support Systems

Urbansecurityplaysafundamentalroleinachievingsustainablecities. The environmental approach to security proved crucial, with its inner multidisci- plinarity, in fighting crime and in promoting crime prevention through environ- mental design, urban management and situational-oriented strategies, where the importance of surveillance emerges. Among the research fields involved, digital technology has a primary role in the research progress both through the develop- ment of advanced analysis and decision support systems (DSS), and through the elaboration of high-tech interconnected devices in a smart-safe city logic. In this vein, the paper first reviews the IT and ICT role in urban security progress, and then it traces the development and the importance of surveillance by focusing on the isovist and the space syntax theory until their last findings. Finally, the paper suggests a schematic proposal of a digital surveillance-city model based on the integration of those concepts, which could be used for analytic, decision support and predictive purposes. The strength of this model resides in its adaptability to dif- ferent contexts and its potential independence from sensitive data, which permits overcoming privacy issues. Moreover – being surveillance and visibility features that impact different urban life aspects – this model could represent an urban plan- ning DSS for strategies that goes beyond the mere crime-fighting. Furthermore, this model constitutes a first step in the development of a surveillance-oriented Agent-Based Model.