Electronic behaviour mapping and GIS application for Stavanger Torget, Norway

In Norway, there is a growing interest in urban life as opposed to previously urban space. For urban planners and designers this means that methods of spatial registration and analysis need to be extended to include user behaviour, perception and experience. Therefore, user observation and behavioural surveys have become more prominent. To this end, behaviour mapping can be used as a tool to investigate the current use of a space. While manual behaviour mapping has limitations, this paper describes the development and testing of a GIS-based application using electronic maps for registration and analysis of observed behaviour in an urban public space. The behaviour mapping application has been tested and used in a study of Stavanger Torget, the most central public space in Stavanger, Norway. The collection and analysis of data was executed to investigate the amount of users and types of activities in the space throughout the week. Here, the electronic map application proved to be helpful in terms of making registration more efficient, instantly generating digital maps of the observations and providing tabular data for further analysis. This strongly improves urban analysis with regard to behavioural observation and makes related data collection and analysis much more efficient. This ultimately allows for the creation of a GIS database regarding the relationship between physical characteristics and user behaviour, something that is particularly relevant with the growing awareness for quality in public space and urban life.