Space Syntax: a Method for assessing the urban policies in Ain M’lila city

Abstract

     Since its establishment, the city of Ain M’lila has implemented various urban policies to manage its urban space. These policies were aligned with the country's urban agenda and employed different laws and plans. The objective of the administrators of Ain M’lila was to guide urban growth and ensure controlled urban development. However, all of these urban policies fell short of their intended goals and instead gave rise to a host of problems. Furthermore, these policies facilitated the city's expansion in multiple directions through the creation of new neighborhoods. A significant contributing factor to this failure was the lack of an evaluative tool.

This study aims to assess the diverse urban policies that Ain M’lila city has undergone by employing space syntax as a novel approach. This theory enables the creation of axial maps and facilitates visual and quantitative comparisons by calculating syntactic measures.