A technique to measure the Spatial Quality of Slow Routes in Fragile Territories Using Image Segmentation

The current research aims at investigating the potential of image segmentation (IS) technology, based on web application, for measuring the spatial quality of slow routes. The big amount of street–level images, publicly available through several applications such as Mapillary, Google Street View, are relevant sources of information, that allow virtual explorations of many places around the world. The (IS) technology allows partitioning of a single digital image into sets of pixels in order to read and recognize the visual content within the frame of the image. By applying IS technology to the images taken along a defined route, it has established a method for grouping images in relation to their spatial features. The method has been applied to some stretches of slow–mobility routes, that are localized along the fragile coastal landscape of Trabucchi, south of Italy. A selection of images along the route, both in the outdoor and urban space, has been analyzed, with the aim to test the effectiveness of the method, able to produce useful information to define a Spatial Quality Index.