A systematic social observation tool to measure the restorative potential of urban settings / Diseño de una herramienta de observación social sistemática del potencial restaurador de espacios urbanos

Abstract

Abstract The study of psychological restoration in urban settings has undergone significant growth in recent years. The aim of this paper is to develop an instrument for the objective evaluation of the restorative potential of urban public spaces. Perceived restoration scales and a large number of systematic social observation instruments were reviewed, selecting items that might be suitable for the aims of this study and adding other items designed ad hoc. The resulting tool is made up of 183 items, grouped into 12 domains. The final format of the instrument was used by a group of four evaluators in a total of six urban squares. This paper reports the statistics obtained for the internal consistency of the instrument (inter-judge agreement) and convergent validity through correlations of the objective scores from each public square with the perceived and experienced restoration of a sample of users of said public squares (N = 296). The tool delivered an adequate level of reliability, and its scores were related to restoration measures, although the size of this association was small.