Urban Vitality Index

The urban vitality index is a composite descriptive measure of how lively, busy and economically active an urban area is, built from the conditions Jane Jacobs argued generate street life. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Jacobs identified four generators of diversity — mixed primary uses, short blocks, a mix of building ages, and sufficient density — together producing the foot traffic and 'eyes on the street' that make places vital. The index operationalises these qualities as measurable indicators for each spatial unit, normalises them onto a common scale, and combines them into a single vitality score that can be mapped, compared and tracked over time.