SPATIAL-SOCIO CLASSIFICATION OF DEPRIVED NEIGHBOURHOODS IN THE NETHERLANDS: Strategies for neighbourhood revitalisation

Since 2007 various strategies were developed for improving the worst deprived neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. The majority of the measures directed to the revitalisation of these neighbourhoods were social programs aiming to strengthen the economic position and social skills of the inhabitants. Spatial interventions have been largely overlooked because an adequate diagnosis tool is missing. To fill this gap, space syntax and statistical analyses is carried out on a dataset of 43 neighbourhoods in which various micro and macro scale variables is taken into account and related to social and crime data. The analyses show that the deprived neighbourhoods can be classified in four groups based on their spatial properties and three groups based on their socio-spatial characteristics. These groups provide an adequate classification of the different social and spatial properties of the neighbourhoods, and point out which spatial measures making sense in the revitalisation of these areas.