iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Defensible Space

Defensible space is a concept first proposed by the architect Oscar Newman and developed further by Alice Coleman. It is the idea that crime and delinquency can be controlled and mitigated through environmental design. The idea is important because it relates an individual's environment to his or her expectation of crime in the community.

There are four factors that make a defensible space:
  • Territoriality, or the idea that one's home is sacred
  • Natural surveillance, or the link between an area's physical characteristics and the residents' ability to see what is happening
  • Image, or the capacity of the physical design to impart a sense of security
  • Milieu, or other features that may affect security, such as proximity to a police substation or busy commercial area
The term Defensible space is also used in the context of wildfires, especially in the wildland/urban interface. In this context, defensible space is the area around a structure that has been landscaped to reduce fire danger. This space reduces the risk that fire will spread to the structure, and also provides firefighters a relatively safe area in which to work while protecting the structure. In areas prone to wildfires, firefighters will often not attempt to protect structures that do not have adequate defensible space, both for safetey reasons and because such efforts are unlikely to be successful.

Most agencies recommend that the defensible space around a structure extend for at least 100 feet (30 meters) in all directions. This area need not be devoid of vegetation, but plants should be selected, trimmed, spaced and irrigated in such a way to minimize the fuel available to the fire and hamper the spread of the fire.

See also

External links

An architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a building's construction. The word "architect" (Latin: architectus) derives from the Greek arkhitekton (arkhi (chief) + tekton (builder))")[1]
..... Click the link for more information.
The word crime comes from the Latin crimen (genitive criminis), from the Latin root cernō and Greek κρινω = "I judge". Originally it meant "charge (in law), guilt, accusation.
..... Click the link for more information.
Delinquent means one who fails to do that which is required by law or by duty when such failure is minor in nature.

A delinquent is often used to refer to a juvenile who commits a minor criminal act—juvenile delinquents.
..... Click the link for more information.
Environmental design is the process of addressing environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental factors; however, the environmental movement beginning in the 1960s
..... Click the link for more information.
Security is the condition of being protected against danger or loss. In the general sense, security is a concept similar to safety. The nuance between the two is an added emphasis on being protected from dangers that originate from outside.
..... Click the link for more information.
Police are agents or agencies empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimate use of force. The term is most commonly associated with police departments of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a
..... Click the link for more information.
A wildfire, also known as a wildland fire, forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, peat fire ("gambut" in Indonesia), bushfire (in Australasia), or hill fire
..... Click the link for more information.
firefighter (also called a fireman or firewoman, although these terms have gone out of use in many countries) is trained and equipped to extinguish fires. Increasingly a firefighter is also a rescuer, trained and equipped to rescue people from car accidents, collapsed
..... Click the link for more information.
The City Beautiful movement was a Progressive reform movement in North American architecture and urban planning that flourished in the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities to counteract the perceived moral decay of
..... Click the link for more information.
CPTED) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts. As of 2004, most implementations of CPTED occur solely within the built environment.
..... Click the link for more information.
Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities by George L. Kelling and Catherine Coles is a criminology and urban sociology book published in 1996, about crime and strategies to contain or eliminate it from urban neighborhoods.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter