Street View Imagery (SVI) in the Built Environment: A Theoretical and Systematic Review

Street view imagery (SVI) provides efficient access to data that can be used to research spatial quality at the human scale. The previous reviews have mainly focused on specific health findings and neighbourhood environments. There has not been a comprehensive review of this topic. In this paper, we systematically review the literature on the application of SVI in the built environment, following a formal innovation–decision framework. The main findings are as follows: (I) SVI remains an effective tool for automated research assessments. This offers a new research avenue to expand the built environment-measurement methods to include perceptions in addition to physical features. (II) Currently, SVI is functional and valuable for quantifying the built environment, spatial sentiment perception, and spatial semantic speculation. (III) The significant dilemmas concerning the adoption of this technology are related to image acquisition, the image quality, spatial and temporal distribution, and accuracy. (IV) This research provides a rapid assessment and provides researchers with guidance for the adoption and implementation of SVI. Data integration and management, proper image service provider selection, and spatial metrics measurements are the critical success factors. A notable trend is the application of SVI towards a focus on the perceptions of the built environment, which provides a more refined and effective way to depict urban forms in terms of physical and social spaces.

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