Vitality Measurement and Smart Governance Strategies for Marginal Communities in Suzhou: A Study Based on the Vision of an International and Modern People-Oriented City

Accelerating the construction of an international, modern, and people-oriented city, Suzhou often faces bottlenecks in its peripheral communities. These open spaces suffer from rapid vitality decline, extensive governance, and weak resilience, which directly hinder residents’ daily interactions and community integration. Moving beyond subjective qualitative approaches, this study selects typical peripheral communities in Suzhou and employs a comprehensive methodology combining field surveys, space syntax analysis, and time-segmented spatial trajectory entropy measurement to quantitatively assess the “lack of vitality.” By quantifying spatial form, accessibility, and behavioral patterns, the study examines their coupling relationships with vitality, social interaction, and safety resilience. The results show that the spatial trajectory entropy model effectively captures the spatiotemporal movement patterns of crowds, addressing the gap in dynamic characterization left by traditional methods. Community vitality is significantly positively correlated with accessibility, interface continuity, and facility allocation. These spatial elements also play a crucial role in promoting social interaction and enhancing the sustainable use of spaces. Based on quantitative diagnosis, this paper proposes a governance framework of “digital empowerment–community co-governance–resilience enhancement,” transforming spatial weaknesses into targeted strategies for smart governance. This research provides quantitative analysis methods and localized implementation approaches for the refined governance and sustainable development of communities on the outskirts of cities like Suzhou.