Cities in many regions of the world are experiencing rapid urbanisation that results in fragmented spatial patterns, urban divides, and limited availability of open spaces. As a result, inhabitants' quality of life is negatively impacted due to a lack of open spaces and poor-quality open spaces. Open (public) spaces are essential for people to interact, while a lack of such spaces has negative impacts at an individual level (e.g., well-being), at the neighbourhood level (e.g., social cohesion), and city level (e.g., environmental quality). In particular, cities in the Global South are faced with extreme pressures on their public spaces. Public spaces are getting converted and developed for housing or infrastructure. Commonly, the only remaining spaces are streets that mainly serve for transportation. In principle, streets, as public spaces, are a binding factor in neighbourhoods, as they contribute to the social integration in often highly fragmented urban parts (e.g., the urban divide between income groups). Furthermore, streets are the lifelines of cities in the form of water supply, drainage, electricity, and street lighting (Figure 1). As such, UN-Habitat has recognised streets as drivers of cities prosperity, having, besides economic effects, decisive impacts on people's quality of life and well-being. Yet, most streets provide limited spaces for people (pedestrians) and their social interaction, as most of the space is taken by motorised transport. However, this is not entirely true in the deprived urban neighbourhoods in the Global South. In deprived neighbourhoods, the availability of public space is extremely scarce, because of the generally high built-up densities and missing planning provision of public spaces. The pathways in such neighbourhoods are typically narrow and cannot be accessed by most forms of motorised transport. However, there is limited understanding of the complexity of public spaces in such neighbourhood, their roles and diversity. Using examples from several cities across the Globe, the relationship between access to open (public) spaces and deprivation is shown. This includes the role of public spaces, needs and uses of public spaces by different groups (e.g., age and gender). For example, while open spaces might have physical accessibility, constraints (e.g., absence of street lights) might restrict women's access. The World Bank stresses that public spaces are 'catalysts' for slum upgrading. In support of upgrading and inclusive urban development, a good understanding of their multi-layered and multidimensional functions is fundamental but often limited by data, and typically misses a gender dimension. Open Geospatial data, Earth Observation data combined with community-based data can provide rich insights into the state of public spaces and support a multi-layered and multidimensional understanding of their functions.