Car-centric urban design practice, the principle with which most cities in the world are being built today or since mid-century of 20th century, is affecting the essence of human-scale design or pedestrian friendly/ walkable friendly design. With the rise of numerous problems already in the world with excessive use of non-renewable energy, the talks and discussions are being conducted for the ways of reduction of use of non-renewable energy on global basis, or for the formulation of alternative ways of high use of energy. Not only from problems-related-with-energy perspective, but from social, health, and economic viewpoint as well, just prioritising car-driven approach seems to no longer serve the built environment in a positive way. Several planners, designers and built environment professionals have put forwarded words to re-think about the way urban environments are being built today, and new approaches of prioritising from human-scale perspective i.e. pedestrian or walkable friendly built environment to be explored and given a thought. This research paper concentrates on investigating the deeper understanding about walkable friendly urban environment, the need of today's world.
In this paper, framework that shows the relationship of walking activity and behaviour with surrounding physical features, is derived from literature review for the systematic visual assessment. There is no clear and a comprehensive understanding about one particular way that depicts influencing factors of walkability, the corelates between the urban environment and walking behaviour not explained clearly, or if explained the method is somewhat complex and inflexible. Throughout existing knowledge in literature, there is lack of one consistent method of assessment. This research has attempted in finding simpler methods/solution, incorporating with existing knowledge and methods to investigate underlying factors possibly informing about the degree of walkability scale of an urban environment. The study of observation is done on the commercial streets in the central Geelong with the selection of variety of streets form and functions.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. Background
1.2. Walkability: The definition
1.3. Aims and objectives
1.4. Research significance
1.5. Methodology
Chapter 2. Walkability: Relation and context
2.1. Walking and the built environment
2.2. Benefits of walkability
2.3. Geelong's past vision
2.4. Geelong's approaches: Walkable friendly environment
Chapter 3. Literature review
3.1. Background
3.2. Analysis and synthesis
3.3. Literature review matrix
Chapter 4. Empirical study
4.1. Observation study: Description of method and data
4.2. Serial Vision
4.3. Quantitative evaluation
4.4. Qualitative evaluation
4.5. Observation study: Results and analysis
Chapter 5. Discussion and Conclusion
5.1. Discussion
5.2. Conclusions
Objectives and Core Themes
The research aims to investigate the walkability of Central Geelong by analyzing the relationship between the built environment and human walking behavior. It seeks to provide a simpler, objective methodological framework to assess subjective urban design qualities—such as imageability, enclosure, human scale, complexity, and transparency—that influence pedestrian experiences in commercial urban settings.
- Analysis of car-centric versus human-centric urban design practices.
- Evaluation of urban design qualities through mapping and 'shades of black' analysis.
- Investigation of walkability within the commercial street context of Central Geelong.
- Refinement of objective assessment methods for subjective urban environments.
- Correlation between physical street features and pedestrian perception.
Excerpt from the Book
4.1 Observation study: Description of method and data
Adopting a spatial sequencing process (visual analysis) (figure 4.3), e.g. Gordon Cullen (2007) ‘Serial Vision’, measuring perceptual qualities (Ewing & Handy, 2009) (figure 4.1 and table 1.1 ), evaluating experiential qualities of streetscapes (Rollo & Barker, n.d.) (figure 4.4,4.5,4.6,4.7,4.8,4.9), and ‘shades of black’ analysis, collectively, this study attempts to measure subjective qualities of the urban street environment objectively, by refining already used methods and techniques.
As shown in the above figure 4.1, the urban design qualities co-related with significant physical features are adopted for this report, and those qualities are visually assessed, similar to the study performed by Ewing & Handy (2009) in the paper ‘Measuring the Unmeasurable: Urban Design Qualities Related to Walkability’. After figuring out the presence of these urban qualities: imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency and complexity on the images of each observation spots- a simple mapping exercise (Rollo & Barker, n.d.) was performed where the percentage of the coverage of each urban design qualities were assessed.
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1. Introduction: This chapter introduces the shift from car-centric to human-centric urban design and defines the research scope, objectives, and the significance of walkability studies.
Chapter 2. Walkability: Relation and context: It explores the theoretical benefits of walkability across social, economic, and environmental sectors and reviews the past and present urban vision for Geelong.
Chapter 3. Literature review: This section analyzes existing studies regarding the built environment and walking behavior, establishing the gap in current methods for assessing urban walkability.
Chapter 4. Empirical study: This chapter details the field study, mapping physical street features and applying the 'shades of black' analytical technique to quantify subjective urban qualities.
Chapter 5. Discussion and Conclusion: The research synthesizes its findings, discusses the validity of the proposed methodological approach, and addresses the limitations and future needs in the field of urban design and walkability.
Keywords
Walkability, Built Environment, Urban Design, Central Geelong, Pedestrian-friendly, Human-scale, Serial Vision, Imageability, Streetscape, Urban Fabric, Qualitative Analysis, Quantitative Evaluation, Sustainable Transport, Urban Planning, Spatial Sequencing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research?
The research explores the deeper understanding of walkable urban environments, specifically examining the relationship between physical street features and walking behavior in Central Geelong.
What are the central themes discussed?
The study centers on the transition from car-centric planning to pedestrian-friendly designs, the benefits of walkability, and the objective measurement of subjective urban design qualities.
What is the ultimate goal of this thesis?
The goal is to provide a simplified, objective methodological framework for assessing how urban design elements influence pedestrian perception and walkability.
What scientific methods are utilized?
The paper uses a combination of literature reviews, field observations, spatial mapping, and a novel 'shades of black' analytical technique to evaluate urban design qualities.
What does the empirical section cover?
It covers a detailed observation study of four commercial street spots in Central Geelong, using both quantitative mapping and qualitative 'shades of black' coherence analysis.
Which keywords define this work?
Key terms include walkability, urban design, pedestrian-friendly environments, imageability, human scale, and urban fabric assessment.
What is the 'shades of black' analysis?
It is an analytical method attempted in this research that assesses the range of walkability in an urban space by analyzing the coherence of physical features and representing the results as a shade of black to indicate the level of walkability.
Why was Central Geelong chosen for this study?
Central Geelong was chosen as the location because it is a UNESCO city of design with ongoing opportunities for urban regeneration and intervention, providing a relevant test case for walkability assessment.
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- Sujan Shrestha (Autor:in), 2020, Walkability and built environment, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/911552
