TY - JOUR
T1 - Walkability between Dubai developments
T2 - “Seen but not reached” - A portrayal assessment of walkability indices in Dubai, UAE
AU - Sunakh Zabanoot, Marwan S.M.
AU - Bleibleh, Sahera
N1 - Funding Information:
The first author wants to express his acknowledgment of the Architectural Engineering department in the United Arab Emirates University, and especially to the corresponding author Sahera Bleibleh for her guidance and feedback for this research. All the photographs were taken by the first author. The maps were extracted from Google Earth and Maps Apple, and the analysis was done by the first author.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 WIT Press
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The rapid ongoing urbanization growth in Dubai's developments has resulted in issues related to walkability and connectivity, considered as a tremendous development pressure. The aim of this study is to examine and evaluate the state and existence of physical connections within and between Dubai's developments (downtown Dubai and City Walk), in terms of walkability and the infrastructure provided for that. The assessment is based on portrayal documentation of three walkability indices (design, destination and diversity of land use). The study methodology is through use of personal experience, photographs and observations, through visitations to the case studies mentioned. The analyzed findings showed that downtown Dubai and City Walk are walkable within themselves, only through achieving the walkability indices used in this study; however, there is no supporting infrastructure for walkability just outside those developments, and certainly not between them, which creates an impossibility to walk for commuting between these two developments that are less than 1.5 km apart from each other. Thus, the essential mode of walkability for commuting between Dubai's developments was neglected and the fragmentation between nearby developments occurred because of the inconsistency in the levels of supported infrastructure and urban contexts.
AB - The rapid ongoing urbanization growth in Dubai's developments has resulted in issues related to walkability and connectivity, considered as a tremendous development pressure. The aim of this study is to examine and evaluate the state and existence of physical connections within and between Dubai's developments (downtown Dubai and City Walk), in terms of walkability and the infrastructure provided for that. The assessment is based on portrayal documentation of three walkability indices (design, destination and diversity of land use). The study methodology is through use of personal experience, photographs and observations, through visitations to the case studies mentioned. The analyzed findings showed that downtown Dubai and City Walk are walkable within themselves, only through achieving the walkability indices used in this study; however, there is no supporting infrastructure for walkability just outside those developments, and certainly not between them, which creates an impossibility to walk for commuting between these two developments that are less than 1.5 km apart from each other. Thus, the essential mode of walkability for commuting between Dubai's developments was neglected and the fragmentation between nearby developments occurred because of the inconsistency in the levels of supported infrastructure and urban contexts.
KW - City Walk
KW - Downtown Dubai
KW - Dubai
KW - Sustainability
KW - Sustainable development
KW - United Arab Emirates
KW - Urban design
KW - Walkability
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U2 - 10.2495/SC190101
DO - 10.2495/SC190101
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85080889226
SN - 1743-3541
VL - 238
SP - 107
EP - 117
JO - WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment
JF - WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment
ER -
