Alpana Sivam

Social sustainability and neighbourhood design: an investigation of residents' satisfaction in Delhi

Social and environmental goals are often mutually reinforcing. Urban forms may encourage social sustainability as well as social inclusion or may have the potential to create areas of crime and social exclusion. The issues of relationship between sustainable development and urban form have given birth to new paradigms of design approach such as new urbanism, the compact city and the eco-city. This paper examines the impact of urban form on social sustainability at the neighbourhood level. It seeks to better understand the relationship between urban form and social sustainability by comparing three neighbourhoods with dissimilar urban forms in Delhi, India. Household surveys and observation surveys in these three neighbourhoods were conducted, and it was found that the urban form of a neighbourhood plays a very important role in creating a socially sustainable residential neighbourhood. The study established that social interactions within the communities are higher when dwelling units are placed around the public realm or common open space. The study demonstrated that provision of high quality and well-located open space at the precinct level, mixed land use and good accessibility to the public realm and social infrastructure play an important role in increasing the social sustainability of the neighbourhood.

Urban green space and urban biodiversity: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Urban green space plays an important role in enhancing the quality of environment especially for urban biodiversity. Declining biodiversity around the world has received much attention among academics, professionals and citizens. The United Nations has declared year 2010 as the ‘International Year of Biodiversity’. Urban biodiversity movement is important to ensure healthy city environments. Despite this ongoing movement, urban dwellers have little knowledge about conservation of biodiversity particularly wildlife. Moreover, biodiversity has received little attention from built environment practices (Brown & Grant, 2005; Niemela, 1999). In general, urban wildlife habitat is protected as reserved forest. Many species of wildlife are generally found in such reserved forests. In comparison, the scale of urban parks in Kuala Lumpur is massive, much larger than protected forests. This paper presents the situation of urban wildlife species and the quality of habitats in Kuala Lumpur. It is found that many factors contribute to the healthy conservation of urban wildlife such as quality and variety of habitats, ornamental versus native vegetation and ecological design. The findings highlight that common urban birds are dominant in urban green spaces regardless of the size of the green spaces. However, only larger urban green spaces help protect species. Finally, the study concludes that urban wildlife in Kuala Lumpur is rapidly declining and that there is a greater need for the community and stakeholders to promote programs and activities to preserve and enhance urban wildlife. Development of comprehensive acts, policies and guidelines are vital for urban wildlife protection.

How “open” are open spaces: evaluating transformation of open space at residential level in Adelaide – a case study

This paper examines the transformation of open space and how it compares to older residential development. A study has been conducted at the residential level because neighbourhoods have been a basic unit of city design throughout the recent history of urban settlements. Furthermore, the neighbourhood is a more humanly relevant scale of urban development. The method adopted for this research was a comparative urbanism by comparing old and new residential areas. This study found that incremental redevelopment of old residential areas through both re-subdivision and intensification of development on existing allotments has resulted in a progressive loss of open space. However, the study also confirmed that the current supplies of open space across all the study areas (old and new residential areas) are relatively similar. The main difference between the open space supply in older and newer residential areas comes down to the ownership of land (i.e. the proportion of public versus private open space). The study demonstrated that older residential areas with large allotments have experienced a significant loss of private open space – originally from 50%, to current levels of 23–30%. The paper concludes that there is a need for a holistic approach to the provision of public and private open spaces to improve the quality of life at a residential level.

Resilience to heat in public space: a case study of Adelaide, South Australia

During summer heatwaves, heat load exacerbates in urban heat islands (especially in hot climates) and threatens public life in cities. This paper examines the links between urban microclimates, outdoor thermal discomfort and public life through an exploratory case study. Heat resilience is highlighted as the ability of the space to support its normal activities when experiencing out-of-comfort temperatures. It also reports on the correlations between heat sensitive outdoor activities and urban greenery in three disparate case studies in Adelaide. Results indicate that necessary and optional activities start to decline after the apparent temperature reaches the threshold of 28 °C–32 °C, while activities in public spaces with more urban greenery show higher resilience to heat stress. Research findings propose heat resilience as a quality indicator in public space and support the application of urban greenery to make urban settings more resilient to heat stress.

Social dimensions in the sustainability debate: the impact of social behaviour in choosing sustainable practices in daily life

Sustainable development is the trade-offs among social, economic and ecological objectives and is required to maintain sustainability of overall system. The sustainability of the built environment is partially based on individual behaviour. It has been argued that to improve sustainability, the changes should be brought in the individual behaviour patterns, replacing the unsustainable living patterns with the sustainable ones. The unsustainable behaviour patterns are ‘embedded’ and ‘deep-rooted’ in the normal living behaviour of individuals that it is not so easy to change them only by creating sustainable policies. There are several reasons why the unsustainable lifestyle patterns are easily adapted, and restrict change. This paper will use insights and case study examples from social practice theory in understanding those reasons. The aim of this paper is to elaborate how sustainable living practices can be brought about at community level for the individuals to easily adapt as part of their daily lives.

An Overview of the Gulf Countries’ Construction Industry

The construction industry is a multidisciplinary interface and multidimensional field. It plays a role for multiple actors. It involves many different construction activities such as residential, commercial, industrial, recreational developments, the physical infrastructure and many players at various stages of construction. Construction industries are affected mainly by construction decisions, workers issues, finance, governments’ roles, and the involvement of industries. This chapter provides an overview on each of these issues. The chapter demonstrated that The Gulf construction sector is not only growing very fast, but it is facing a shortage of skill workforce and materials. The Gulf’s biggest nation now accounts for 25% of all construction projects in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Due to a relaxation in the employment rule, some governments have changed the worker situation and flexibility in job and increase in salary. We also show that governments in these countries are very supportive by giving incentives to promote the construction industry. Governments are moving from oil GDP as major contributor of their economics to other sectors such as construction industries and tourism. The impacts of the 2008–2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) have not been the same across the Gulf world. Some countries such as Dubai are affected and their construction industries are slowing down, whereas the Sultanate of Oman and Bahrain are holding steady and proceeding with new construction projects.

Landsat Surface Temperature Data Analysis for Urban Heat Resilience: Case Study of Adelaide

Smarter urban futures require resilient built environment in the context of climate change. This chapter demonstrates the application of satellite-based surface cover and temperature data to support planning for urban heat resilience. Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 data is used to analyse the correlation of urban surface covers to the urban heat island effect in Adelaide. Methods for data source selection, surface cover classification, surface temperature calculation and analysis are detailed in this chapter. Results indicate that tree canopy and surface water covers had the least surface temperature variations in mesoscale. The average minimum surface temperature of tree canopy cover was 2.79 °C lower than asphalt and 4.74 °C lower than paved areas. Freely available satellite urban surface temperature data can assist urban planning authorities in planning heat resilient urban spaces for smarter urban futures in the context of climate change.

Does Urban Design Influence Physical Activity in the Reduction of Obesity? A Review of Evidence

Abstract Obesity has risen progressively over the past three decades, and is a major health problem around the world. Biological, psychological, behavioural, and social factors are unable to fully explain or limit the obesity outbreak. Therefore, questions arise about whether a well-designed built environment (BE) can enhance desire and opportunity for physical activities including incidental exercise and recreation in the local community. Many studies in public health have confirmed that physical activity (PA) can help prevent obesity and PA has become a public health priority in modern societies. With individual policies often failing to encourage PA, there has been much focus upon various ecological models that emphasise importance of the BE in promoting PA. Structure and quality of the BE can influence the need, the desire or the opportunity for people to walk, cycle and undertake PA as part of daily routine, incidental exercise for recreation. Thus, the question arises whether urban design being a multidimensional design tool could help improve the BE of neighbourhoods and encourage PA. This paper aims to review evidence related to the influence of conceptual urban design qualities in the improvement of PA and to summarise guidelines to promote PA through these qualities. The method adopted to address this aim involves a content analysis of available academic literature, with focus on the public health, planning, transport and urban design fields. The findings demonstrate that in spite of some contradictory evidence, many studies have confirmed that good urban design qualities can play a partial role in encouraging PA.

Landscape Heritage Conservation along Sanur Beach Borderline in Bali: Perspectives of the Local Government and Visitors

Bali is well known as the Paradise Island on the earth. Its unique landscape and culture attract large number of tourists from all over the world. Due to large number of tourist’s inflow several new developments are taking place in Denpasar city to support tourism activities especially in the tourism zone. Sanur beach attracts thousands tourist each year, and the new development of this beach is undeniable. The beach borderline has been declared as one of the cultural heritage in Bali, where the traditional Hindu ceremony took place. But nowadays, the border has interrupted with commercial activity for tourism purposes. Based on empirical research which employed a case study of public open space along the beach, the paper draws on the Balinese experiences with particular reference to Sanur Beach. This paper explores the perception of two different stakeholders with the practices on use of public open space. It argues that global economic have raised new issues for decisions relating to ownership and management of public open spaces and consequently brought effects on cultural heritage. This is reflected that role of government, private sectors involvement and the local community should be urgently improved.

Policy Responses to Improve the Quality of Housing for the Urban Poor: Case Study Delhi, India

Urbanisation is a major global trend, with over half of the world’s population living in urban areas. Nearly 70 % of the world’s poor live in Asia. About 250 million do not have access to clear drinking water and sanitation, and another 250 million live in slums [1]. Urban poverty, associated with unemployment and the lack of access to adequate housing and services, is an increasing social problem in many Asian cities. The rapid growth rate of population in many major Asian cities exerts considerable pressure on these cities’ governments to provide housing, infrastructure and services for a growing population. This presents a major challenge for urban planners and city managers to formulate policies and planning strategies to manage this development in a sustainable manner. This situation raises questions regarding how cities will be able to provide housing for the urban poor. Currently, housing for these communities in the majority of cities in developing countries, is provided by the informal sector, mostly in the form of slums and squatters. The aim of this paper is to identify policy responses to improve the provision of quality housing for the urban poor in Delhi, India.