University of Twente Student Theses
A walkable city strategy for VlietZone: key principles, the role of local dwellers, and the strategy's climate change mitigation benefits
Khajehpour, Ebrahim (2023) A walkable city strategy for VlietZone: key principles, the role of local dwellers, and the strategy's climate change mitigation benefits.
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| Abstract: | Today, the emission of greenhouse gases as well as the rapid climate change is a major concern of many countries in the world. One promising and doable solution, compatible with human life, low cost, and also having beneficial results for human health, and finally, a very efficient way to reduce greenhouse gases, is the walkable city approach. This research investigates, the implementation of the walkable city concept in the city of Leeuwarden. Researchers shown that this concept of walkable city has direct effect on several items, and all of these items related together. For example, increasing of walkable city means increasing body activities then reducing to using personal vehicles and increasing to using public transportation. On the other hand, academic literature indicated several positive points for the health of citizens. For example, increasing physical activity, reducing cars in the city and reducing traffic, increasing commercial-entertainment functions, improving human mental and physical health, protection of green space, development of the social environment. Since the proposed topic is the presentation of a walkable city social solution, three main cases were investigated. Health, transportation and urban elements were the three main goals that were investigated in this research. As it is known, walkable city is a social concept and must be accepted by the people of the region, and on the other hand, it is directly related to people's lives and jobs. For this purpose, one of the best frameworks for this research is the environmental design framework (EDF). This thesis interpreted the steps of this framework as follows: first, to identify the problems, second, to investigate the problems in the region, third, to ask the problems and solutions provided by the people of the region, and finally, to provide useful solutions for the stated goals. About 83% and 81% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the existing facilities and green space, respectively, and did not consider these facilities suitable for the implementation of this concept. About the benefits of walkable city, about 52% of people gave a score of 4 out of 5 to the things that can help the concept of walkable city. Also, to confirm the impact of this concept on people's health, about 59% and 18.5% of the respondents gave a score of 4 out of 5 and 5 out of 5, respectively. In addition, about 57% of the questionnaire respondents gave a score of 4 out of 5 to the positive impact of the public transportation system for this concept. Finally, the very interesting point is the desire and interest in learning and participation and helping to implement this concept (NGO or social media, online or face to face). According to Table No. 2 in the conclusion and recommendation section, in Stage 2 of the framework, the opportunities and benefits and the results obtained were examined, and in Stage 3, solutions were presented, and in Stage 4, by presenting a picture of the goals and results were shown. Keywords: walkable cities, climate change, urban livability, urban design, Netherlands. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 43 environmental science |
| Programme: | Environmental and Energy Management MSc (69319) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/97310 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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