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Assessing walkability in hot arid regions: the case of downtown Abu Dhabi

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Abstract

Regarded as critical infrastructure for a city’s planning and design, pedestrian facilities are considered to be crucial to the health and economic well-being of a city’s inhabitants. This study assesses the walkable environment of two urban neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi’s main island. The research aims at providing the primary data required to facilitate the development of policies, design strategies, and systems that will support sustainable walking environments throughout the Emirate. Specifically, the study examines the walking behavior of the users of two neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi. The following questions were explored: (1) What patterns of walking behavior are observable in the street, and what are their diurnal and seasonal rhythms? (2) What potential reasons could explain the observed walking behavior? (3) To what extent do the built environment and climate affect walking in Abu Dhabi? (4) What particular strategies could be adopted to encourage walking in Abu Dhabi? Data collection and analysis tools include the following: (1) Geographic Information Systems (GIS), (2) fieldwork, and (3) qualitative data assembled from a survey questionnaire. Survey results presented walking as a widely used form of non-motorized transportation for both leisure and utilitarian purposes among blue-collar employees working in the service and retail sectors. Transportation, entertainment, physical fitness, and health were reported as major reasons for walking. Although participants’ walking patterns were not significantly affected by climate, respondents reported that weather was the main source of discomfort while walking. Policy and design changes, infrastructure enhancement, and potential shading methods are proposed to enhance the walking experience.

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Source Abu Dhabi Geospatial Portal

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Notes

  1. Thermal index is a way of evaluating thermal comfort, which refers to people’s satisfaction with the thermal environment.

  2. Sectors represent Abu Dhabi’s superblocks. Streets in the Island from a gridiron plan, with intersecting roads forming each block/sector.

  3. Population is estimated using the GIS data from 2016 which provides building footprints with number of floors information. Firstly, we obtain the gross floor area (GFA) of buildings by multiplying the building footprint polygon area and number of floors in that building. Then, from site observation we know that both study areas are composed of apartment buildings, and most of them are 2BHK units. From a popular real estate search website propertyfinder.ae, we obtain the average unit size (UA) for 2 BHK apartments which is 1200 ft.2 to 110 m2. Then, from Abu Dhabi Community Facility Planning Standards Page 28 (https://issuu.com/senior.architect.ph.d/docs/abu_dhabi_community_facility_planni), we get the average household size (HS) for mixed-nationality communities in Abu Dhabi which is 4.2). Lastly, from site visits we consider 30% of the GFA to be of non-residential use including hotels, commercial, and offices. Estimated population (EP) is obtained by the formula: EP = (GFA/UA) * HS.

  4. With a population of 3.42 million (as per International Migrant Stock 2019 released by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Indian expatriate community is reportedly the largest ethnic community in the UAE constituting roughly about 30% of the country’s population In Abu Dhabi Emirate, there are about 513,000 Indians which is approximately 15% of the diaspora. Among these Indian immigrants, 65% belong to the blue-collar category (employed mostly in construction companies, municipalities, agricultural farms), 20% belong to the white-collar non-professionals (clerical staff, shop assistants, salesmen, etc.) and 15% are professionals and businessmen (Indian Embassy UAE, 2017: http://www.indembassyuae.gov.in/eoi.php?id=UAE). Likewise, according to an unreliable source in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipinos_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates), there are 229,819 Filipinos in Abu Dhabi.

  5. LAI is one of the conceptual environmental canopy modeling parameters for studying trees’ heat exchanges with the outdoor environment which appear in terms of evapotranspiration and shading (Shahidan et al. 2007; Shahidan and Jones 2008).

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  1. Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Program, Khalifa University, Masdar Campus, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Khaled Alawadi, Praveen Maghelal & Asim Khanal

  2. Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Program, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Victoria Hernandez Striedinger

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  1. Khaled Alawadi
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Alawadi, K., Hernandez Striedinger, V., Maghelal, P. et al. Assessing walkability in hot arid regions: the case of downtown Abu Dhabi. Urban Des Int 27, 211–231 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-021-00150-0

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