Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak

The connectivity within a street network is a major consideration in the planning and design of a town. The overall effectiveness of a town design by considering the human connection with urban space encourages street environments towards a smart and efficient urban lifestyle. However, the spatial c...

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Main Author: Wan Mohamad, Wan Saiful Nizam
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2017
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Online Access:http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79576/1/WanSaifulNizamPFAB2017.pdf
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spelling my-utm-ep.795762018-10-31T13:00:09Z Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak 2017 Wan Mohamad, Wan Saiful Nizam HT101-395 Sociology, Urban The connectivity within a street network is a major consideration in the planning and design of a town. The overall effectiveness of a town design by considering the human connection with urban space encourages street environments towards a smart and efficient urban lifestyle. However, the spatial connection of human behaviour in a street network is influenced by the design and planning of street designs, patterns, structures, and character of the town. Malaysian towns have experienced various developments of street network that were planned, not only by colonialist ideologies, but also by various governments that came after Malaysian independence 1957, as well as developers who include architects, landscape architects and urban planners. The mixed designs of a street network cause negative effects towards pedestrian wayfinding, attributable to poor urban design, confusion in streetscape identity, and new developments that lead to the change of familiar environments to become unfamiliar. Therefore, this research aims to develop a spatial evaluation of street network connectivity for effective wayfinding behaviour in a small town in Malaysia. The town of Teluk Intan, Perak was selected as the study site based on the street network structures, patterns, designs, and characters of a Malaysian small town. In developing the evaluation, a survey questionnaire was distributed to pedestrians (n = 200), and then analyzed using SPSS to determine the index of fifteen street features that influence pedestrian wayfinding in this predefined context. With the aid of ArcGIS, the index was applied to produce a spatial map. Following this, axial-line data, convex-space data, as well as solid and void data were elicited from land-use data and Google images. In identifying the impacts of spatial connection, the data were analyzed utilizing the space syntax analysis from Depthmap. Next, the spatial map of street features and the spatial connection map were overlapped and analyzed to determine the spatial connection for wayfinding. The results were validated by triangulation from behaviour mapping and interviews (n=30). It was thus found that the combination of familiar street features strongly improved pedestrians‟ ability to identify their locations, positions, and routes to the destination better than from a feature. Furthermore, spaces with visualization, movement, and interaction assist pedestrians to identify street features, and lead to an effective wayfinding process. These findings provide more fine-grained insights on street network connectivity of small towns in Malaysia, especially those which help to improve wayfinding. As such, the findings suggest that for a small town in Malaysia to be systematic and organized, it is important to conduct a spatial evaluation of street connectivity prior to and during the planning stage. 2017 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79576/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79576/1/WanSaifulNizamPFAB2017.pdf application/pdf en public phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Built Environment Faculty of Built Environment
institution Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection UTM Institutional Repository
language English
topic HT101-395 Sociology
Urban
spellingShingle HT101-395 Sociology
Urban
Wan Mohamad, Wan Saiful Nizam
Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak
description The connectivity within a street network is a major consideration in the planning and design of a town. The overall effectiveness of a town design by considering the human connection with urban space encourages street environments towards a smart and efficient urban lifestyle. However, the spatial connection of human behaviour in a street network is influenced by the design and planning of street designs, patterns, structures, and character of the town. Malaysian towns have experienced various developments of street network that were planned, not only by colonialist ideologies, but also by various governments that came after Malaysian independence 1957, as well as developers who include architects, landscape architects and urban planners. The mixed designs of a street network cause negative effects towards pedestrian wayfinding, attributable to poor urban design, confusion in streetscape identity, and new developments that lead to the change of familiar environments to become unfamiliar. Therefore, this research aims to develop a spatial evaluation of street network connectivity for effective wayfinding behaviour in a small town in Malaysia. The town of Teluk Intan, Perak was selected as the study site based on the street network structures, patterns, designs, and characters of a Malaysian small town. In developing the evaluation, a survey questionnaire was distributed to pedestrians (n = 200), and then analyzed using SPSS to determine the index of fifteen street features that influence pedestrian wayfinding in this predefined context. With the aid of ArcGIS, the index was applied to produce a spatial map. Following this, axial-line data, convex-space data, as well as solid and void data were elicited from land-use data and Google images. In identifying the impacts of spatial connection, the data were analyzed utilizing the space syntax analysis from Depthmap. Next, the spatial map of street features and the spatial connection map were overlapped and analyzed to determine the spatial connection for wayfinding. The results were validated by triangulation from behaviour mapping and interviews (n=30). It was thus found that the combination of familiar street features strongly improved pedestrians‟ ability to identify their locations, positions, and routes to the destination better than from a feature. Furthermore, spaces with visualization, movement, and interaction assist pedestrians to identify street features, and lead to an effective wayfinding process. These findings provide more fine-grained insights on street network connectivity of small towns in Malaysia, especially those which help to improve wayfinding. As such, the findings suggest that for a small town in Malaysia to be systematic and organized, it is important to conduct a spatial evaluation of street connectivity prior to and during the planning stage.
format Thesis
qualification_name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level Doctorate
author Wan Mohamad, Wan Saiful Nizam
author_facet Wan Mohamad, Wan Saiful Nizam
author_sort Wan Mohamad, Wan Saiful Nizam
title Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak
title_short Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak
title_full Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak
title_fullStr Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak
title_full_unstemmed Street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in Teluk Intan Perak
title_sort street network connectivity towards pedestrian wayfinding in teluk intan perak
granting_institution Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Built Environment
granting_department Faculty of Built Environment
publishDate 2017
url http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79576/1/WanSaifulNizamPFAB2017.pdf
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