Study On Residential Districts Walkability In Wuhan

Low-carbon urban transportation combining public traffic and walking is essential to the objectives of green sustainable urban development. While cities are nowadays highly motorized, walking transportation is dependent upon motorized transportation, and effective public transportation needs the support of favorable walking environment. In other words, the two key means of urban transportation, walking and public transportation, are closely related and interdependent. A great majority of daily necessary travel takes place around the houses, meaning that a study on the friendliness of walking environment, i.e. walkability, of urban residential district is key to the implementation of China’s focus on urban public transportation. At the same time, study on walkability is an important component of the theory of sustainable low-carbon cities. The study on the walkability of China’s urban residential district will contribute much to China’s theory of sustainable development and will support the study on urban walkability theories.This dissertation innovatively sets the walkability study of residential district in a space pattern at medium scale and walking environment at micro scale to establish a preliminary assessment framework for residential district walkability. Through the case study of typical Wuhan urban residential districts, the dissertation summarizes the evolution of urban residential districts walkability over the past100years and highlights the advantages and disadvantages at different periods. By horizontal comparison, the dissertation also studies the status of residential districts walkability of other overseas cities. Based on the above studies, the dissertation puts design strategies for enhancing Wuhan urban residential districts walkability.The studies in the dissertation cover the following4aspects:(1) By means of literature review, the dissertation makes a thorough survey of theories, policies and research results in relation to residential districts walkability since the20th century both in China and overseas, and briefs on the mainstream approaches and standards of neighborhood walkability evaluation. The dissertation adopts assessment indicators appropriate to Wuhan and establishes a preliminary framework for Wuhan urban residential districts walkability.(2) The study reviews the characteristics of walking system at each of six phases of urban habitat construction. Based on this, the dissertation makes a focused study on the walking environment, advantages and disadvantages of five typical neighborhoods、15residential units constructed at four different development phases of Wuhan. The dissertation takes these five typical cases as the objects of comparative study to find out current status of Wuhan’s urban residential districts walkability from perspectives of medium-scale space pattern and micro-scale walking environment. The author performs the study by means of literature review, site mapping and measurement and questionnaire survey from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives.(3) For purpose of horizontal comparison, the dissertation studies seven residential districts in Austin, London and Tokyo, focusing on space pattern characteristics. The American philosophy of traffic planning, neighborhood planning and suburban-biased urban development has imposed significant influence on China counterparts. The dissertation reviews the developing history of American urban neighborhood, focusing on the walkability of three residential districts in Austin. In addition, the study in this aspect also covers walkability-related indicators of Le Corbusier’s’ the City of Tomorrow", Venice and Barcelona.(4) The dissertation summarizes the pros&cons of Wuhan’s urban residential districts walkability over the past100years, reviews the experiences and lessons of a number of overseas cities and proposes development strategies of Wuhan’s residential districts walkability. With support of quantitative study, the dissertation attempts to propose quantified indicators, which constitute a breakthrough as compared to previous studies, which are more qualification oriented.