A Review of Urban Visual Environment in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD): Visual Comfort and Disturbance

Abstract

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is one solution that widely applied to control the density of cities. Seeing the precedent, areas adjacent to public transit will be dominated by high-rise buildings. The issues raised in this paper related to how the phenomenon of high-rise development impacts the urban visual environment. The literature review method is used to determine aspects of the urban environment through visual comfort and visual disturbance. Literature review results in several factors influencing the urban visual environment, consist of the natural landscape, vegetation, exterior building and views, dimension, urban screen, visibility, colors, and materials. It was found that the difference between comfort and disturbance indicators tends to be thin because there is an acceptable disturbance. This situation occurs where visual disturbance can be tolerated as long as psychologically, there is a pleasantness increase. Related to TOD, development around transit areas must be considered for its impact on the urban visual environment. It is expected that through the achievement of a comfortable urban visual environment, the level of satisfaction will increase along with the increasing role of the transit area in supporting the use of public transportation and walkability, which are the goals of the TOD in an urban area.