Abstract
Among the three pillars of sustainability, social sustainability has received the least attention, especially among the studies addressing the sustainable housing development in Dubai’s urban neighborhoods. Unfortunately, these neighborhoods are not showing enough vibrancy of their public spaces and amenities which seemingly undermined their social sustainability. The lack of a comprehensive tool that can assess the interlinked indicators of social sustainability in urban neighborhoods has urged the research to propose an Integrated Measuring Tools Method (IMTM), that incorporates relevant computational simulation techniques alongside the appropriate conventional qualitative tools. The proposed IMTM was utilized in assessing the social sustainability indicators within the urban form of an existing neighborhood in Dubai. The assessment revealed that various urban form characteristics including; density, land-use, mobility options, mobility networks, streets layouts, and the built environment’s safety and aesthetic qualities, are the main factors undermining social sustainability in the studied locality. The results informed a set of suggested redevelopment strategies/guidelines for this neighborhood that takes into consideration the exiting constraints and opportunities. These included; increasing density by infill development, redefining land-use to achieve diversity in housing types and decentralized amenities, diversifying mobility options, improving the spatial integration of the mobility networks while restraining the private cars movement, improving accessibility, enriching urban landscape, and finally enhancing the quality of amenities and services. A social sustainability redevelopment scenario was suggested based on these strategies. When compared to the exiting neighborhood utilizing the IMTM, it proved significantly better attainment of social sustainability principles. So, it might be claimed that the proposed IMTM and its outcomes proved to be a valid basis for assessing, redeveloping and validating social sustainability of existing neighborhoods with similar typology in Dubai, and potentially in the region.
Highlights
In line with the growing attention to sustainability in the present era, the number of cities pursuing adoption of sustainable design and planning approaches is Alipour and Galal Ahmed City Territ Archit (2021) 8:1 depending on the urban context-related specificities and differences (Jenks and Jones 2010).The urban form of a neighborhood with its physical and spatial attributes makes it unique in its kind and brings a variety of social opportunities and experiences to its residents (Avila and Ines 2001)
Computational simulation techniques are commonly adopted in studying environmental sustainability redevelopment
The current trend of studies on social sustainability of residential neighborhoods is often based on analytical reasoning approaches that in many cases adopt statistic questionnaire methods and/or qualitative analyses of unstructured/semi-structured interviewing and field observations methodologies
Summary
In line with the growing attention to sustainability in the present era, the number of cities pursuing adoption of sustainable design and planning approaches is. All the above-mentioned issues make “Choice and Diversity” for mobility, services, housing, and local jobs, a key aspect for social sustainability in urban neighborhoods To efficiently achieve this principle in a neighborhood, the sixth social sustainability principle of “Mixed-Use” pattern of development is fundamental, where a diversified land-use configuration can afford effective provision of various housing types, amenities, services, and movement options. This leads to a lively public realm within which people are encouraged to engage in daily social interactions (Barton 2000; Mouratidis 2018; Nabil and AbdEldayem 2015; Putnam 2000; Sung and Lee 2015). Besides the urban form quantitative computational tools of DepthmapX and UMI V.2 plugin in Rhino
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