Studying the impact of environmental indices on walkability (A case study of Amol)

Authors

University of Mazandaran

Abstract

Automobile dependency in cities with many cars leads to create urban environments that not only promotes and encourages dependency on the car but it makes culture of automobile dependency, So that in practice without access to automobile, access to services is not possible or very difficult. On contrary, making pedestrian ways is the most powerful and influential design movement for neighborhoods, it also brings reducing the harmful consequences of automobile dependency, increasing the safety of pedestrians and improving the urban environment. Methodology of this study was descriptive and analytical based on Frank indexes of the walkability, Shannon’s entropy factor; scale removal in fuzzy logic was used to generalize the walkability on the surface areas of 25 districts of the city of Amol by using of GIS software and by using of SPSS software to analyze the correlation. There is the relationship between physical activity of people and the city environment in which they live, The Walkability index can be useful is in the stage of urban planning. High value of Walkability index means that a particular arrangement of the city supports physical activity of people the low value of Walkability index means that people very often used cars in the everyday life which results into minimum physical activity. The results show that various environmental factors effect walkability noticeably , the greater the amount of compression and mixing urban the walking ability increases, Amol and central regions have the highest levels of walking ability this will increases  activity of  walking and car-free activities.
 

Keywords