Blue City Framework for Evaluating Equitable Accessibility to Natural Blue Spaces in Coastal Urban Areas

Document Type : Original Article

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Urban Design Department, Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University

Abstract

Blue spaces have various spatial structures, natural or artificial, that positively contribute to urban livability and enhance the quality of life for humans and urban areas across all aspects- social, health, etc. Consequently, blue spaces should be considered in discussions of environmental justice and equity. Previous studies of blue spaces are limited and remain underexplored concerning equitable distribution and accessibility from all income levels in residential urban areas compared to urban green spaces. This research aims to design an initial evaluation and guiding framework, “Blue City Framework BCF, " to assess the accessibility and coverage service area of natural public blue spaces, as an indicator of quality of life for coastal residential areas. The BCF is designed and created based on qualitative and quantitative approaches: identifying definitions, benefits, distribution of blue spaces, and their relation to the 15-minute city concept, as well as definitions and measuring methods of accessibility. In addition, a comparative study between international and local case studies is conducted to identify the accessibility variable of blue spaces. Then, to prove the efficiency of BCF, an applied study is conducted on Alamein City, using the network origin-destination (OD) distance method. The research results classified the quality of life of Alamein residential urban areas based on the coverage service area of natural blue spaces. The findings are that public transportation affects urban connectivity of blue spaces, furthermore, BCF should be integrated with urban design policies, as the blue city is considered the future of improving human quality of life.

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