Studying Service Accessibility Between Abu Dhabi’s Superblocks, The Question of Global Integration Between Superblocks: Insights for Planning Practice from Abu Dhabi

Abstract

The use of superblocks as a way to organize neighborhoods is a common feature in Abu Dhabi's urban landscape. However, this strategy has been criticized for creating fragmented urban spaces, with isolated units separated by busy roads. This makes it difficult for people to access local amenities, encourages reliance on vehicles, and negatively impacts pedestrian mobility. Urban planning experts such as Jacobs (1961), Hillier (2001), and Salingaros (2005) have all noted these issues. Hillier (2001) emphasized the importance of integration in urban design, which allows for multi-scalar movements. This perspective is also reflected in Jacobs's (1961) emphasis on accessibility across different scales. The growth of Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs) has led to rapid suburban expansion, but there are ongoing debates about where to position nonresidential zones or service cores within these units. However, there has been limited quantitative analysis of this area. Addressing this gap, the present research delineates the integration on both local and global scales of 12 unique NPU network designs in Abu Dhabi across two different suburban developmental phases. The evaluative lens adopted encompasses pedestrian route directness (PRD) and betweenness centrality, assessed through three distinct tasks modeling various segments of a route, ranging from local to global scale. These assessments were performed under two scenarios, one involving only streets and the other incorporating both streets and alleys. The study found that global directness in NPUs outperforms local directness in street-only analyses, challenging the belief of NPU segregation.
Additionally, the study classified grid networks as having concentrated centrality, while fragmented and interlocked networks showed dispersed centrality. It was observed that after including alleys in the analysis, there was an improvement in the directness of streets in all networks, both on local and global scales. Moreover, the alleys showed centrality dispersion in all tested networks, along with a slight increase in centrality concentration in the selected segments. This study aims to enhance neighborhood planning by promoting a better understanding of integrating global NPU.

Date of Award	20 Apr 2024
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Khaled Alawadi (Supervisor)