Achieving sustainable regeneration and walkable communities through investigation of different urban configurations in Dubai, UAE

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Date
2017-10
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Publisher
The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
One of the major challenges facing urban planners in Dubai is the rapid growth of population. New developments were constructed within the last few years which caused the urban sprawl to reach the edge of the city. In this research, historical contend and sustainability factors were analysed to achieve sustainable regeneration within the Central Business District of Dubai along with enhancing walkability in the district through achieving thermal comfort within the urban form. The thermal comfort was analyzed through the simulation of different configuration to analyze the main three parameters which includes air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. ENVI-met modeling was used in this research to simulate the three urban configuration divided into three phases including the following: analysis of building form, analysis of building heights and the analysis of landscaping and vegetation on thermal comfort. Throughout the research it was analyzed that creating wind channel form buildings has the best effect compared to the other proposed form. moreover, uniformed building heights shared similar results while the best height selected was the proposal of different heights in which air temperature was lower than other height configurations. Finally, the best configuration selected within the configuration of landscaping and vegetation was the optimization of grass, trees and water elements which had the lowers air temperature in comparison to the other configurations. It was concluded through the research that there are potentials in enhancing walkability through sustainable regeneration in Dubai.
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Keywords
sustainable regeneration, urban configurations, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai, thermal comfort
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