Improving Inclusivity and Sustainability: A Comparative Analysis of Universal Design in Community Centric Urban Parks
Kabul Polytechnic University
Keywords:
Analysis, Accessibility, Community-Oriented, Inclusiveness, Public Design, Sustainability, Urban ParksAbstract
Although public spaces are increasingly important, many urban parks still lack integrated approaches in terms of accessibility, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. This research has done a comparative evaluation of three community-oriented urban parks, including Aziz Duran Park (Turkey), Al-Azhar Park (Egypt) and Bishan-Ang Mo Kew Park (Singapore) based on the principles of universal design (UD), inclusiveness and sustainability. In this research, quantitative comparative method was used and secondary data was collected from sources such as scientific literature, planning documents, public reports, satellite images and visual materials. Also, an evaluation framework based on standard indicators was developed to measure the selected dimensions. The results showed that there are significant differences in the performance of the parks. Among them, Park Bishan-Ang Mo Kyu recorded the best performance with a total score of 95.8%, followed by Park Aziz Duran with 61.7%; While Al-Azhar Park showed the lowest performance with a score of 42.1% due to limitations in comprehensive infrastructure and ecological design measures. This study emphasizes the importance of integrating the principles of public design in the early stages of planning and designing urban parks in order to achieve social inclusion and environmental sustainability in the long term.
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