The spatial configuration of local climate zones reveals effects on wayfinding in human walking

The importance of easy wayfinding in complex urban settings has been recognized in spatial planning. Empirical measurement and explicit representation of wayfinding, however, have been limited in deciding spatial configurations. Our study proposed and tested an approach to improving wayfinding by in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2023-09, Vol.18 (9), p.e0289780-e0289780
Main Authors: Fan, Ping Yu, Chun, Kwok Pan, Tan, Mou Leong, Mah, Daphne Ngar-Yin, Mijic, Ana, Strickert, Graham, Yetemen, Omer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agglomeration
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Case studies
Cities
Classification
Climate
Climatic changes
Cognition & reasoning
Computer and Information Sciences
Configurations
Dispersion
Earth Sciences
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Empirical analysis
Environmental psychology
Evaluation
Intelligibility
Land use
Local climates
Mapping software
Navigation behavior
Network analysis
Regional development
Regional planning
Social Sciences
Spatial analysis
Statistical analysis
Urban areas
Urban environments
Urban planning
Wayfinding
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Summary:The importance of easy wayfinding in complex urban settings has been recognized in spatial planning. Empirical measurement and explicit representation of wayfinding, however, have been limited in deciding spatial configurations. Our study proposed and tested an approach to improving wayfinding by incorporating spatial analysis of urban forms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area in China. Wayfinding was measured by an indicator of intelligibility using spatial design network analysis. Urban spatial configurations were quantified using landscape metrics to describe the spatial layouts of local climate zones (LCZs) as standardized urban forms. The statistical analysis demonstrated the significant associations between urban spatial configurations and wayfinding. These findings suggested, to improve wayfinding, 1) dispersing LCZ 1 (compact high-rise) and LCZ 2 (compact mid-rise) and 2) agglomerating LCZ 3 (compact low-rise), LCZ 5 (open mid-rise), LCZ 6 (open low-rise), and LCZ 9 (sparsely built). To our knowledge, this study is the first to incorporate the LCZ classification system into the wayfinding field, clearly providing empirically-supported solutions for dispersing and agglomerating spatial configurations. Our findings also provide insights for human-centered spatial planning by spatial co-development at local, urban, and regional levels.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0289780