ZEMCH 2019 International Conference Proceedings April.2020 | Page 48
1. Introduction
Cities are numbers of communities and neighborhoods where people can work live and have
entertainment. Day by day cities offer tremendous opportunities of community, employment,
education, excitement and interest. For all of these reasons cities became attractive areas for living and
more than half of world’s population are living in the cities [19]. On the other hand, cities create
problems of congestion, noise and pollution but most people do not have the choice recognizing the
trade‐offs. How to live and getting the right balance are parts of the solution. Living in towns and low
density cities have some advantages, however people may like living in a compact and dense city as
far as there is an equilibrium among the development elements; built area and open spaces, private and
public transportation, using natural and artificial resources [24]. City, community or neighborhood
could be considered as a system of depending components [32]. The major variables or components
that affect the design of any development are; urban form, transport, landscape, building design, waste
management, energy and water supply. The most sustainable design is about equilibrium among these
components [28]. In order to make cities more suitable for people, all aspects of viable city are required
to involve and operate smoothly within design or system equation. This paper aims to explore, evaluate
and optimize the sustainability of a neighborhood located in the city of Dubai in the United Arab
Emirates (UAE).
Urban sustainability is significant to human future; it directly affects people lifestyle, time, effort,
health, wellbeing and welfare [4]. Transportation, resources conservation, indoor and outdoor thermal
comfort represent some of the sustainable urban design factors that has a direct effect on livable
community. The major challenge for the urban designer is to improve and optimize the relation
between the three factors in urban geometry; density, movement and recourses. Sustainability at urban
level could be achieved through optimizing the three aspects of sustainability; environment, economy
and social, and finding the best design for the neighborhood, district and city [13]. The urban areas and
communities include buildings, open and green spaces, water features and road networks. These
compensates of the urban design elements that should be organized in a way that provides vitality and
improves the people lifestyle.
Accessibility, land use diversity, providing parks and green areas are of the strategies used when
planning a sustainable neighborhood. Passive design has also an effective role in achieving a green and
sustainable community by offering recourses efficiency. The crucial roles of the green space on
ecosystem has already been proven by some researchers [15, 16]. The leakage in accessibility to these
areas and other community services affects the community sustainability level; ensuring a good
accessibility will improve the community sustainability, and this consequently improves the
community social life [3, 30]. The service within the green areas, including sport services, has an
impressive impact on peoples’ wellbeing, and is resulting with good social relations among the
residences [5]. Other than that, land use diversity is another factor that forms a sustainable community.
Land use diversity and ensuring a good accessibility to the daily required services would improve
peoples’ lifestyle from one side, and have a positive effect on resources saving from the other side [9,
20, 33]. The reduction in the use of transportation and vehicle’s journey will consequently have a
positive impact environmentally by reducing CO2 emissions [2, 34].
Passive design is one of the strategies that the urban planner can adopt for designing a sustainable
community according to its direct effect on outdoor and indoor thermal performance. The urban air
temperature is rising in all cities in the world, as a result of global warming and the decrease in the
natural and greenery area in cities [7, 25]. This rise in outdoor air temperature consequently affects the
thermal performance of the inner space environment and increases the indoor air temperature averages
[14]. It has been proven that the design and the architecture of the buildings should collaborate with
surrounding nature to create the harmony between the outdoor and indoor spaces. The concept of
human community should be designed to influence positively the human behavior, health and culture
[1]. Oke (1987) is one of the researchers who highlighted the importance of the buildings and the urban
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ZEMCH 2019 International Conference l Seoul, Korea