Browsing by Author "Alsaiari, Hamad Nasser"
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- Ecological and Aesthetic Factors' Preferences of Urban Riparian Corridor in Arid Regions: A Visual Choice ExperimentBogis, Abdulmueen Mohammed (Virginia Tech, 2021-10-26)The aim of this study is to examine the public preferences for urban riparian corridors in arid regions, by testing to what extent people are willing to trade-off unmaintained ecological landscape for aesthetics offered by specific micro and macro environmental factors. Landscape design reflects ecological and aesthetic values, and trade-offs are often made between the two in practice. In arid regions, water scarcity means riparian corridors are the richest landscape typology and the only blue-green links for hundreds of miles. Pressure from urbanization and lack of eco-literacy contribute to negative feedback loops which present dire challenges for migrating avifauna and regional wildlife. Regarding natural resources and biodiversity, where multiple deliverable ecosystem services rely on the quality and health of that ecosystem, riparian systems with high biomass are more desirable. Although this can be achieved with low or no maintenance riparian buffers, these unmaintained ecological landscapes play an intrinsic role in sustaining the global ecosystem services and are important for the survival of the inhabitants (avifauna). Ecological landscapes are often subjected to trade-offs with aesthetic landscapes that include micro and macro environmental factors such as manicured landscapes. It is accepted that there is a preference for aesthetics in landscape design; however, it is unclear how laypeople prioritize aesthetics over different ecological factors in landscape scenes. This study uses a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to elicit the preferences of current or pretendant residents of Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia for multiple landscape scenes. The method combines ecological landscape characteristics adopted from the QBR index that are found in the study area in Jeddah and aesthetic characteristics, such as micro and macro environmental factors that are commonly suggested in landscape design projects adapted from relevant visual preference studies (Alsaiari, 2018; Kenwick et al., 2009; Kuper ,2017; Zhao et al., 2017). DCE is a widely used method to reveal preferences by analyzing the trade-offs people make between alternatives. Participants in this study were exposed to a set of designs, which included various configurations of aesthetic and ecological elements. Participants' choices revealed the influence of their ecological and aesthetic values. Results show that minimal design interventions would prevent trading off the ecological unmaintained landscape and that there are four subgroups with distinct homogeneous preferences for the attributes affecting the appeal for the urban riparian corridor in Jeddah City. Finally, results show that even though there are significant differences between subgroups based on preferences, the demographic information is proportionally distributed in a way the means differences diminish between the subgroups. Findings in this study will equip decision-makers with operational definitions relating to riparian landscape design and a method that they can use to minimize losses in ecological value over aesthetic value. This study will help researchers and landscape architects advance visual preference research further into the domain of empirical studies.
- The Governance of Mobilized Urban Policies: The Case of Riyadh's Transit-Oriented Development ProgramAltasan, Ibrahim Abdullah (Virginia Tech, 2023-08-18)Countries and cities around the world are searching for ways to plan urban development to accommodate the growing demand for public infrastructure and amenities due to high rates of urbanization. Urban policies deemed to be successful are often adopted by other cities and hence applied across contexts. Urban Policy Mobility (UPM) theories study the ways in which political relationships, power dynamics, and other potential drivers influence the circulation of urban policies. UPM provides a guiding framework to analyze the policymaking associated with mobilized urban policies to understand the socio-spatial processes that motivate the adoption of urban policies from elsewhere. This dissertation engages with the UPM literature by investigating the assemblage and implementation processes of a mobilized urban policy to explore how the fixed socio-spatial processes embedded within a particular planning culture interact with and absorb a flowing urban policy. The term flowing in this study refers to the process of transposing policies from one place to another. Little attention has been paid to how the planning culture in a developing country can shape the adoption (or non-adoption) of certain policy elements, and what challenges arise during the implementation of a flowing urban policy. Given this context, this study answers two research questions: (a) How does urban policy mobility unpack in practice in response to local socio-spatial processes? and (b) What challenges emerge when policies are transposed into new urban policy environments that are dissimilar from those in which they originated? A case study methodology was used to study the changes that occurred when a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) urban policy was introduced in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A qualitative content analysis of archival resources, documents, and semi-structured interviews revealed how local urban planning conditions and challenges influenced Riyadh's TOD assemblage and implementation. Public officials and consultants from Riyadh, national officials, and experts were interviewed to develop a clear understanding of the TOD policy assemblage and implementation processes. The two main findings from this research are that: 1) there was an incomplete translation of TOD into the local planning culture, primarily due to Riyadh's stronger emphasis on the density, diversity, and design features of TOD and less concern with the sustainability dimensions; and 2) several governance and prioritization challenges emerged during the policy implementation process, which stem from institutional constraints and institutional and resource gaps. This research expands the UPM field by tracing the trajectory of policy mutation due to local socio-spatial processes. Additionally, this study provides a conceptual framework that synthesizes three heterogeneous elements: planning culture, planning policy, and policy carriers. It offers a methodological contribution that advances UPM analysis to better explain policy mutation. This study can be used as a cautionary tale for officials engaged in adopting urban policies that originate in other jurisdictions.
- Residential Preference at Transit-oriented Development: A Visual Choice ExperimentAlsaiari, Hamad Nasser (Virginia Tech, 2018-11-28)Insufficient knowledge of residential preferences represents a major obstacle to achieving residential satisfaction and quality of life. This obstacle is even greater in the case of transit-oriented developments (TODs), as their success depends, in part, on the degree to which people's preferences are consistent with their residential environments. This study employed a visual choice experiment, which combines the benefits of visual preference surveys and discrete choice experiments, to elicit residential preference for TODs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before the opening of its citywide public transportation system. Using a seemingly homogeneous sample of participants, the analysis incorporated three analytical methods to elicit residential preference: a multinomial logit model, a mixed logit model, and a latent class model. The results indicated the presence of preference heterogeneity and the emergence of four lifestyle classes that could explain and predict residential preference patterns. People with similar sociodemographic characteristics may have different lifestyles based on their choice behavior, marital status, and public transit attitudes. Additionally, the results showed a strong preference for low-density housing, even among those who favor living in a TOD; however, increasing density could be mitigated through the presence of other TOD attributes. The findings of this research point to the diversity of residential preferences and suggest that providing a variety of residential environments increases the likelihood that people will find their preferred environment. Additionally, planning efforts to convert all developments near transit, particularly in suburban locations, to TODs might be unsuitable in cities where public transportation has been introduced only recently. Instead, deferring TOD conversion efforts until public transportation and its use are mature may attract people to live near transit and encourage the gradual development of transit affinity in residents who may otherwise reject TOD living completely. Lastly, the successful application of a visual choice experiment in this research opens up a variety of potential analytical methods that are used commonly in other fields and have the potential to move visual preference research into the realm of robust empirical investigation.