The Relation Between Walking and Urban Form: Identifying Gaps in Egyptian Literature

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Towards Implementation of Sustainability Concepts in Develo** Countries

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Abstract

Walkability is an indicator of how pleasant a walking area is. It has many benefits that include environmental, health, and economic, and it also affects the quality of life. According to international literature, walkability is mainly affected by two of variables; (a) human-related and (b) urban form-related. Human variables include behavior, age, physical activity, safety perception, socioeconomic level, and others, while urban form variables are related to transportation infrastructure, land-use mix, streets configuration/design, and urban density. Internationally, studies in this area focused on multidisciplinary research methods combining public health, transportation, social behavior, and urban form. However, not many studies have simultaneously linked urban form variables with human behavior-related variables in a quantitative manner. On the other hand, in the Egyptian literature, a clear consensus on the advantages of mixed-use and density can be noticed. Nonetheless, empirical evidence or quantified description for these terms is rarely provided. Furthermore, no significant attention is given to the impact of human-related variables on walking. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the international and local methodologies that focused on walkability and its relation with social behavior and urban form. The study at hand classifies and categorizes the main streams of research internationally and locally. Consequently, define gaps in the Egyptian literature and identify possible topics that need to be quantitatively addressed in the local context.

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Sami, F.A., Galal, O.M. (2021). The Relation Between Walking and Urban Form: Identifying Gaps in Egyptian Literature. In: Alalouch, C., Piselli, C., Cappa, F. (eds) Towards Implementation of Sustainability Concepts in Develo** Countries. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74349-9_4

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