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Purpose This study aims to develop a managerial contribution with actors whose mission is the development of sustainable tourism in the mountains. Lastly, they present and discuss the findings. Design/methodology/approach A case study was conducted on the third stage of Mare in Mares, where at the end of this stage, the village stage gîte located 850 m above sea level accommodates hikers. The study began in 2016 and included tourism professionals (bed and breakfast managers, stage gite managers and guides), local elected officials, as well as representatives of the Local Mediation Group, the Regional Natural Park of Corsica, the Corsican Environment Office, SIVOM de la Bravone, the Development Office and breeders in the pig and beef sector. Findings The results show that the hiker numbers at Mare a Mare (800 hikers over a short period) are not an obstacle to sustainable mountain tourism. In contrast, wild fishing, pig and cattle wandering and the deficit of waste water treatment plants in some of the villages of Mare a Mare, contribute to endangering the strategy of sustainable development and sustainable tourism in mountains. Research limitations/implications The limitations of the study are its focus on just one stage of the Mare-to-Mare sentier de grande randonnée footpath and, secondly, the possibility that the paths may not be usable in future as climate change impacts occur. Originality/value The purpose of this study is to make a managerial contribution in relation to the action that needs to be taken, beginning with a trial in Corsica. Specifically, managerial support would involve a training course on the actions needed for – decision-makers, managers, politicians – whose responsibility it is to develop sustainable tourism in the mountains. Given this broad recommendation, the content of the training and action needed should be based on the concept of territorial resilience, as well as aspects of complex thinking and planning based on a systemic approach.

This study proposes a geographic information system (GIS)-based cellular automata (CA) model, which is designed for planning bikeways upon existing footpath networks within an urban area. The CA model was developed based on a GIS platform as a visual interface whereby spatiotemporal characteristics and spatial processing can be combined in a highly effective way. The host value of each CA cell is conditioned upon four indicator variables, namely cycling demand level, land-use nature, social value, and traffic safety. This model gives traffic planners a quick and intuitive framework to develop cycling facilities under limited land resources. A model prototype has been developed in a common desktop GIS and applied to a mid-sized rapidly developing area in Singapore. Published version

Mountain protected areas are characterized by high biodiversity, which makes it a great challenge for managers to maintain a balance between their use and the stability of natural ecosystems. Maintaining that balance is particularly difficult in areas with high tourism pressure. The expected volume of tourist traffic should be considered at the planning stage of the tourist infrastructure development process. Insufficient capacity of tourist infrastructure can lead to environmental degradation, which is hard, or at times impossible, to repair. In our research, we identified patterns of tourist footpath and road functioning in an environmentally protected area with high volumes of tourist traffic. Data from geomorphologic mapping was analyzed in order to identify tourist footpath and road structures in the Tatra National Park (TNP). Fieldwork was conducted in several stages between 1995 and 2019. Orthophotomaps from the years 1977, 2009, 2017 and 2019 were used to identify and compare degraded zones along selected tourist footpaths. Degraded zones were defined as areas surrounding a footpath or tourist road with a mean width larger than or equal to 10 meters, with heavily damaged or completely removed vegetation and exposed, weathered cover, where geomorphic processes that would not take place under normal conditions are readily observable. The examined tourist footpaths and roads vary in terms of their morphometric parameters. Research has shown important differences between mean and maximum footpath width as well as maximum incision depth for the forest zone versus the subalpine and alpine zones. A lack of differences in these parameters was noted between the alpine and subalpine zones. Research has shown that an increase in the surface area of degraded zones found adjacent to tourist footpaths occurred in all the studied geo-ecological zones in the study period. However, the largest increase occurred atop wide ridgelines found in the alpine zone. Degraded zones may be an indication of exceeding the tourist carrying capacity of a mountain tourist area. Mass tourism in TNP contributes to the formation of degraded zones adjacent to footpaths, whose continuous evolution may lead to irreversible changes in local relief.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a recognised modelling tool for simulating pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons. These studies require accurate street geometry, sufficient modelling experience and access to software to provide reliable outputs. Parked cars are known to act as a passive barrier and affects pollutant dispersion in an urban street canyon. This modelling study examines the impact of accurate geometrical detailing and suitable mesh sizing on air pollution concentrations measured at street level. Mean steady state concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) were measured in a reference scenario (without parked cars) and three parked car scenarios. A comparison of the results indicated that individual rectangular blocks and generic car scenarios overestimated pollutant concentrations on the footpaths by up to 25% when compared to the results from the five distinct car designs scenario, with the parked cars acting as a passive barrier in each scenario under different wind conditions. The most notable finding demonstrated how the five distinct car designs scenario presented an increase in CO concentrations on the leeward footpath as opposed to a reduction in the results in the other coarser geometrically detailed scenarios. The parked cars trapped pollutants in each scenario with low wind speeds for perpendicular wind conditions, as higher concentrations were measured on the footpaths. A further examination of pollutant decay rates demonstrated how the geometrical detailing of the parked cars also impacted upon the duration taken for pollutants to escape from the footpath zones. These findings demonstrate how parked cars affects pollutant dispersion and concentrations measured on the footpaths at street level, and the adoption of a suitable meshing scheme is vital to capture results in the zone of interest in an urban street canyon.

Penis enlargement, here and there called male improvement, alludes to a variety of methods planned to build the size, length, or erectile inflexibility of the human penis. Systems extend from manual activities to extending gadgets and surgical methods, with reports of triumphs and disappointments around the globe. As far back as the advancement of humanity, penis has been viewed as the most vital part of a male body which is in charge of proliferation. A solid and solid penis is coveted by each man. In the event that a man has an immature penis or on the off chance that it doesn't work legitimately while having intercourse the individual may fall into misery and despicable feeling about himself. Sanda (Saara hardwickii), commonly known as Hardwicke's spiny-tailed lizard or the Indian spiny-tailed lizard is a species of agamid lizard found patchily distributed in the Thar desert, Kutch, and surrounding arid zones in India and Pakistan.

BackgroundMany studies have used the concept of ‘walkability’ to assess how conducive a neighbourhood is to physical activity, especially active travel. Studies in the United States and Australia have traditionally used a road-based network system of intersection density to derive a walkability index. However, other studies suggest that analyses based on footpath networks may provide a more robust basis for assessing the walkability of built environments in the European context as they better capture alternative opportunities for physical activity such as parks and greenways. To date, no studies have examined whether a road- or footpath-based network is more closely related to actual physical activity behaviour. Therefore, the aims of this paper were to examine associations between active travel and walkability indices based on both road- and footpath-based intersection density and to establish which measure provided the best fit to the data. MethodsCross-sectional survey and geographical information system (GIS) data were collected from February 2010-January 2011. A series of crude and fully adjusted zero-inflated negative binomial regression analyses examined associations between road- and footpath-based walkability and the average minutes per week of active travel. ResultsModel fit indices suggested that the models using road-based walkability provided a marginally better fit. However, regression results indicated similar findings with respect to the effect of road- and footpath-based walkability on active travel.ConclusionResults suggest that footpath-based indices of walkability are comparable to road-based indices in their associations with active travel and are an alternative model, particularly for assessing environmental change in non-road-based built environment interventions.

This study aims to identify potential geosites and show existing geosites in a young glacial landscape in northern Poland through a qualitative assessment of the local geoheritage. Three areas of diversified morphology and geology located within the extent of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet have been selected as the research polygons: the north-eastern part of the Dobrzyń Lake District, the Lower Vistula Valley and the Kashubian Lake District. Three basic abiotic components of the environment have been analysed: geology, terrain relief and hydrology. This research is based on some specific materials including maps and photographs. Methodology of this research includes the inventory, characterization and assessment of selected areas. The final results are proposals for geosites of high educational value in each of the three investigated regions. For the north-eastern part of the Dobrzyń Lake District, the creation of a geopark has been proposed, and the geosites of the Lower Vistula Valley provide the potential for a geotourist footpath to be designed. The Kashubian Lake District is characterised by the occurrence of numerous glacial landforms and sediments as well as high denivelations and a concentration of erratic boulders. Therefore, this region also has the potential to be selected for valuable geosites and the designing of a geotourist footpath.

Pedestrians are the most neglected road users and witness an alarming accident rate each year. In India, annually, around one-third of road accidents involve pedestrians as victims. The pedestrian accident-prone urban road stretch along National Highway 66 in Thiruvananthapuram City was selected as the study stretch. In this paper, a statistical model for predicting the number of pedestrian accidents and their severity levels such as grievous, minor and fatal injury was developed for urban midblock sections. Poisson regression models were found to be the most suitable model to fit the data. Several factors such as number of bus stops, speed of vehicles, traffic volume, pedestrian volume along footpath and crosswalk, side roads, signalized crossings and the quality of crossings were found to considerably affect the pedestrian accidents. This paper helps to provide an insight into the hazardous conditions to pedestrians in urban areas and also proposes recommendations for enhancing the safety of the pedestrians.

The body of evidence, both archaeological and palaeoenvironmental, for Mesolithic occupation in the North York Moors and adjacent Tees Valley was collated and assessed by the North East Yorkshire Mesolithic project (2006–2014). Five sites in different topographic locations were evaluated by the project, which also included monitoring footpath erosion in key locations in order to verify and extend the known distribution of sites. Almost 50 years on from Jeff Radley’s account of the Mesolithic period in North East Yorkshire, the project’s results provide an opportunity to review the evidence. Knowledge of site distributions across this landscape has increased and understanding of the nature of the occupation has improved but there are still questions to be answered. Directions for future research are suggested, but it may be only with detailed site investigation that we will be able to make significant advances in our understanding of Mesolithic activity within this landscape.

Motorcycle transportation has burgeoned in war-affected West Africa over the past decade. The penetration of motorcycle taxis deep into isolated rural communities has spread spontaneously and created direct and indirect employment opportunities for low-skilled youth, a category most susceptible to militia recruitment. Equally important, it has significantly contributed to lifting smallholder farmers out of poverty by reducing the costs of moving produce to markets, with motorcycles able to visit villages connected to feeder roads solely by footpaths. Nevertheless, state actors and international donors remain reluctant to allocate funds to rural track building/upgrading, preferring to stick to more conventional, but expensive, construction/rehabilitation of rural roads accessible to four-wheeled vehicles. Through a case study of Liberia – still recovering from two civil wars and an Ebola health crisis – this paper argues that the impact of bringing community access through track construction/footpath upgrading is significant, particularly because track construction lends itself par excellence to the involvement of the rural communities themselves.

Trees along footpath zones (or verges) grow on the “front-line” of urban forest ecosystems, increasingly recognised as essential to the quality of human life in cities. Growing so close to where residents live, work and travel, these street trees require careful planning and active management in order to balance their benefits against risks, liabilities, impacts and costs. Securing support and investment for urban trees is tough and robust business cases begin with accurate information about the resource. Few studies have accounted for spatial heterogeneity within a single land-use type in analyses of structure and composition of street tree populations. Remotely sensed footpath tree canopy cover data was used as a basis for stratification of random sampling across residential suburbs in the study area of Brisbane, Australia. Analysis of field survey data collected in 2010 from 80 representative sample sites in 52 suburbs revealed street tree population (432,445 ± 26,293) and stocking level (78%) estimates with low (6.08%) sampling error. Results also suggest that this population was transitioning to low risk, small-medium sized species with unproven longevity that could limit the capacity of the Brisbane’s Neighbourhood Shadeways planting program to expand from 35% footpath tree canopy cover in 2010, to a target of a 50% by 2031. This study advances the use of contemporary techniques for sampling extensive, unevenly distributed urban tree populations and the value of accurate resource knowledge to inform evidence-based planning and investment for urban forests.

Vegetation barriers have been widely applied along urban streets to improve roadside air quality. For a deep investigation of their influences, field measurements and numerical simulations are performed in this study. Carbon monoxide (CO) is selected as a representative of gaseous traffic emissions for both field observations and numerical models. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models of the standard k-e turbulent model and Eulerian approach for species transport are solved by FLUENT solver. Results obtained from numerical simulations show a good agreement with field observations on the distribution of roadside CO. In perpendicular wind conditions, both field observations and numerical simulations present a prominent CO reduction over the slow lanes (footpath and bikeway) when vegetation barriers exist. To effectively mitigate roadside air pollution, numerical simulations also provide the optimal heights for roadside vegetation barriers in the given street canyons. For street canyons with an aspect ratio (the ratio of building height to street width) ranging from 0.3 to 1.67, 1.1 m can be used as an optimal height, and 2.0 m could serve as an alternative if tall vegetation barriers are considered. For street canyons with an aspect ratio of lower than 0.3, 0.9 m to 2.5 m can be considered as the optimal heights for roadside vegetation barriers. According to sensitivity analysis, the optimal heights for vegetation barriers are largely insensitive to wind velocities in the given street canyons. In the more complicated urban street canyons and complex meteorological conditions, the optimal heights can be determined by specific numerical simulations. These findings are expected to provide important insights into alleviation of gaseous mobile emissions in terms of vegetation barrier design in urban streets.

In this chapter, the types of climbing are defined and numbers involved are estimated. The effects of traditional summer climbing on cliff vegetation and other biota, like gastropods, are evaluated. This includes “gardening,” footpath erosion up to the crags, at the tops, and a decrease in rare and endangered species and tree damage from abseiling and belaying. The effects of cliff micro-topography and climbers’ preferences are discussed with regard to the vegetation distribution and the fact that not all effects are negative. The impacts on bird populations are evaluated, and the damage to the rock by ropes, chalk, protection, and the creation of rock polish is discussed. Other environmental effects from bouldering, winter, and mixed climbing are evaluated. The management to counteract these impacts such as management plans, memorandums of understanding, liaison groups, closures, seasonal restrictions, star systems in guides, permits, and outreach and education, including codes of conduct, are discussed and evaluated.

Visitors' perception can be used as a source to develop ecotourism object. The purpose of this research was to explain visitors' perception towards the development of ecotourism object in Liwa Botanical Garden. The data taken through closed-interview, observation and literature study. The data collected was analyzed by one score one indicator. The result of the research showed that the attraction object in Liwa Botanical Garden was quite satisfying: infrastructures, facilities, and services were categorized as satisfying: however the acomodation was less satisfying. The additional and restoration of plant collection, food stalls, parking lot, guard post, gate, the color of footpath, children play zone, and camping ground need to be fixed.

This paper presents results on the characterisation of sediment build-up on roads and footpaths of a residential catchment in Dublin, Ireland. Compared to power and exponential functions, the linear function provided the best fit of the road sediment build-up in terms of total and size-fractionated loads. Significant road sediment build-up rates were recorded for the majority of size fractions on the three street zones sampled, however it was not possible to separate build-up rates between size fractions due to random variation in sediment loads. There was a significant difference in total road sediment build-up between two of the sampling zones, which was likely due to the proximity to a highly trafficked road. Build-up rates on footpaths could not be separated from random variation. Footpath sediment loads were between 6% and 22% of road sediment loads, with texture depth identified as an important difference between these surfaces.

The positive effects of low-intensity physical activity are widely acknowledged and in this context walking is often promoted as an active form of transport. Under the concept of walkability the role of the built environment in encouraging walking is investigated. For that purpose, walkability is quantified area-wise by measuring a varying set of built environment attributes. In purely GIS-based approaches to studying walkability, indices are generally built using existing and easily accessible data. These include street network design, population density, land use mix, and access to destinations. Access to destinations is usually estimated using either a fixed radius, or distances in the street network. In this paper, two approaches to approximate a footpath network are presented. The two footpath networks were built making different assumptions regarding the walkability of different street types with respect to more or less restrictive safety preferences. Information on sidewalk presence, pedestrian crossings, and traffic restrictions were used to build both networks. The first network comprises car traffic free areas only. The second network includes streets with low speed limits that have no sidewalks. Both networks are compared to the more commonly used street network in an access-to-distance analysis. The results suggest that for the generally highly walkable study area, access to destination mostly depends on destination density within the defined walkable distance. However, on single street segments access to destinations is diminished when only car traffic free spaces are assumed to be walkable.

Sidewalks play an important role in transportation, as they provide a safe path for people to walk along that is separated from the motorized traffic. In suburban areas, sidewalk helps to provide equal access to people who cannot drive, notably children, the elderly and the economically disadvantaged. Sidewalks also play an important role in accommodating people that, while perfectly able to drive, may choose not to depending on the length and type of trip they are undertaking - such as a walk to a local shop, a walk for recreation or physical exercise, or taking a pet (such as a dog) for a walk. High densities, mixed land use patterns, short trip distances and high share of walk are major characteristics of Indian cities. But, many of Indian towns and cities are not friendly to the pedestrian movements. The safety of pedestrians has been seriously affected by the rapid growth of vehicular traffic and inadequate pedestrian network especially in the Central Business Districts. The pedestrians are further affected by the urban air pollution and noise pollution. Pedestrians are expected to walk on the sidewalk constructed on the side of the carriageway. Most of the times, these sidewalks are encroached by road-side development or occupied by vendors and hawkers. In case sidewalks are available, then a buffer area is provided for the pedestrians but those buffers are either occupied by parked vehicles or encroached by other users. As a result pedestrians are forced to walk on the carriageway. Not many comprehensive studies on pedestrian sidewalk facilities and assessment of their safety and quality have been taken up especially in the mid sized cities in the country. Absence of sidewalk wherever necessary, deteriorated conditions of footpath, encroachments of footpath, presence of footpath wherever pedestrian movement is negligible are some of the problems to be studied. As pedestrians are the most vulnerable among road accident victims, the study aims to highlight the need for providing better sidewalk facilities for pedestrians to save them from road accidents.

Due to Asia’s economic growth and industrialization, there has being a growing interest in road landscapes recently. In the meanwhile, aesthetic aspects in road design are becoming more and more important as 3D design technology advancing. With a view to the above, designers must consider both the structural engineering and the aspect of aesthetics when conceiving new urban roads blueprint. Much more in-depth studies are expected to focus on the aesthetics of roads by utilizing 3D design technology. In light of this, this study was centred on the landscape preferences of road in modern cities from the perspective of building height and planting type alongside. The main results of the study were summarized as follows: The images of H:W=1:3 and H:W=1:1 were more highly preferred than the rest seven images on the grounded that the lower buildings seemed to have better correspondence with the surroundings. And the image of planting with 7.5 meter-interval received the highest evaluation for visual preference on account that this interval provides road landscape with a visual image of stability. In conclusion, this study results illustrated that ratio of building height to road width and the planting interval on footpath were the crucial elements in landscape design. Furthermore, this study also make efforts to present a methodology for 3D design develoement.

Road easements are ubiquitous in urban landscapes but the green space they provide has been largely ignored, even though it represents a significant proportion of total urban green space. In this study, the extent and spatial distribution of green space within road easements are compared with private residential gardens and other public green space in Melbourne, Australia. Ground-surface permeability to water data and aerial photography were used to identify and quantify the extent of green space within 47 randomly selected neighbourhoods. Road easement green space constituted 7.0% of land cover and a surprisingly high 36.7% of public green space. The percentage of the road easement that was green space was positively correlated with date of neighbourhood development, residential parcel size, footpath absence and social disadvantage. The percentage of residential parcels that was private garden was positively correlated with residential parcel size, but negatively correlated with road density, and positively correlated with date of neighbourhood development as date increased to the 1950s and then negatively correlated for the following decades. Streets with a greater percentage of road easement green space were associated with residential parcels that had a greater percentage of garden. The potential for road easement green space to provide for the biodiversity, ecosystem function and human amenity now being demanded from urban green spaces is much greater than previously thought. Planners, urban foresters, landscape architects, engineers and ecologists need to work together to reconsider the ecological and greening roles of existing road easements and consider this in future road designs. Our data suggests that the roles that residents, municipal governments and road authorities can play will vary across developments, with each presenting specific opportunities to improve the benefits flowing from road easement green space.

This study was to identify the differences on cognitions for conservation on the Rice Terraces landscape between local residents and visitors. For this purpose, this study drew problems and implications through consideration about advanced studies and then carried out a survey of local residents and visitors. The results of this study analyzed five factors that are the components of cognition about the Rice Terraces landscape: production, policy, landscape, management, and revitalization. The Cognition of Rice Terraces landscape indicated that local residents had more positive evaluation than visitors did. In addition, there were indicated differences in most items. Particularly, the local residents had more positive evaluation than visitors did in production(rice paddy of fallow ground, form of traditional rice paddy, weeds), landscape(cultural value, footpath of rice field and stonewall), and revitalization(common program for local residents and visitors, village revitalization from festival and event). Visitors had a more positive evaluation than local residents in terms of policy(designation of a place of scenic beauty, direct payment) and management(cooperation of local residents and visitors). In consideration of these results, it needs to draw up measures that are able to build up a common cognition to overcome differences between local residents and visitors. It is based on the knowledge and opinions that visitors and local residents had concerning history, traditions, cultures and production.

A pedestrian network is a topological map that contains the geometric relationship between pedestrian path segments (e.g., sidewalk, crosswalk, footpath), which is needed in a variety of applications, such as pedestrian navigation services. However, current pedestrian networks are not widely available. In an effort to provide an automatic means for creating pedestrian networks, this paper presents a methodology for extracting pedestrian network from aerial and laser images. The methodology consists of data preparation and four steps: object filtering, pedestrian path region extraction, pedestrian network construction, and raster to vector conversion. An experiment, using ten images, was conducted to evaluate the performance of the methodology. Evaluation results indicate that the methodology can extract sidewalk, crosswalk, footpath, and building entrances; it collects pedestrian networks with 61 percent geometrical completeness, 67.35 percent geometrical correctness, 71 percent topological completeness and 51.38 percent topological correctness.

A white Venetian style bridge at the center of the image divides the green canal water from the blue Californian sky. The canal has a footpath on either side of its banks that emphasize the perspectival force of the image. The houses that face one another across the water are partly hidden by the trees and bushes that run the length of the canal.

In support to the nation’s goal of developing a liveable city, Malaysian government aims to improve the mobility in Kuala Lumpur by providing good quality transit services across the city. However, the public starts to demand for more than just a connectivity between two points. They want their transit journey to be comfortable and pleasant from the very first mile. The key here is the first and last mile (FLM) of the transit service which defines their journey to access the station itself. The question is, does the existing transit services’ FLM satisfy public’s needs? Therefore, many studies had emerged in attempt to assess the pedestrian-friendliness. While most of them did base on the pedestrian’s perceptions, there were also studies that spatially measured the connectivity and accessibility to various landuses and point of interests. While both can be a good method, their integration could actually produce a better assessment. However, till date, only a few studies had attempted to do so. This paper proposes a framework to develop a Spatial Walkability Index (SWI) by integrating a multicriteria evaluation technique, Analytical Network Process (ANP) and network analysis on geographical information system (GIS) platform. First, ANP will aggregate the degree of importance for each walkability criteria based on the pedestrian’s perceptions. Then, the network analysis will use the weighted criteria as attributes to find the walkable routes within half mile radius from each station. The index will be calculated by rationing the total length of walkable routes in respect to the available footpath. The final outcome is a percentage of walkable FLM transit routes for each station which will be named as the SWI. It is expected that the developed framework can be applied in other cities across the globe. It can also be improvised to suit the demand and purpose there.

The increase in generation of waste from construction activities along with significant increase in global population has led to increasing focus and research on reuse of waste material. In this paper, the application of construction and demolition (C&D) materials in road works is reviewed and discussed. C&D materials were evaluated by laboratory testing methods to assess their viability for reuse in roads and footpaths. Several unique field case studies where C&D materials have been used are also reported. C&D materials studied include recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), crushed brick (CB), reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), fine recycled glass (FRG), and waste rock (WR). C&D materials were found to be suitable for road and footpath applications such as embankment fills, pavement base/subbase, and pipe bedding applications.

The perception of the acoustic environment, namely the soundscape, in urban parks has attracted increasing attention. There is a growing belief that the management of the acoustic environment of urban parks should be addressed within a broader soundscape methodology rather than a merely noise control one. One of the most frequent sound sources in urban parks is walking sound; however walking sound perception so far has mainly been investigated for indoor environments. This paper aims to investigate the overall effect of walking sounds from different walked-on materials on people's soundscape, combined with other non-acoustical factors. Moreover, this research investigates how perception varies when the walking sound is self-produced or simply listened. To this purpose, two laboratory experiments in Italy and UK were carried out with four walked-on materials that were considered to be possible design solutions for the footpaths of urban parks: grass, wood, stone and gravel. Results showed a significant effect of materials on perceived noise annoyance and soundscape quality, as well as a partial influence of other non-acoustical factor. Considering the individual responses for the four selected materials, gravel was associated to the worst soundscape quality (M = 38.42) while grass to the best one (M = 65.05). While a group effect (Italian and UK samples) was observed for perceived noise annoyance corresponding to the materials, no significant group effect was found for soundscape evaluation. Eventually, people simply listening to the walking sounds resulted to be less tolerant towards them, with respect to people who self-produced the sounds by walking.

Urban parks are essential environmental resources in contemporary cities, for the substantial social and psychological relief they provide for local communities. In recent years, the potential of the soundscape approach for enhancing the ecological contribution of such environmental assets has been intensely investigated. Although, researchers tended to focus on the perception of people “staying” in the park, whilst it is important to consider how the sonic environment would be dynamically perceived by users walking across the park. Within this framework, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of different footpath materials on soundscape quality and walking quality perception for people walking in an urban park, considering that the experience of such users is affected by both the background acoustic environment of the park and their walking sound. To this purpose, a laboratory experiment was carried out with 25 participants. Four different walked-on materials that are likely to be used in urban parks were tested: grass, wood, stone and gravel. Results show that the material factor has a significant effect on both auditory and haptic perception. Furthermore, positive correlations can be observed between auditory and haptic variables, confirming that the soundscape appreciation for people walking in urban parks is likely to be affected also by other but aural sensory modalities. The paper ultimately points out that it is possible to re-think the approach to urban parks design and more specifically to the footpaths and the walking sounds that their materials are likely to produce.

This study evaluates the potential of passive controls in asymmetrical street canyons to reduce personal exposure to air pollutants on footpaths. A passive control in the form of a low boundary wall (LBW) may act as a baffle within a street canyon, producing modified airflow patterns and increase pollutant dispersion at street level. This numerical modelling study assessed the spatial distribution of concentrations of a tracer pollutant in a street canyon. Concentrations were measured along the centre of both footpaths at breathing height to determine the percentage difference between pollutant concentrations in canyons with and without passive controls. The investigation assessed asymmetrical street canyons of different building height ratios (H1/H2 ratio ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 in 0.1 intervals) in perpendicular wind conditions. The results indicated that the H1/H2 ratio affects pollutant dispersion and the implementation of a passive control can reduce the pollutant concentration on the footpaths. The percentage difference in concentrations induced by the presence of footpath LBWs ranged from an increase of up to 19% to a reduction of 30% on the leeward footpath, with reductions between 26% and 50% on the windward footpath with varying H1/H2 ratios. Comparing the results to a central LBW configuration identified the creation of two distinct vortices in the street canyon. The results also identified the effect of wind speed on the development of primary vortices. For urban planners, passive controls offer a method of increasing dispersion by modifying normal air flow patterns and potentially improve air quality in urban street canyons.

Geodiversity includes not just rocks and major geological features, it also embraces soft sediments and landscape features. This paper demonstrates how soil profiles can be promoted within geoheritage as an important feature of the aesthetics of the landscape as well as being vital to support biodiversity and many environmental functions including pollution abatement, climate change and food production. Their importance is recognised increasingly by scientists and policy makers but there is great diversity of soil types that often goes unrecognised, and hence soils are not always used appropriately. Whilst writing a guide to the coastal footpath around Anglesey, it became obvious that there are numerous opportunities to view the soil exposed on cliff edges and this prompted the idea of a trail leaflet for walkers and the interested public. This paper summarises the range of soils on view and how they support different land uses and form the underlying reason for the diversity of the landscape.

Forest occupies most of Japanese domain. Nevertheless there is not enough area of flat forest park. Thus a forest footpath is an important element as the space of contact of city people and forest. Yet,a research which analyzed the relationship evaluation of forest footpath and the relaxation effect of walking in the forest is not enough. Thus,this paper analyzed the relationship between the relaxation effect of forest bathing by POMS and the evaluation of the forest footpath. The evaluation of the forest footpath : A number of photographs of favorable space during walk, an error in assessing time and distance in the walk. In the result, amount of stress reduction and vitality increase of the participants are likely to be improved in the footpath which was as follow. : Higher diversity of forest landscape, easier walking road, many attractive scene.In addition, The number of pictures of the good scenery is related to the value of the stress response before walking and frequency forest trail.

A study was made of Orthoptera assemblages of crossfield and headland (field-edge) public footpaths in the Chelmsford area of Essex, UK, in 2006. Orthoptera populations were monitored using a standardised transect counting procedure in both footpath types to determine whether headland footpaths provided benefits to Orthoptera on intensively managed farmland. Species richness of Orthoptera was significantly higher on headland footpaths (6 species) than on crossfield rights of way (3 species), suggesting that footpaths along the edges of fields may provide refuges in arable farmland. It seems that the absence of regular ploughing on the headland footpaths may be beneficial to mesophilous grasshopper species, the crossfield footpaths constituting too much of an ephemeral habitat (due to annual ploughing and cropping) to support the full range of species. Abundance of all Orthoptera and of individual species was not significantly higher on headland footpaths, although replicates on the sheltered and ...

The objective of this study is to find out an optimal type of vicinity infrastructure suitable for aging community especially in cold and snowy regions.An investigation was carried out at a couple of aging new towns developed in Midorigaoka, which are situated on the fringe of the urbanising area of a regional centre city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido.The residents of the Midorigaoka district appreciate the existing infrastructure of partly widened road in the cul-de-sac system, and it is concluded that a footpath widening to make a small pedestrian precinct for vicinity use is much preferable for the aging community in cold and snowy regions.

Public parks and green spaces are important health promoting facilities for urban dwellers, which can bring about improved health outcomes, diminished racial tensions and reduced public stress. Access to urban parks and green spaces is purported to be associated with the development of social capital, increased community well-being and inclusive neighbourhoods. It is within this context that recent decades have witnessed increasing efforts in measuring and modelling park accessibility in cities. Previous studies, however, found significant inconsistency between subjectively (perceived) and objectively (geographic) measured accessibility, indicating the need to examine existing conceptualisation of park accessibility, especially at the individual perceptual level. The accessibility concept has been developed as a multi-dimensional construct that requires a more adequate understanding about its influential factors and dimensions. Existing measures of accessibility have been limited to the concept’s physical and temporal dimensions, leaving other relevant factors such as social conditions and personal constraints, including perceptions, largely unexplored. This research argues for the relevance of socio-personal factors to realistically assess accessibility to urban public parks. There is also a need to clarify how accessibility influences an individual’s decision-making process that ultimately leads to human behaviour of park use or non-use, as psychological study of behavioural intentions to use parks has rarely been investigated. Following a correlational research design and cross-sectional validation approach, this research was proposed to fill these knowledge gaps. The research involved both processes of model development and model validation. Two models were proposed in this study: an expanded theory of planned behavioural (TPB) model and an integrated model of park accessibility. The first model aims to identify the role of park accessibility in influencing individual behavioural intentions towards park use and non-use. The model was developed based on the theory of planned behaviour, with three additional variables included (i.e., perceived park accessibility, geographic proximity, and past use) to compare their relative importance in influencing park use intentions. The second model was proposed based on the critical literature review of the accessibility concept. The model consists of five dimensions, including both physical and socio-personal variables that were identified as being associated with urban park access and use. Both models were empirically tested using questionnaire survey data collected from two cities of different socio-cultural settings: Brisbane (Australia) and Zhongshan (China). Within each city, sampling was carefully designed to represent residents of different socioeconomic backgrounds with an aim of modelling the differences between population groups. Data were analysed quantitatively using statistical methods and spatial analytical techniques. Key findings from this study include: • Empirical findings from this study consistently support the multidimensional nature of the accessibility construct, with results from different case studies confirming that both physical and non-physical factors significantly influence perceived access to urban parks. • The expanded TPB model with perceived accessibility provides the best model fit and highest explanatory power, while also enhancing the prediction of park use intentions. • Perceived access is more important than geographic proximity in predicting urban park use, with physical and locational features (e.g. proximity and travel time) the most important predictors in influencing perceived access to parks. • Less important, but statistically significant, socio-personal dimensions of accessibility are more sensitive to the larger social and cultural context of urban settings, with cultural groups using the parks, shared activities, and safety highlighted as more important non-physical variables to predict perceived access to parks in both city settings. • Lower income groups have significantly lower perceived access to parks than higher income respondents living in the same cities. From an urban planning perspective, this study highlights the importance of moving beyond the realm of conventional planning with physical standards to embrace the important findings of social analysis. The provision of parks is a necessary but insufficient condition to actually increase park use, especially in lower SES communities. Communities with lower SES and people with less mobility are population segments that should receive special attentions to ensure a more efficient and equitable urban service delivery. Therefore, it is important for planners and policy makers to enhance the evidence base whilst mindful of community diversity to provide optimal social outcomes. Possible policy interventions highlighted by this study include but are not limited to: ensuring public parks are reasonably proximate to residential locations; providing quality footpath amenities such as shade and lighting to create a walkable urban landscape; and providing opportunities to develop and sustain an inclusive community culture. In sum, this study was able to address the research gaps by providing insights into individual decision-making towards urban park use. The models were empirically modified and validated in two different cultural settings, thus providing practical tools for urban planners and base frameworks that can be applied to other urban services in future studies.

Mountain landscapes show rapid evolution, especially at high altitudes, in response to current climate changes. In addition, the greater number of routes and trails made available and the increase in tourism have caused some impacts on mountain areas. Gradual soil erosion has been observed along some hiking trails, with the latter tending to deepen, and with stronger erosion where the trail cuts the slope. Where trails cross forested areas, trees can suffer root damage from foot trampling as roots become exposed. A dendrogeomorphological study was conducted on trees along two hiking trails in upper Valtellina (Italian Alps). On the first trail, in Valle dei Forni, European larches and stone pines, mostly with exposed roots, were sampled. A mean erosion rate of 2.7 mm/a, related to deepening of the footpath, was obtained, and various degrees of root growth disturbance along the trail were observed. In particular, the growth of many sampled roots shows an increase in ring width corresponding with the moment when root exposure occurred, followed, after 3–5 years, by rapid growth suppression. The exposure of many roots has taken place since the 1980s. No significant variations in stem growth were observed, even when there were exposed and damaged roots. Along the second trail, in Valle Alpisella, exposed roots of mountain pines were analysed. A mean erosion rate of 3.2–3.7 mm/a, related to the escarpments bordering the footpath, was obtained, while no significant changes were detected in root growth.

This paper presents two case studies on the impact of climate change on upland landscapes in England (footpath erosion in the Lake District National Park, and moorland wildfires in the Peak District National Park) and considers the negative implications for the visitor economy in these areas. Areas of natural beauty such as the examples presented have an important role to play in attracting visitors, and sustaining the visitor economy will therefore depend on maintaining the quality of the environment in the face of both visitor pressure and the impacts of climate change.

In Brisbane, southeast Queensland, the number of people eating out in restaurants has increased almost fourfold in just over a decade. The emergence of public dining places on the footpaths has reinvented the city. Louisa Carter looks beyond the attractive veneer of well-clipped vegetation and heritage street furniture to the socioeconomic and political forces behind the development, and asks whether as a trend it is effectively cocooning urban residents ‘in comfort and convenience’ and is in danger of creating an artificial urban panacea.

¶This paper compiles and analyzes the rockfall data in Hong Kong in the last fifty years. A simple rockfall hazard analysis is presented based on this rockfall inventory. A frequency-magnitude relation, which is analogous to the Gutenberg-Richter relation for earthquake occurrence, is proposed for rockfall, and direct correlation between rockfall frequency and the daily rainfall is observed. Data analysis shows that a threshold daily rainfall of about 150–200 mm is expected in order to trigger rockfall events in Hong Kong. Among the 368 rockfall events in the 13 year period from 1984 to 1996 in Hong Kong, 35% of the incidents lead to blockage of or damage to roads, 22% lead to damages or evacuation of squatter huts, 21% lead to blockage of pedestrian pavement and footpath, and 15% affect buildings, such as housing apartments and schools. Only 15% of these rockfalls fell onto open space and caused negligible effects on human activities. Most of these rockfall events occurred during heavy rain and when “landslide warning” should has been issued by the Hong Kong Observatory, thus only 6% of these events led to injury or casualty, car damages, and damages to public utilities. Rockfall hazard zonation maps in terms of the spatial distribution of previous rockfalls are proposed for both Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island.

Walking is the most useable transport mood through all over the world as well as Rajshahi. Maximum people use this mood to go a short distance and sometimes to cover the long distances. For the increasing number of population, it is very urgent to assess and provide proper facilities while they walk. In this research, several methods have been followed to assess pedestrian behavior and the service quality that is provided to facilitate pedestrian. For these three different study areas have been chosen according to commercial, mixed use and residential area. About 98 samples have been taken on the basis of the purposive sampling technique. Both qualitative and quantitative data are considered for this purpose. Quantitative data includes determination of effective walkway width, calculation of average pedestrian space and volume by capacity ratio. Questionnaire survey method has been followed to collect qualitative data. In this case, variables are considered according to the good pedestrian facilities by following literature review. After that, ratio method is used to give relative rankings and weights to the qualitative and quantitative variables. Collected data are analyzed separately for assessing the pedestrian level of service and pedestrian behavior using Microsoft excel. This research revealed that the highest pedestrian flow was in the commercial area. Maximum respondents have been given emphasizes on rehabilitation of illegal establishment, construct the footpath infrastructures and restriction on footpath parking in the commercial and mixed used areas. Recommendations for improving the existing situation have been discussed on the basis of pedestrian given priority.

I take my first footsteps on the Lurujarri Heritage Trail in Broome on a warm, clear sunny day in July 2011. Walking with a large group of people from all around Australia and some from other countries, we make our way through back streets dusted in red sandy soil, passing signs on fences that declare ‘no gas’ and on the footpath ‘gas free Kimberley’. Already, I sense something bigger than us.

Redevelopment of former industrial areas is transforming the coastline in the area of Llanelli, South Wales as part of the Millennium Coastal Park development. This includes, as part of the redevelopment, the creation of a linear cycleway and footpath linking areas of the Park throughout its 22 km length. The Pembrey Link (subsequently renamed ‘The Saltings’) forms the western and final section of the Park development and runs through an area of scenic coastline, which overlooks the Gower Peninsula. As a result of extensive consultation and sympathetic design at all stages—concept, environmental assessment, detailed design and construction—a stimulating section of the Coastal Park has been developed. This enables both cyclists and pedestrians to experience this dynamic and environmentally sensitive area of the coast in safety.

Widening the width is necessary to improve the water environment of the small watercourses in the urban area, besides the augmentation of the water flow or the improvement of the water quality.At least 7m width of watercourse is found to be necessary, if most people regard this watercourse has enough width. Many streams in Japanese urban area have only less than 3-5m width, and footpath and greens along the watercourses are also needed to see it. Then widening the watercourse width in the urban area often becomes an urgent task.

The history of mass political formation in postcolonial metropolitan India has generally been narrated through the optic of ‘competitive electoral mobilisation’ of the poor. How then are we to explain cases of successful mobilisation in the terrain of ‘political society’ when the poor do not exist as ‘vote-bank’? What are the analytical registers that one may consider in addition to the collective electoral choice? The paper makes a case for looking into the spatial and archival dimensions of mass politics for an understanding of the histories of subject formation in urban India since 1970s. Constructing a critical history of the footpaths in Calcutta, the paper examines the socio-economic processes and politics of urban informality with special reference to the organised mobilisation of footpath hawkers in the last four decades.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment 9th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, SC 2014 -- 23 September 2014 through 25 September 2014 -- -- 114096 2-s2.0-84942094793 This paper aims to try to understand the determinant factors on Istanbul Princes’ Islands, based on sustainable urban patterns such as: (1) Axial Analysis; (2) Segment Analysis; (3) Correlation Analysis; which are mostly considered with the traditional accessibility measures of the Space Syntax method. Theoretically, the integration measure shows the cognitive complexity of reaching a street, and promises to ‘predict’ the pedestrian use of a street. This paper will consider the most and the least integrated areas of land use analysis concentrated on the location, size and type of different land uses; including the attractions in buildings. Terrain slope is also an important factor to evaluate walkability for these islands. Segment angular analyses have been done in different meters. These measures visualize angular integration at a radius of 400– 1000 meters, which refers to the linearity of each segment in relation to all other segments within these measurements. As for the result of footpath quality, accessibility to and within these islands has been measured to understand and compare accessibility measures. © 2014 WIT Press.

The effects on the level of recreational disturbance of resurfacing a stretch of the Pennine Way have been quantified. Resurfacing appears to have resulted in a two fold increase in the number of visitors using the improved stretch of the Pennine Way. Following resurfacing, 3·8% of walkers strayed from the path, compared to over 30% before the footpath was altered. Thus, despite the increased pressure along the route of the footpath, the overall level of recreational disturbance to the surrounding moorlands has fallen dramatically. The pattern of use throughout the day and the season, and the extent to which poorly supervised dogs accompany the walkers, have changed little, compared with a previous survey. The implications of this successful management of disturbance along the Pennine Way for other sensitive areas are discussed.

Walking has long been recognized as the main form of countryside recreation in the UK (Patmore 1972) and its popularity has been greatly encouraged by the network of long-distance footpaths that now criss-cross the country, not to mention the evergrowing right to roam anywhere across open country as the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) is steadily implemented. I, therefore, was particularly interested in the paper by John Wylie (2005) interpreting his reactions to a day spent walking along the South West Coast Path between Clovelly and Hartland Quay on the North Devon coast. I should say that I have known and walked the coastal footpath between Minehead and Padstow for many years, though I have never attempted to cover it in a single hike as he did. Like the author, however, I have done the walk from Clovelly to Hartland Quay in a day. Indeed, I have done it on several occasions over the years; in a variety of weathers, alone, with family and friends, and with students on a Geography field trip. No two of these walks have ever been the same and I found the analysis in the paper of what shapes our reactions to landscape quite fascinating for the way in which it illuminated the subtleties behind our individual perceptions. Who we are, and where we come from, are self-evidently key determinants of what we perceive and how we react to any situation and the analysis is a powerful antidote to the didactic world of the guidebook, with its aim of imposing a pre-set structure on what we see, smell and hear. Nevertheless, reading the paper left me with a distinct feeling that the picture was incomplete and I have come to the conclusion that this stems from the narrowness of the context within which the walk appears to have been undertaken and analysed. The whole focus seems to be overly self-centred and introspective and, thus, omits some crucial elements of what it is that influences the appreciation of such a walk. That is not to say that the whole experience is not deeply felt and forcefully communicated. There are passages in the paper of quite lyrical writing, my favourite being the description of emerging from the dense woods west of Clovelly into the open farmland and cliff tops near Brownsham

While North American urban regions are served by mechanical modes of transportation, downtowns are largely pedestrian environments. The growth and consolidation of office districts over the last twenty years have revived interest in developing coherent and efficient pedestrian networks, which can be coordinated with other transportation needs within the downtown. Ambitious plans for expansion of the downtown for offices, the retail and service industries as well as for housing and entertainment have been adopted in many North American cities during the 1980s. The successful integration of these large central areas depends to a considerable extent on the implementation of expanded pedestrian networks. This paper discusses certain spatial characteristics of North American cities which call for specific network designs and research into the walking environments of central areas. More knowledge is needed of the relative contributions to pedestrian regeneration of land use combinations, the design of networks and of walking paths. Language: en