Research
A review on prioritizing physical safety and comfort in urban sustainability assessment tools to effectively control accidents in streets of Colombo
Authors:
A. Kumaraguruparan ,
University of Moratuwa, LK
About A.
Department of Architecture
K. W. J. P. Wijesundara,
University of Moratuwa, LK
About K. W. J. P.
Department of Architecture
U. G. D. Weerasinghe
University of Moratuwa, LK
About U. G. D.
Department of Architecture
Abstract
The concept of sustainability has evolved since its initial definition by the Brundtland commission in 1987, and become comprehensive over time with inclusion of well-defined social, environmental and economic aspects. In order to understand the progress of sustainability, and facilitate decision making, various sustainability assessment tools were established. Today it has become necessary to include safety and comfort as criteria of such sustainability assessment tools, considering the high number of accidents and crimes taking place in urban contexts despite all the legal reforms made through several years to control user misbehaviours. A high number of road accidents are recorded in Colombo as per the report issued by the Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics. This is primarily due to lack of obligation to enforce physical safety and comfort aspects. Establishing physically safe and comfort streets could contribute to prevent as well as reduce accidents by spontaneously directing users in the right way. Therefore, considering sustainability principles, and sustainability rating, being a well-established universal quality assessment, it is important to incorporate physical safety and comfort as a criteria of sustainability rating of urban streets. The review is done by initially defining sustainability through literature review, identifying the research gap on physical safety and comfort using VOSviewer software, and assessing the significance of safety and comfort in assessing urban streets using available online data. It is identified that physical safety and comfort is not included in most of the sustainability assessment tools. It is suggested that inclusion of these criterion could contribute in effectively reducing the street accidents. Summary of this review could contribute in further research based on sustainability tool criteria assessments.
How to Cite:
Kumaraguruparan, A., Wijesundara, K.W.J.P. and Weerasinghe, U.G.D., 2022. A review on prioritizing physical safety and comfort in urban sustainability assessment tools to effectively control accidents in streets of Colombo. FARU Journal, 9(1), pp.33–44. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/faruj.v9i1.114
Published on
29 Jul 2022.
Peer Reviewed
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