Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) PSYSOC Sustaining Campuses Through Physical Character- The Role Of Landscape

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1 Available online at ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) PSYSOC 2013 Sustaining Campuses Through Physical Character- The Role Of Landscape Faris Ataallah Matloob a *, Ahmad Bashri Sulaiman b, Turki Hasan Ali c Shuhana Shamsuddin b, Wan Nurul Mardyya b a Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81300, Malaysia College of engineering, university of Mosul, Mosul 58001, Iraq b Razak School for Engineering and Advanced Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia c College of engineering, university of Mosul, Mosul 58001, Iraq Abstract University campuses as centers of progression and innovation need to be sustainable. This is to enhance the community socially, environmentally and economically for teaching, and learning. The physical form of a place or campus could play a significant role, where there is limited research relating form to the sustainability. This study looks at the role of physical character in creating sustainable campus using Iraqi universities as case studies. It assumes that the overall physical elements, namely buildings, landscape and street pattern play a significant role in achieving sustainability. This paper focuses on the landscape aspects where both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The aim is to determine the landscape character, where the findings of this study can contribute to create sustainable university campuses in Iraq and elsewhere globally The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Selection ( and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of PSYSOC Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of PSYSOC Keywords: Sustainable, Campus, Physical Character 1. Introduction Sustainable campus refers to development that meets the current needs as well improves the quality of life without compromising the future generation needs related to environmental, social and economic aspects (Sohif et al., 2009). The goal is to create a sustainable life on campus (Beyaztas, 2012). Corresponding Author: Faris Ataallah Matloob farisatloob@gmail.com The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of PSYSOC doi: /j.sbspro

2 Faris Ataallah Matloob et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) Campuses are as small cities (M. Z. Abd-Razak, Goh Abdullah, Mohd Nor, Usman, & Che-Ani, 2011; Alshuwaikhat & Abubakar, 2008; Turner, 1984). However, campuses have their own physical characters that are different from cities or towns. This paper, explores the role of the physical setting of campuses in making them more sustainable. 2. The role of landscape as part of physical character in creating sustainable campus Landscape is defined as "The character and appearance of land, including its shape, form, ecology, natural features, colors and elements, and the way these components combine" (DETR & CABE, 2000). Landscape represents a skeleton for an outdoor environment of a campus (Dober, 1992). He attributed the benefits of landscape as aesthetic, functional and climatological purposes. Aesthetic includes features such as artworks and sculptures. The functional purpose includes noise control, privacy and reducing erosion; while the climatic benefits include shade and air circulation. It also serve as protection from dusty and hot wind in the hot -dry climate countries. Eckert (2012) argued that landscape could become an important part of its identity. Landscape elements can be employed to screen poor architecture (Abbaszadeh, 2011; Carmona, 2003) Landscape features according to Dober (1992) are classified into place making which include the structure, such as open and green spaces, routs for pedestrians and parking. Whilst, place marking refers to the elements that contribute to give a campus its uniqueness from other campuses and associate with the sense of place, such as trees, outdoor furniture and landmarks. Carmona (2003) Also classified landscape into soft and hard landscape. In addition to these features, walkways, sidewalks, streets, and parking are also landscape context on campus (Eckert, 2012). M. Z. Abd-Razak et al. (2011) concluded that campus landscape features are about creating a sense of comfort and welcoming, better way finding, attractive scenery, and better safety. They also revealed that landscape can contribute towards learning process. According to Abbaszadeh (2011), landscape features, particularly trees, have the ability to support the sense of enclosure to the people using the urban spaces. It is concluded by Al-Hagla (2008) that open spaces have the ability to articulate the character of a neighborhood which applies to university campuses too. This is attributed to open spaces as social interactions setting. They are also acting a places of micro-ecological features (Al-Hagla, 2008). 3. Research Method This research adopts the case study method where the University of Mosul campus in Iraq was selected. This campus was established in 1967 in Mosul, located in the northwestern Iraq. It consists of about 20 faculties and 3 research centers that accommodate about students. In order to obtain the required data, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Questionnaire was used as a quantitative technique, while observation survey was employed as a qualitative technique in this study. Results and discussion Landscape character of a campus is resulted from complex relationships between landscape elements and different qualities of campus design as shown in table (1). These relationships have different influences on achieving campus sustainability criteria (Table 2).

3 284 Faris Ataallah Matloob et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) Table 1: The relationship between landscape elements and campus design features/qualities Source: Researchers

4 Faris Ataallah Matloob et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) Table 2: The relationship between campus design features and sustainability aspects Source: Researchers Four major aspects of landscape design on campus claimed to associate with campus sustainability were researched. Every one of these aspects, as shown in table (1), involves several design components that make up, together, the campus landscape character. Thes factors were examined in the context of Iraqi campuses. 4.1 Ease of movement It is a major design objective for a campus represented by numerous design qualities (DETR & CABE, 2000). These qualities are related to walkways character depending on how a campus setting provides well-connected places. This includes the existence of multiple choices to various destinations, comfort, safe and the legibility of the walkways. Cross tabulation, analysis between dependent and independent variables for this major aspect showed numerous significant factors (Table 3). Table (3) indicates that the majority of walkways design elements have significant relationships with the ease of movement on the case study campus. All components of the first category, namely the connectivity of walkways including continuity, multiple choices, directness and nodes design emerged as significant factors. This is because creating good connections between the important areas on campus can encourage the campus people to use walking in order of their daily needs. As a result, this will contribute to decrease the reliance on the private vehicles leading to diminish air pollution and the energy used on campus. The conservation survey disclosed that walkways on campus are interrupted in many points (Fig. 1) In terms of the comfort when using walkways, design qualities included walkway width, the potential of walking away from street, paving quality, separating pavement from street by plants and the protection from weather effects were resulted as significant factors. In fact, this feature refers to the importance of protecting pedestrian from sun and rain effects in Iraqi universities (Fig 2), especially in such a climate of Iraq described as hot dry in summer and cold rainy in winter. In fact, this corresponded with the observation survey, which recorded absence of the protection from weather in the case study walkways (Fig 3). Of legibility aspect group, hierarchy of walkways and directing pedestrian by trees were significant components in the ease of movement issue. This is because the hierarchy of walkways affect the ease to find the way, which in turn, makes the area more suitable for walking and supports accessibility and the easy movement for

5 286 Faris Ataallah Matloob et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) pedestrian (Dempsey et al., 2010; Hillier, 1996). Moreover, the safety of walkways represented by the conflict with vehicles also emerged as significant in this issue. Giving the priority to pedestrian over vehicles on campus can be promoted by diminishing conflict points with vehicles routes as much as possible. This manipulation directly contributes to support the sense of safety for pedestrian, which, in turn, promotes the walkability of the campus Table-3 cross tabulation: Ease of movement and walkways character Source: Researchers. Fig.1. interrupted walkways in many points Source: observation survey Fig.2. shade is very important for campus users (in summer) Source: observation survey Fig.3. unsuitable trees type for providing shade for walkways Source: observation survey 4.2 Quality of public realm: This is another major design objective related to the quality of open spaces on campus. This includes aesthetic, functional and climatic qualities that affect the pattern of activities carried out there (Aydin & Ter, 2008). This leads to a mutual interaction between quality of outdoor spaces and quality of life on campus. As in table (1), aspects such as attractiveness, cleanliness, quietness, air quality, maintenance level, greening, safety and comfort were examined in the case study campus. A cross tabulation between the use patterns and the former factors was conducted (Table 4). According to the table, a group of significant variables regarding the quality of public realm on campus was

6 Faris Ataallah Matloob et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) distinguished. Of the aspect of appearance, three factors arose as significant including wildlife, beautiful views of trees and using trees for hiding undesirable views and providing the sense of welcoming by trees. According to Fuller et al. (2010), the existence and distribution of trees is essential for the design of green space in urban areas. Table 4: cross tabulation: use pattern and design qualities of open space Source: researchers Comfort in open space involved the occurrence of awnings for sitting, public W.C. and the quality of boundary elements as significant factors. Being comfortable in open space is associated with sustainability in terms of enhancing the local environment and the quality of life on campus (UN-Habitat, 2013). Availability of landscape elements represents another category related to quality of open space. Of this domain two components were recorded as significant, namely the availability of formal and informal open spaces. The provision of open spaces positively influences the health of population (UN-Habitat, 2013). In addition, open spaces whether formal or informal are essential places to accommodate the life of campus community with its various outdoor activities. Quietness, cleanliness and trees diversity also arose as main significant factors. According to (Marcus & Francis, 1997), quietness is a significant quality that can affect positively the quality of life. For cleanliness, it was included a within the matrix of sustainable design principles by Carmona (2003). Observation survey recorded negative views due to lack in cleanliness and bad quality of rubbish bins in the case study. Actually, this affect negatively people s impression towards their campus and the time they spend in it. The analysis also differentiated trees diversity as a significant factor. Actually, this is compatible with the research on campus sustainability where Birkeland (2002) deemed the diversity of landscape elements as a component of a framework for sustainable landscape. A factor related to safety in the open spaces, namely the quality of lighting elements was distinguished as significant factor too. It directly affects social sustainability on campus enhancing the quality of life for campus community. 4.3 Accessibility Accessibility on campus is defined as the ease to get to various destinations on the campus including facilities and

7 288 Faris Ataallah Matloob et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) services, academic, residential and recreational areas (M.Z. Abd-Razak, Utaberta, & Handryant, 2012). The access to open spaces and recreational areas is one of the principal components of campus sustainability. It refers to campus layout and locating green spaces on it contributing to create a walkable environment on campus. Only two factors were distinguished as significant, namely the ease to find the way (legibility) and the alternative paths (permeability) (Table 5). The good accessibility to green spaces contributes to promote the social equity for campus community. Table 5: cross tabulation: Accessibility and design qualities Source: Researchers The visual survey shows that the studied campus has a main formal space located in front of the student center situated at the southern side of the campus. This location makes it far from a number of academic departments. Additionally, it has many informal open spaces represented by gardens and paved yards attached to academic buildings. 4.4 The sense of identity (distinctiveness) It is a major campus design objective deemed as one of social sustainability factors. The distinctiveness of a place in terms of landscape means that the place owns an outdoor environment making it different from other places. This contribute to strength the sense of place (DETR & CABE, 2000). The examined components related to distinctiveness included sculptures and artworks, native plants and orderly of the campus. Cross tabulation of these elements with the distinctiveness impression did not differentiate any one of these variables as significant for the case study (table 10). 5. Conclusions This study is based on the fact that sustainability has become a critical requirement for university campuses in the recent age. This paper assumed that the landscape character for Iraqi university campuses is important in their transformation to the sustainability. Therefore, it tried to answer the research question: 'Why landscape is important for the sustainability of Iraqi campus?' using quantitative and qualitative techniques. This study found that the three major design objectives that were proved as important for Iraqi campus sustainability namely, the ease of movement, quality of public realm and accessibility. Every one of these objectives included a number of design qualities that were found significant for various aspects of sustainability on Iraqi campus. Actually, this is based on the local climate and community culture. Therefore, these groups of design qualities can constitute the sustainable physical character for Iraqi campuses, in relation to landscape. It is noticed from the findings that about 15 of the significant factors pertain the ease of pedestrian movement and accessibility. This denotes that Iraqi universities should try to ensure walkable campuses by establishing effective circulation systems for pedestrian. This can be ensured by locating pedestrian systems away from streets and protect them from weather effects. It should be also ensured that campus areas are well connected through these pedestrians systems. This, in turn, will automatically diminish the reliance on private car contributing to reduce air pollution and the energy used for transportation. Another major group of the significant factors consisting of 13 components was related to the quality of public realm. This shows that Iraqi universities should concentrate on promoting quality of open spaces against weather effects, enhancing the views and vistas as well as providing comfortable and adequate landscape elements. These qualities contribute to enhance the quality of life, sense of place, and social equity for campus community. Finally, The findings of this study can be summarized and formulated as a model representing the sustainable physical character for Iraqi campuses in terms of landscape, as shown in Fig. (4).

8 Faris Ataallah Matloob et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 140 ( 2014 ) Fig.4. Model for sustainable landscape character for Iraqi university campuses 6- References Abbaszadeh, F. (2011). Characterization of the physical elements of street design (PhD), UTM. Abd-Razak, M. Z., Goh Abdullah, N. A., Mohd Nor, M. F. I., Usman, I. M. S., & Che-Ani, A. I. (2011). Toward a Sustainable Campus: Comparison of the Physical Development Planning of Research University Campuses in Malaysia. Journal of Sustainable Development, 4(4). doi: /jsd.v4n4p210

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