Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Transcription

1 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies The quality, amount and use of public open spaces: Analysis of different climatic zones and settlement sizes Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts By: Gabriela Feierstein Date: March, 2010

2 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies The quality, amount and use of public open spaces: Analysis of different climatic zones and settlement sizes Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of "Master of Arts By Gabriela Feierstein Under the Supervision of Dr. Yodan Rofe Department of Man in Drylands Author's Signature. Date. Approved by the Supervisor... Date August 31, 2010 Approved by the Director of the School Date.

3 Abstract The quality, amount and use of public open spaces: Analysis of different climatic zones and settlement sizes Gabriela Feierstein This thesis is in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research Ben Gurion University of the Negev Keywords: Public open space, neighborhood open space, desert cities Public open spaces (POS) are assumed by planners to be of intrinsic value. The standards governing the provision of POS in Israel do not differentiate between cities in different climate zones, nor do they account for settlement size and building typologies. Environmental NGO s, and the Ministry of the Environment also deem the allocation of POS as currently insufficient, and are promoting a doubling or even tripling of current standards. The aim of this study is to survey the amount, quality and patterns of use of POS in Israeli cities and towns, and people s current needs and attitudes with regard to neighborhood POS. The methods used are mapping and descriptive analysis of POS and their contexts, visual survey of their quality, observations of use and a survey of neighborhood residents.

4 Results show that civic spaces and streets are more intensively used by pedestrians than public gardens. Many green open spaces remain unused. Green spaces are usually not well located; they do not connect services areas and do not include activities that attract people. Small settlements show a much higher amount and better quality of POS yet much lower activity levels than observed in bigger settlements. These findings show the failure of quantitative open space standards to assure meaningful POS in Israeli cities. They further indicate an over supply of POS, leading to reduced quality, difficulty in management and waste of resources.

5 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Yodan Rofe, for his permanent assistance and patience during these years. He was always available, willing to help throughout this research, open to make the work creative and providing me very inspiring guidance. I sincerely appreciate the help provided by Arch. David Pearlmutter and Prof. Isaac Meir, mainly at the beginning of this process, for the availability on discussing and enriching my thinking process when my ideas were not clear enough. To each one of the people of Man in Drylands Department I want to say thank you for the help and the good work atmosphere in the office. To Dorit Levin goes a big thanks for being so kind and helpful all along the period of my studies. I am very grateful to many people that I d like to mention: L. Arch. Inbal Zarchin for helping me with the GIS analysis, Dr. Aviva Peeters for solving the technicals problems that I found on the way with GIS, Arch. Nora Huberman for sharing her experience with me so generously, Dana Shapiro for the invaluable help at the end of this thesis, Arch. Jennifer Golding and Sarah Ben Ezra for sharing with me such good times working together in the office and Cecilia Iribarren for encouraging me to live this experience. I deeply appreciate this opportunity that was given by the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies of the J. Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. And finally, I want to thank all my friends and family for the constant support, especially to Ohad, the love of my life, for being with me all along the way.

6 1 Introduction Theoretical background Overview Values and benefits of public open spaces Definitions, standards and classification of public open spaces Successful and unsuccessful public open spaces Uses and activities in public open spaces Influence of climate in the use of public open spaces Neighborhood open space in Israel Past and present standards Governmental and non governmental views about POS Summary Research Methodology Research aims Research questions Hypotheses Research methods Selection of case studies Documentation of the neighborhoods Description and classification of POS Observations of movement and activities Survey of use and attitudes towards neighborhood POS Data analysis The case study neighborhoods and their POS General description of the case study neighborhoods Spatial distribution of POS Amount of different types of POS Accessibility to POS Population density and ratio of Population to POS Summary Patterns of use of POS Selected POS for observations of optional activity Quantitative observations of summer optional activity Quantitative observations of winter optional activity Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activities Qualitative observations of the use of POS Analysis of the use and amount of POS Optional activities by season and climate zone Optional activities by POS type Optional activities by settlement size and location in settlement Differences between neighborhood typologies The most intensively used POS The less intensively used POS Relation between the amount of POS and the density of use Survey results Private open space ownership and relation with the use of green POS

7 Presence of Private Open Space and Neighborhood POS use Use of POS out of the neighborhood, settlement size and neighborhood type Accessibility to POS Frequency of use of POS Level of satisfaction with the quality of POS Level of importance of having POS in the area of the neighborhood Summary Discussion and conclusions References

8 3 List of tables and figures Table 1-1: Roles and benefits of urban parks..6 Table 1-2: Classification of Neighborhood open spaces (Williams and Green, 2001)...8 Table 1-3: Israeli standards for allocation of urban public open spaces...15 Table 1-4: IUED s Practical Guidelines for Planning Urban Open Spaces..16 Table 2-1: Selected case studies...21 Table 3-1: Amounts of POS by type...69 Table 5-1: meteorological data from summer days 105 Table 5-2: meteorological data from winter days..106 Table 5-3: ranking of optional activity in POS Table 5-4: Ranking of percentage of POS Table 5-5: Ranking of optional activity in green POS Table 5-6: Ranking of percentage of green POS 116 Table 6-1: Grade of activities in open spaces.117 Table 6-2: Frequency of use of green POS. 120 Table 6-3: Frequency of use of civic POS..120 Table 6-4: Level of satisfaction regarding neighborhood POS Table 6-5: level of satisfaction regarding neighborhood POS by settlement size Table 6-6: level of importance of having POS in the neighborhood, by settlement size..122 Figure 1-1: Parks categories. Adapted from Drescher et al. (2001) 8 Figure 2-1: Selected Israeli cities.. 22 Figure 2-2: Map of Neve Zeev neighborhood after digitizing.. 23 Figure 2-3: Map of optional activity.26 Figure 3-1: Ashdod study areas. 29 Figure 3-2: Ashdod city center..30 Figure 3-2 : Ashdod city center. Commercial center courtyard and open plaza...31

9 4 Figure 3-3: Uncared open spaces in Ashdod city center Figure 3-4: Parks in Hei neighborhood.32 Figure 3-5: Commercial center in Yud neighborhood, Ashdod 33 Figure 3-6: Yud neighborhood parks. Different typologies.. 34 Figure 3-7: Yud neighborhood semi public courtyards 34 Figure 3-8: Bat Yam study areas...35 Figure 3-9: Bat Yam center open spaces Figure 3-10: Variety of open spaces in Bat Yam center...37 Figure 3-11: Gardens in Ramat Hanassi neighborhood, Bat Yam Figure 3-12: Municipal Library and civic/green space next to it..39 Figure 3-13: Linear park and connection to the shopping center in Ramat Hanassi neighborhood. 40 Figure 3-14: Shoham study area Figure 3-15: Playground areas in Shoham parks..42 Figure 3-16: Sides of parks adjacent to family houses..42 Figure 3-17: Aerial view of the main junction and parking lot with access to the commercial center.43 Figure 3-18: Central open space in the commercial center and the pedestrian access.44 Figure 3-19: Beer Sheva study areas. Tet and Neve Zeev neighborhoods Figure 3-20: Access to commercial center from Jerusalem Av Figure 3-21: Jerusalem Avenue and access to residential buildings from a park.46 Figure 3-22: Some undefined open spaces 47 Figure 3-23: Jabotinsky Avenue...48 Figure 3-24: Neglected parks Figure 3-25: Pedestrian street between buildings Figure 3-26: Wide park neighborhood. N. Zeev..49 Figure 3-27: Neve Zeev neighborhood parks...50 Figure 3-28: Arad study areas. Gevim neighborhood and city center..51 Figure 3-29: Open commercial center. Civic POS 52 Figure 3-30: Pedestrian street in Ye elim neighborhood and open parking lot...53 Figure 3-31: Access to the housing in Ye elim neighborhood.54

10 5 Figure 3-32: Small Neighborhood parks and pedestrian streets in Ye elim and Leva ot neighborhoods...54 Figure 3-33: Contemplation park in the south west side and Neighborhood park in the east side...56 Figure 3-34: Sitting corner and playground in a small neighborhood park.. 56 Figure 3-35: Undefined POS in a corner and park with its sides closed by bushes..57 Figure 3-36: Lehavim Study area..58 Figure 3-37: Lehavim parks..59 Figure 3-38: Back and front of the new commercial center..60 Figure 3-39: Old commercial center.60 Figure 3-40: New commercial center...60 Figure 3-41: Ashdod center and Hei neighborhood..63 Figure 3-42: Ashdod,Yud neighborhood. 64 Figure 3-43: Tet neighborhood, Beer Sheva.64 Figure 3-44: Neve Zeev neighborhood, Beer Sheva.65 Figure 3-45: Ramat Hanassi neighborhood, Bat Yam.. 65 Figure 3-46: Bat Yam center. 66 Figure 3-47: Arad center...66 Figure 3-48: Gevim neighborhood, Arad.. 67 Figure 3-49: Shoham center.. 67 Figure 3-50: Lehavim center.68 Figure 3-51: Ashdod center..71 Figure 3-52: Ashdod, Yud neighborhood.71 Figure 3-53: Tet neighborhood.71 Figure 3-54: Neve Zeev neighborhood, Beer Sheva. 72 Figure 3-55: Bat Yam, Ramat HaNassi neighborhood...72 Figure 3-56: Bat Yam center. 73 Figure 3-57: Arad center Figure 3-58: Gevim neighborhood, Arad.. 74 Figure 3-59: Shoham center.. 74 Figure 3-60: Lehavim center.75

11 6 Figure 3-61: Population density in the ten case studies 76 Figure 3-62: Ratio of POS to population in the ten case studies..77 Figure 4-1: POS in Neve Zeev neighborhood, Beer-Sheva.. 80 Figure 4-2: POS in Tet Neighborhood, Beer-Sheva Figure 4-3: POS in the Arad Center neighborhood..82 Figure 4-4: POS in Gevim Neighborhood, Arad.. 83 Figure 4-5: POS in Lehavim Figure 4-6: POS in Ashdod Center Neighborhoods.. 85 Figure 4-7: POS in Yud Neighborhood, Ashdod..86 Figure 4-8: POS in the Center Neighborhood, Bat-Yam..87 Figure 4-9: POS in Ramat Hanssi Neighborhood, Bat-Yam 88 Figure 4-10: POS in Shoham Center Area 89 Figure 4-11: Optional activity in civic POS in summer 90 Figure 4-12: Optional activity in green linear POS in summer 90 Figure 4-13: Optional activity in green wide POS in summer..91 Figure 4-14: Optional activity in civic POS in winter..92 Figure 4-15: Optional activity in green linear POS in winter...93 Figure 4-16: Optional activity in green wide POS in winter Figure 4-17: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in winter.94 Figure 4-18: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in winter by climate area Figure 4-19: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in summer Figure 4-20: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in summer by climate zone.. 97 Figure 4-21: Observations of optional activity in a wide park. 98 Figure 4-22: Observations of optional activity in a linear park...99 Figure 4-23: Green areas in bad conditions or limited for using them. 99 Figure 4-24: Inappropriate landscape design Figure 4-25: Pedestrian street as recreational space Figure 5-1: Optional activity by season and climate area Figure 5-2: Optional activity in civic POS and green POS.107

12 7 Figure 5-3: Amount of optional activity by POS type and climate zone in winter.107 Figure 5-4: Amount of optional activity by POS type and climate zone in summer..108 Figure 5-5: Optional activity by settlement size and type of POS in winter Figure 5-6: Optional activity by settlement size and type of POS in summer Figure 5-7: successful POS, integrated civic and green Figure 5-8: Arad, Gevim optional activity and Lehavim optional activity

13 8 Introduction The last half of the 20 th century and the arrival of the 21 st century have shown a change in the urban lifestyle. Models of ideal cities were projected and replicated in different parts of the world, different cultures and different climates. The modern design of cities in many cases generated more segregation instead of social interaction. People tend to become more car dependent and walk less. City planning was not adapted to the diverse local conditions and the ability of local municipalities is not always the optimal to maintain urban spaces. Thus many urban places remain unused or uncared for. In the case of Israel, most of the cities in the Negev area are planned with the same layout as non desert cities (Gradus, 1985). As Pearlmutter et al. (1999) states many neighborhoods were planned according to the Garden City model imported from Europe, with relatively large open spaces resulting from a broad dispersal of buildings throughout the landscape. And this is not an isolated fact. The existing standards for public open spaces are the same all along Israel. There is no differentiation between the different climatic zones and there is also no differentiation in these standards according to the scale of the city or town. Large cities have the same standards as small towns or suburban communities. Still, the focus of standards for public open spaces is on the quantity more than on the quality of them. Desert cities are usually perceived as harsh places to live in. In Israel, even though the desert area is around 65% of the country, only 8% of the population lives in that area. (Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 2007)

14 9 It is common to hear Israelis comments about the cities of the Negev, comments such as: isolated, unattractive, far from everywhere, empty, boring, etc. It is not so much in the private buildings, but in the quality of public open space (POS) that cities of the Negev differ from those of the rest of the country. In these cities, it is common to see large open spaces unused and many of the planned ones seem to be inappropriate for the characteristics of the climate. The impression is that in many cases mean walking distances in Israeli desert cities are even longer than in non-desert ones. Thus, the pedestrian activity can diminish due to inappropriate planning. In this study we will approach the analysis of POS in different Israeli cities, to get a comparative picture through spatial analysis, visual survey, observations of pedestrian movement and optional activity and a survey to the neighbors of each case study.

15 10 1 Theoretical background 1.1 Overview The study of public open spaces can be addressed from many different points of view; psychological effects generated by POS, thermal performance of POS, importance of having POS for neighbors, the value of properties affected by POS, principles for planning, etc. In this study, a literature review was carried out focusing on the values and benefits that people attribute to POS, the criteria and standards applied for planning POS, different methodologies to evaluate the use of POS and the success of their performance, how the use of POS can be affected by thermal comfort, etc. Finally, a review on the current standards for planning POS in Israel was carried out. 1.2 Values and benefits of public open spaces The importance of public open space in cities as an essential urban need is raised in different theoretical and applied research studies (Balram et al., 2005). Drescher et al. (1997, p.1) remark that the challenge to maintaining a healthy community lies in providing the right mix of housing, employment, and open space as land is consumed for residential and commercial development. Eliasson et al. (2007, p.83) point out: attractive urban spaces influence the social life in the city and will also indirectly influence the local economy and transportation infrastructure.

16 11 The most agreed upon roles and benefits that have been attributed to urban parks are described in Table 1-1. Table 1-1: Roles and benefits of urban parks Roles Relaxation Being in nature Escape from the city Being with children Recreation Social encounters Benefits Reduce stress in comparison to urban places with no vegetation, sense of peacefulness, restorative function (positive influence on mental health), help people to relax and reduce aggression (Chiesura, 2003). Psychological and emotional well-being is improved via contact with nature. Natural areas allow people to relax and reduce the feeling of being trapped in a city (Drescher, 1997). Environmental Health: Wildlife habitat and natural areas in an urban environment can mitigate flood hazards, reduce erosion, filter pollutants, reduce noise, and mask obtrusive views (Drescher, 1997). Scientific value: Natural areas can support rare species by serving as the last refuge for formerly prolific plants and animals. Plants and animals living in urban areas can act as indicators of water, air, and soil pollution (Drescher, 1997). Air and water purification, wind and noise filtering, microclimate stabilization (Chiesura, 2003). Urban residents enjoy retreating from an anonymous and hectic city lifestyle. Individual benefits, such as viewing plants and animals, are largely unquantifiable yet personally very valuable (Drescher, 1997). Contributes to child development through scope for outdoor, energetic and imaginative play and may positively influence the behaviour of both individuals and wider society (Swanwick, 2003). Children particularly benefit from learning about nature while experiencing it (Drescher, 2001). Recreational activities tend to be enjoyed more when in a natural setting (Drescher, 1997). Encourage social integration and interaction among neighbors (Chiesura, 2003). Contributes significantly to social inclusion because it is free and access is available to all (Swanwick, 2003). Parks and natural areas can be meeting places (Drescher, 1997). On the other hand, Jacobs (1961) criticizes the idea of assigning benefits to urban parks per se: Parks are not automatically anything (p.92). She argues that urban parks by themselves do not transform the quality of a neighborhood but rather that they are affected

17 12 by it and at the same time she states that the general belief of always wanting, wishing, planning for more open space is not always correct: people do not use city open space just because it is there and because city planners or designers wish they would. (p.90). Even though, usually the benefits of parks are mentioned, very few studies deal with the negative effects of parks. Jacobs (1961) remarks that unpopular parks are troubling because they represent waste and missed opportunities, but mostly because they become dangerous places that people prefer to avoid, like streets without eyes. The heterogeneity of the population and the multiplicity of their needs are not usually evaluated. Different people probably need different types of public open space, and the same people might need different types of public open space according to their mood, the activity that they plan to do there, etc. Dines et al. (2006, p.38) point to the need of having a variety of public spaces within a local area to meet a range of everyday needs, including spaces to linger as well as spaces of transit; spaces that bring people together as well as spaces to retreat. 1.3 Definitions, standards and classification of public open spaces Williams and Green (2001) classify public open spaces into three subsets according to their types (see Table 1-2)

18 13 Table 1-2: Classification of Neighborhood open spaces (Williams and Green, 2001) Neighborhood Open Space Any unbuilt land within the boundary of the neighborhood, or immediately adjacent to it, which provides, or has the potential to provide, environmental, social and/or economic benefits to the community, whether direct or indirect Green Space A subset of open space, consisting of any vegetated land of structure, water or geological feature within urban areas Parks and Gardens Amenity Green space Children's play areas Sports facilities Green corridors Natural/semi-natural green space Other functional green space Civic Space A subset of open space, consisting of urban squares, market places and other paved areas or hard landscaped areas with a civic function Civic squares Market places Pedestrian streets Promenades and sea fronts Grey Space A subset of open space consisting of areas used for non pedestrian movement and other functional uses Streets Parking areas Utility areas Previously developed abandoned sites Parks can be also distinguished according to their functions: Parks Passive Parks Active Parks Natural areas and wildlife Playground areas, baseball diamonds or picnic areas Figure 1-1: Parks categories. Adapted from Drescher et al. (1997) Besides the categorization according to their functions, urban parks are also usually classified according to their scale: Mini-Neighborhood Park Neighborhood Park Community Park Metropolitan Park Regional Park

19 14 This classification establishes the minimum standards for each type of park such as: what size should it be, what should be the maximum distance from home to that park, how many citizens should it serve, and in some cases - the facilities that should be found there (Drescher et al., 1997). What the standards do not specify are the qualitative characteristics that should be applied in the planning process. In different parts of the world it has been shown that an increase in open space in a city does not ensure improvement in urban quality. Nikolopoulou and Lykoudis (2007) provide the example of New York City in the year 1972: developers received incentives to add more public open space to their projects and it did not enhance the city. Most of the open spaces remained empty and increased isolation and social exclusion. Williams and Green (2001) remark that often, when public open space is in the hands of investors and developers it becomes a commodity, and loses the cultural and emotional value. How much neighborhood green space is needed is always under discussion. Park deficiency is evaluated through different methods described by Drescher et al. (1997): Park standards have been adopted in different cities, with modifications according to the city s needs. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) set up its Park Standards classifying them according to the type of park: Mini-neighborhood Park, Neighborhood Park, Community Park, Metropolitan Park, Regional Park, etc. For each park there are recommendations for different variables such as: park size, population served, service area (which means the maximum recommended distance from the house to the park) and how many acres of park there should be per 1,000 people. In another example, the Elmhurst Park District, Illinois, some changes were made to the NRPA standards, classifying their

20 15 parks in fewer categories: Mini-Park, Neighborhood Park and Community Park. In the recommendations, for each category, the facilities (in a general description) that should be included were described, emphasizing proximity to public schools. To evaluate the park deficiency, the NRPA proposes two methods: 1. Buffering Method to assess park deficiency: a one-quarter or one-half mile buffer is placed around a park boundary. The number of people residing within that buffer relative to a particular park is calculated and compared with the National Recreation and Park Association s recommendation of one acre of park per 1,000 people. Those areas that do not meet the recommended standard are designated as park deficient. (Drescher et al., 1997) This method has some problems, such as addressing the issue of park deficiency not based on park type or function. In addition to this, standards, in most of the cases do not consider the quality of the space. Characteristics such as the proportion of green areas to paved areas, types of vegetation, recommended materials, lighting, infrastructure and other spatial and functional attributes are not included. These standards place the emphasis on the quantity of park areas, and the accessibility to them from the residential areas. 2. The second method to assess park deficiency is a comparison of community needs with existing park and recreational facilities. This method consists of an inventory of existing parks and recreational facilities. Public needs and park resources are assessed to find the discrepancies between them. Data is collected through phone surveys and statistical analysis.

21 Successful and unsuccessful public open spaces The Project for Public Spaces (PPS, 2000) defines as successful public spaces those that have four key qualities: 1. They are accessible 2. People are engaged in activities there 3. The space is comfortable and has a good image 4. It is a sociable place Each of these points can be measured by: a) Intuitive or qualitative aspects such as how walkable, clean, attractive, useful, friendly and accessible the place is. b) Quantitative aspects such as pedestrian activity, environmental data, property values and building conditions, measured by statistics or research. These values coincide with Gehl s (1987) point of view about the importance of finding people in a place to attract more people: Wherever there are people - in buildings, in neighborhoods, in city centers, in recreational areas, and so on it is generally true that people and human activities attract other people. People are attracted to other people. They gather with and move about with others and seek to place themselves near others. New activities begin in the vicinity of events that are already in progress. 1.5 Uses and activities in public open spaces Many studies show and that the physical environment natural and built- greatly affects the human activity that takes place in it (Mehta, 2008; Golany, 1995; Maruani et al, 2007; Golicnik et al, 2010)). The extent and character of outdoor activities in public spaces are

22 17 greatly influenced by physical planning ( ) it is possible through planning decisions to influence patterns of activities, to create better or worse conditions for outdoor events, and to create lively or lifeless cities (Gehl, 1987) A classification of outdoor activities in public spaces can be carried out through observations of people s behavior, in three categories: necessary activities, optional activities and social activities. Then, the relationship between the quality of the physical environment and the rate of occurrence of each type of activity can be analyzed (Gehl, 1987). This is a method of research based on observations of selected sites. People have to be counted as they are active in a place. They can be located in a map with references, according to this classification. Gehl (1987) affirms that optional activities will take place only when the quality of the physical environment is good. Recording what people are doing specifically in a place is another used methodology. The important factors to record are the various kinds of activities and the different people who are doing these activities, according to age, gender, etc. The observations can be recorded using a camera or making graphs and drawings to illustrate them. The observer may record variables classifying them by activity. Some of them are the following: walking, sitting, working, stop to talk, neighborhood meeting, active recreation, waiting for the bus, etc. (Hester, 1984). The frequency of observed activities can be shown in a table or graph to explain the character of a place and it can also be represented through composite maps. This technique consists of dividing the map of the analyzed place into areas according to the intensity of activity observed in it. The most intensely used area can be represented as the darker color or via a denser graphic representation. This map, to provide more data, can be done in different hours of the day, different days of the week and different seasons. The

23 18 problem with this technique is that showing the intensity of an activity on a map, with no classification, may not yield sufficient information. The classification of an area as very intensively used can be interpreted in a different way depending on which activity is taking place. It would probably be more useful to divide the information according to Gehl s (1987) classification and to represent it in different maps to understand if people observed in a certain place are there because they need to be there or because they choose to be there. 1.6 Influence of climate in the use of public open spaces Eliasson et al. (2007, p.83) states that climate-sensitive planning may influence all of the three dimensions of sustainability-environmental, social and economic qualities. Golany (1995) points out that, for example, in a hot dry climate, large open spaces should be avoided because they cause a negative impact on users, mainly due to the effects of strong hot winds and dust. Instead, a city in a dry hot climate should provide small dispersed open spaces. Opposite to that, a city located in a hot humid climate should provide large open spaces that support ventilation. However, the effect of climate on users behavior is not clear. Some studies show that specific microclimates can encourage attendance and change users perceptions and emotions (Eliasson et al, 2007). Nikolopoulou and Steemers (2003) support this position but at the same time they explain that physiological and psychological adaptation has an important impact on human behavior in urban spaces, and because of that a variety of spaces providing different environments would maximize both physical and psychological adaptation. (p.101)

24 19 The methodologies most commonly applied to evaluate the effect of thermal comfort of users in public open spaces are interviews and observations of human activity together with measurements of weather parameters, in situ or from the closest weather station. (Eliasson et al, 2007; Nikolopoulou and Steemers, 2003; Thorsson et al, 2004; Nikolopoulou and Lykoudis, 2007; Gehl, 1987; Gomez et al, 2004; Stathopoulos et al, 2004) 1.7 Neighborhood open space in Israel Past and present standards The first norms in Israel for planning POS were established and published in 1964 by a Committee composed of members from the Association of Engineers and Architects in Israel, The Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Interior. To determine the norms they used demographic, sociological and economic data as national averages, taken from the Central Bureau of Statistics (Yavin et al, 1964). In this report they summarized the norms for open spaces needed in towns of different sizes. The categories were Sport, Playgrounds and Parks. They did not differentiate the needs of settlements according to their size, it was just proportional. Nowadays, in Israel, the Ministry of Construction and Housing (Research and Development Institute of Educational and Welfare Institutions, 2005) establishes standards for planning and allocation of POS. (Table 1-3) These standards are not differentiated according to climate zone, settlement size or population density. The guidelines are vague, with no specification of proportions of shaded areas, types of vegetation, function of trees, material of pavements, etc.

25 20 Table 1-3: Israeli standards for allocation of urban public open spaces (Research and Development Institute of Educational and Welfare Institutions, 2005) Open Space Type Urban park Quarter park Neighborhood park Inner playgrounds Wide and Open Sitting Corners Pedestrians and Bicycle path Space Demands 3 m 2 per person. >100 dunam. 2 m 2 per person dunam. 3 m 2 per person dunam. 2 m 2 per person. 2-5 dunam. Up to 1 dunam Path width of 5-8 meters. Characteristics of Use Sport, playgrounds, sitting corners, shade areas, grass, bicycle path, restaurants. Playgrounds, sitting corners, shade areas, grass, sport facilities, bicycle path, kiosk. Like quarter park. Playing facilities, sitting corners, fitting to all year climate conditions. Flooring, gardening, planting. Pavement. Combination of planting and gardening. Location and Remarks Characteristics Accessibility of pedestrians and bike riders. Up to people settlement. Next to community center. Next to neighborhood. No need to cross main roads. Part of the neighborhood. Fitting the location. Combined with transportation routes. Connecting urban and neighborhood centers.

26 Governmental and non governmental views about POS Recently, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and some NGOs call for increasing the standard amount of public open space per person, arguing that the established 7 square meters per person (at a neighborhood level) are not enough. But at the same time they recognize that many public open spaces are left derelict and remain undeveloped (Ministry of Environmental Protection, 2005). Table 1-4 shows the Practical Guidelines for Planning Urban Open Spaces, published by the Israel Union of Environmental Defense (IUED, 2008). In recent years, in a series of reports, the IUED and the Ministry of the Environment have reviewed existing standards in Israel and the state of their implementation (Raz, 2000; Ben-Shoam and Lahman, 2005; Shapira and Haan, 2004; Windsor, 2004). Generally, these reports advocate an increase in urban open space standards and their implementation and management. Table 1-4: IUED s Practical Guidelines for Planning Urban Open Spaces Despite the significant areas that are allocated to public open spaces in urban development plans (roughly 20% of the area in each plan), it seems that they do not always

27 22 fulfill their potential. Often they are left undeveloped or ill maintained, they are sporadically used by the residents around them, who do not seem to benefit from them in any way. Williams and Green (2001) find a similar situation in Great Britain acknowledging that there is a lack of systematic research on the quality of public open space, and that there is an overall decline of urban parks due, mainly, to the inability of local authorities to manage the existing open space resources. 1.8 Summary Standards, used as tools for planning, can leave many gaps. They are usually based on quantitative data and general specifications that define minimum characteristics of a new project. These characteristics leave out of the picture many important qualitative factors for planning that should be considered. A lot has been said about the minimum standards for allocating POS but nothing is said about the maximum natural resources that should be used for their construction and -more important- for their maintenance. Taking that into account, the system does not seem to be very sustainable. As Maruani et al (2007) remark securing a satisfactory and effective set of open spaces cannot rely on planning alone; it requires a thorough understanding and control of institutional systems and regulations that are involved in open space planning. The entire concept of standards as an important tool for planning POS, is still not clear. It is not clear either, if people in cities located in different climate zones and settlement sizes use their POS in the same way and with the same intensity. Public open spaces should fulfill users needs and it is difficult to assume that everyone will have the same needs of

28 23 standardized open spaces, in a country with such a varied population, settlements sizes, neighborhood typologies, population density and climate zones. 2 Research Methodology 2.1 Research aims This research begins from a belief that the problem of neighborhood public spaces in Israel is their quality rather than their quantity. We contend that in many cities there is too much public open space within the neighborhoods, with a high proportion of unused land, and that many of the public open spaces are unused or uncared for due to inappropriate siting, and lack of capacity for maintaining them at the city level. Furthermore, we claim that this situation has a more significant negative impact in desert cities. The aim of this study is to verify this initial observation through systematic research, surveying the uses and assessing the performance and quality of POS in neighborhoods of comparable social characteristics, but located in different climate zones and in different sized settlements. 2.2 Research questions The main questions for this research are: 1. What are the neighborhood open spaces that actually exist in Israeli urban neighborhoods and are there significant differences between the selected cases? What is the overall quality of urban spaces in these neighborhoods?

29 24 2. What are the uses, and how frequently do people use their neighborhood open space? Are there different patterns of use between different size settlements and between desert and non-desert areas? 3. What is the residents perception of the quality of neighborhood public spaces? Is there a difference between different settlement sizes and different climates zones? 2.3 Hypotheses Taking into account that in Israel there is a marked heterogeneity of cities, we believe that there are many variables which can influence the need for and the use of POS. Among them we consider as the most influential ones the climate zone, the settlement size and the neighborhood type. None of these differences are reflected in the standards for planning neighborhood public spaces in Israel. Social, spatial and environmental conditions have to be integrated in order to design spaces that will offer a better option for citizens. Our hypotheses, related to the standards, is that they should be different in desert and non desert areas, in different settlement sizes and different neighborhood types, and that they should provide tools to the urban planners to create appropriate urban environments that take advantage of the positive effects of the existing weather and climate (Eliasson et al., 2007) and provide protection from the negative ones (Gehl, 1987) To verify these hypotheses, the spatial quality of the existing POS needs to be examined, how these spaces are actually used and what are the perceptions, needs and expectations that people have with regard to them.

30 Research methods In this section we describe the different methods applied in this research: the selection and documentation of the case studies, the description and classification of POS, the observations of pedestrian movement and optional activity and the survey of uses and behaviour. Data collected through different methodologies will give us a complex picture of the situation to understand qualitative and quantitative factors that affect POS and the users behavior Selection of case studies The research examined POS in contexts differing along variables of: climate zones, settlement size and neighborhood structure. Two of the five climate zones of Israel were investigated: the coastal plain (hot humid), representing most of the settled area of Israel, and the high desert zone (hot dry) which is of particular interest to this study. In each climate zone a major city, a small medium city, and a community settlement were chosen. In each city, two neighborhoods were chosen, from different development periods. The periods chosen were: Planned before 1948 traditional urban form, pedestrian oriented 1950 to 1970 state built public housing early modernist urban form, limited car orientation

31 state financed and agency built public housing with increased parking standards in public parking lots late modernist, car oriented, urban form state planned and privately built housing with parking provision within private lots neo-traditional, car oriented, urban form Because the cities were developed at different periods, we were not able to compare pairs of neighborhoods from similar development periods in each climate area. We were able to get however the whole range of neighborhoods, including some community center areas. In the community settlements we examined the area which included the community center. In total, we examined 10 neighborhoods. An effort was made to locate areas with similar socio-economic characteristics, according to the socio-economic ranking and clusters of settlements published by the CBS (2007). The case studies selected are shown in Table 2-1 and the cities in Figure 2-1. Table 2-1: Selected case studies Major city Medium city Community settlement Tet neighborhood ( ) Desert area Beer Sheva Arad Neve Zeev ( ) City center ( ) Gevim ( ) Lehavim City center Old City center ( ) Vatikim neighborhood (pre-1948) Coastal plain Ashdod Bat Yam Shoham City center Yud neighborhood ( ) Ramat Hanasi ( ) For the community settlement cases we choose Lehavim and Shoham for being similar between them in socio-economic characteristics, despite the difference that exists

32 27 between these two settlements and the other four neighborhoods. The few settlements existing in the northern Negev area do not give us more options. Bat Yam Shoham Ashdod Lehavim Arad Beer Sheva Figure 2-1: Selected Israeli cities The first part of the research was based on the documentation and analysis of the physical environment, the overall quality of POS and the level of maintenance in every neighborhood Documentation of the neighborhoods Mapping and acquisition of demographic and density data of each one of the selected neighborhoods was done collecting information from governmental authorities

33 28 (municipalities and the Survey of Israel (SOI)). A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to gather, compile and analyze the data. In each neighborhood, the POS were digitized according to their category (see Figure 2-2), allowing us to calculate total areas, percentages and amount of each type of POS. The categories included: public green space, public civic space, public grey space, undefined open space, streets and others (private buildings and open space). Figure 2-2: Map of Neve Zeev neighborhood after digitizing Photographic records during the visual survey helped to describe and show each place. Data about thermal conditions in the days of observations was collected from the nearest weather station through the Israeli Meteorological Service (IMS) to compare thermal comfort conditions in the different locations in both seasons in which we carried out this study.

34 Description and classification of POS Every POS in the selected neighborhood was described through a narrative and photographs. This gave the researcher a sense of the kind of POS found in each neighborhood, and their relative degree of success, and allowed us to choose POS for further observation and analysis. Every POS selected for detailed study was catalogued according to independent variables as follows: 1) Size of settlement: according to its population, will be defined as belonging to a big city, medium city or small town. 2) Climate zone: Hot dry or hot humid. 3) Neighborhood typology: See above. This item will focus also in the prevalent building typology, and whether most homes have private open space. 4) Type of POS: Green, civic or grey space. Green POS are also classified as wide or linear according to their shape. 5) Size of green spaces: small neighborhood park, neighborhood park, community park. Comparisons were made both between categories of POS within the same settlements, and between the same kind of POS across settlement sizes and climates. The second part of the research was focused on examining social activity, attitudes and behavior of people toward the analyzed POS. This was carried out through the following methods:

35 Observations of movement and activities After doing the visual survey of the neighborhoods, three or four POS were selected in each one of the neighborhoods. More than 30 POS were examined. An effort was made to choose POS of different categories, including among them at least one wide public green space, one linear public green space and one public civic space in each neighborhood. The observations of movement and activities were carried out by two different observers (including the author) in winter and again in summer. In this way we obtained 4 observations for each POS, reaching a total of more than 120 observations. The other observers were trained and supervised by the researcher in order to assure consistency. All the observations were done during week days, in order to capture normal daily activity. After initial observations to determine the daily peak hours of use, observations were made in the peak hours of use on weekdays, during summer and winter Observations of optional activities The observations in winter were carried out in winter from 15:30 to 17:30 and during summer between 17:00 to 19:30. For each neighborhood, each observer arrived to the site with a map of each location (POS) and a map of the whole neighborhood. During ten minutes, each observer marked on the map the people found in the POS, and which activities they were doing. More than fifteen categories were found, among them, those that appeared more often were the following: standing, seating, walking with a dog, eating or drinking, going in or out of a store, playing, talking with someone else, etc. At the end, following Gehl (1987), the

36 31 observed activities were coded in four categories: social, stationary, services and movement activities. According to these four categories, the data was represented through GIS in maps for each neighborhood. See Figure 2-3 Figure 2-3: Map of optional activity Observation of pedestrian movement Pedestrian movement in the vicinity of the POS was counted using the gate method. Most of the gates were an imaged line crossing an adjacent street to the POS, where the observers stood for ten minutes each time and counted the amount of people that walked across the imaged gate. In each gate, four observations were carried out; two in winter days and two in summer days, immediately after doing the observation of optional activity in the closest POS.

37 Survey of use and attitudes towards neighborhood POS Another way to evaluate the use and success of the neighborhoods open space was to ask residents of the neighborhood how often they use the POS in their neighborhood, and their evaluation of them. While answers to these questions tend to be general, and people may not find it easy to evaluate the added value an open space brings to their life, the answers could testify to long term use patterns of the open space, and the long term consequences it may have on the neighborhood. Short questionnaires were employed through a random telephonic survey of residents in the various neighborhoods. In this way we could get answers from both users and non users of POS Data analysis Statistical analysis was applied in order to search for correlations between people s attitudes and behavior and the physical environment, including all the independent variables of settlement size, neighborhood type and climate zone. Several kinds of analysis were carried out: descriptive statistics of measures and intensity of use, comparative analysis of the different variables that describe the physical environment.

38 33 3 The case study neighborhoods and their POS In this chapter we describe the neighborhood case studies, qualitatively and quantitatively. Each neighborhood case study is usually delimited by the main avenues surrounding the selected area. An effort was made also to delimit the case studies in a way that they will be similar in size. Most of them are around 500,000 sq.m. in area. In Section 3.3 we show the exact area of each case study neighborhood and in Section 3.5 their population density. 3.1 General description of the case study neighborhoods Ashdod The two selected neighborhoods in Ashdod were the area of the center together with Hey neighborhood, an older part of the city where we can find more commercial activity, and Yud neighborhood, a newer neighborhood, much more residential, with many semi private gardens between buildings.

39 34 Figure 3-1: Ashdod study areas Ashdod city center and Hei Neighborhood The older city center of Ashdod is one of the areas with more movement, mainly because of the activities we can find there related to services and commerce. It has a special character in its civic spaces. This area lies along Rogozin Ave. between Itzhak Hanassi Ave. and Shavei Zion Ave. It consists of several parts: along Rogozin Ave. a very wide and generous sidewalk that really works as civic POS, with shading trees and shaded benches next to shops windows, banks, etc. The street looks clean, benches and trees are well

40 35 maintained. Buildings in this area are 6 to 10 story buildings with shops on the ground floor and residences above. Figure 3-2: Ashdod city center At the corner of Shavei Zion Av. and Rogozin Av. there is an open commercial area with different types of POS (Figure 3-2). There is an enclosed courtyard with a huge Ficus Magnolia in the middle surrounded by different stores and benches. This is a delightful shaded and cool place. There are entrances all around that connect this space with the other areas and the streets around. The courtyard is connected to another open courtyard underneath an arcade. In this open plaza there are shops and services such as bank, pharmacy, kiosks, coffee, BBQ, etc. Both places are not very big. They have a very good proportion, are well connected to surrounding streets and contain a variety of uses.

41 36 Figure 3-2 : Ashdod city center. Commercial center courtyard and open plaza. Behind this commercial area there is a parking area at the back, with a weird connection to a linear open space, which is however poorly connected to the buildings surrounding it. From the other side this parking area is connected to an internal street leading to the second level of this commercial complex, which works less well than the ground level. Around the residential buildings we find some sad spaces between buildings (Figure 3-3). It is not clear what is private and what is public. There is some fenced part for games. We see few nice big trees but mainly abandonment. Playgrounds are very low quality and there is lack of shaded areas to sit and play. Figure 3-3: Uncared open spaces in Ashdod city center. The area studied in Hei neighborhood has POS with high proportions of paved areas (Figure 3-4). There are some pedestrian streets and some parks with very basic playgrounds, some benches shaded by trees and areas of vegetation and grass with a medium level of

42 37 maintenance. In some of these parks we find large areas of pavement without any equipment such as benches, playgrounds, etc. Others have even picnic tables shaded by the trees. Figure 3-4: Parks in Hei neighborhood There is a large open space behind a shopping center. It is large, well connected to the streets and buildings surrounding it, contains a few public buildings but is disconnected from the new shopping center. Yud Neighborhood This residential neighborhood was developed in the 1990 s and it is mainly composed of residential buildings of different heights (3 to 5 story buildings most of them and 10-14

43 38 story buildings closer to the main avenues), an open commercial center, 3 schools and several neighborhood parks. The main feature of the neighborhood is a diagonal main street, running from Southeast to Northwest, which in its end becomes a pedestrian street, and path connecting the neighborhood to the new center of the city on Sderot Menahem Begin. The commercial center is a semi-circular arcade, at the Southeastern entrance to the pedestrian street, with basic food shops followed by a pedestrian street with shops, a post office and 2 stories residential buildings above them (Figure 3-5). Entrance to the residential buildings is from the back parking lot, which also serves as a loading access for the stores. Figure 3-5: Commercial center in Yud neighborhood, Ashdod. Green POS have nice shaded trees, play equipment and street furniture but they look boring, with no sense of place. There are big grassy areas, wide paved areas but there isn t really a good dialog with the neighborhood. In this neighborhood there are several types of POS: open spaces in the corners (Figure 3-6), internal courtyards, and large open space to the north of the diagonal street.

44 39 Figure 3-6: Yud neighborhood parks. Different typologies. Along this neighborhood we can find many semi-public internal courtyards with surrounding paths separated from facades by bushes (Figure 3-7). These courtyards are the access to 3 stories residential building surrounding them. The internal space is composed of grass and small trees. This type of POS usually looks very clean with a medium level of maintenance and it is usually connected to a parking lot and streets by a pedestrian path. There are no benches, no playground or any other equipment. Figure 3-7: Yud neighborhood semi public courtyards

45 40 Bat Yam The two selected neighborhoods show different typologies. The area of the center is older, with buildings privately developed during the 1950 s to 1979 s. This one has several open spaces that share green and civic areas. The second neighborhood, Ramat HaNassi, is a mostly government built housing from the 1960 s to the 1980 s, with a more heterogeneous typology of buildings and also of POS. Bat Yam study areas Figure 3-8: Bat Yam study areas.

46 41 Bat Yam center In this neighborhood we see a good variety of green POS with different characteristics. Some of them are wide, others linear. Most of them are very well cared for and have nice vegetation, flowers and grass and beautiful old trees that provide shade in different areas. Playgrounds are dispersed throughout the neighborhood, giving a variety of places for kids to play. They are also in very good condition. Green POS in this area are easily accessible, well connected to the surrounding streets and buildings, visually and physically as well. Figure 3-9: Bat Yam center open spaces The main open space in the neighborhood is a T-shaped open space along Daniel St., between Pinkas St. and Perlstein St., there is a series of green POS very well integrated to the surrounding areas. On the South end of these green spaces there are 4 story blocks with food stores, kiosk, grocery at the ground level and residential apartments above. On the other end of this green POS there is a school and some playground areas. The Western sidewalk of Daniel street passes through the POS, allowing pedestrians to walk right through it. Buildings next to it enjoy the view, having tall trees next to their windows.

47 42 Green POS in this neighborhood are really part of the neighborhood and have a charming atmosphere, with shaded areas, beautiful trees, wood benches, trash cans, paved areas, grassy areas, porticos, etc. In this way they supply a place of encounters to neighbors and also beauty to the neighborhood as a whole (Figure 3-10) Figure 3-10: Variety of open spaces in Bat Yam center Ramat Hanassi neighborhood In this neighborhood there is a civic open space connected with a major city public building and next to a shopping center, a large linear open space next to schools and

48 43 neighborhood social center, small neighborhood POS of two types: one between buildings but next to a major street, and the other between public housing buildings and away from the streets. In this area we see a series of open spaces flanked by parking streets coming out of Eli Cohen and Livorno St. The parking streets are T dead ending but connected to each other as pedestrian path. Buildings are raised on piles to allow connection between open spaces. Paving is original from s 40x40 concrete pavers. There are new benches and trash cans installed. There are some gardens (Figure 3-11) between 4 stories blocks and 6 stories on columns H buildings, one level above the adjacent Eli Cohen Street. They look very well kept and are provided with new furniture and play equipment. Figure 3-11: Gardens in Ramat Hanassi neighborhood, Bat Yam. In the corner of Yoseftal Av. and Yarkoni st. there is a large civic POS shared with a green POS; this space provides the access to the Municipal Library. See Figure It is also adjacent to a major shopping center. This park has many wood benches and shaded places as well as large grassy areas. There is a fountain that generates a space, with place to sit next to it. There is no playground here. The space abuts Yoseftal St. on one side but the connection to Yarkoni St. is through a small path, which also leads to the side entrance of

49 44 the shopping center through a bridge. Most of the space is taken by the access to the underground parking of the shopping center, and pedestrians are relegated to an unpleasant 2m wide space. Figure 3-12: Municipal Library and civic/green space next to it. There is a linear green POS space that connects Kaf Tet Benovember St. and David Raziel St. This is a park with recently done path and bicycle lane that runs in a strange way down the center. There is a concentration of schools to the west. There is no direct connection from the buildings to the east which are also at a lower level. The northern edge of this park is a nice area of Ficus trees. Along a length of m the path is lined with benches. On its other side are a grassed area and a playground. The path continues besides the descent into shopping center parking, to the east entrance of the shopping center. See Figure 3-13.

50 45 Figure 3-13: Linear park and connection to the shopping center in Ramat Hanassi neighborhood Shoham City center This is a car oriented town, where we can see even traffic jams in the area next to the commercial center but very low pedestrian movement. Most of the residential units in the studied area are detached houses with private garden and there are few three or four stories buildings. The level of maintenance in general is high and the streets look clean.

51 46 Figure 3-14: Shoham study area Most of the parks are in very good condition. There are some wood benches and different shaded areas protected by roofs or pergolas. In most of the parks we can see an important playground area, with variety of activities, even a ping pong table in a shaded area with benches. (Figure 3-15)There is a good variety of plants and trees and big grassy areas.

52 47 Figure 3-15: Playground areas in Shoham parks There are different paths within the parks that connect them to different streets of the neighborhood (Figure 3-16). These paths are usually two meters wide, meaning that a very low proportion of the park perimeter is directly accessible. Houses around are usually not connected with the parks; their gardens have fences on the sides adjacent to the parks. Figure 3-16: Sides of parks adjacent to family houses Next to the main junctions there is the main commercial center, including offices, the police station and a medical clinic. The main entrance to the medical clinic is through a parking lot with a narrow sidewalk next to the building. The main accesses to the

53 48 commercial center are through large stairs in the corner of the main intersection and through the parking lot. There is another secondary entrance for pedestrians though this one is very narrow and quite hidden so difficult to find. Figure 3-17: Aerial view of the main junction and parking lot with access to the commercial center The commercial center is divided in two main areas: a small open area with shops facing a portico adjacent to the big parking lot and another bigger area with shops around an open space exclusively for pedestrians (Figure 3-18). This open space is provided with some tables, benches and shading devices as well as some trees. All kind of shops and activities comprise this commercial center: falafel, coffee bar, supermarket, optic, clothes and a kiosk.

54 49 Figure 3-18: Central open space in the commercial center and the pedestrian access The level of maintenance is very good; trees, shading devices and equipment are in good condition. In all of this area we can see a high proportion of parking lots and a low proportion of public space for pedestrians. The greener area is the roundabout in the main intersection, which is not useable, but is only for visual effect. By the end of this research the grass in the roundabout is being replaced with tiled floor. Beer Sheva The two selected neighborhoods are from different times and were built using different typologies even though they are located one next to the other, in the southwest area of Beer Sheva. Tet Neighborhood was built in the 1970 s and 80 s and is built around four superblock areas surrounding interior open spaces. Neve-Zeev neighborhood was built in the 1990 s, and is based on a relatively dense network of streets, with public services and shopping concentrated along Jabotinsky Ave. its main street, and the open spaces interspersed between the blocks.

55 50 Figure 3-19: Beer Sheva study areas. Tet and Neve Zeev neighborhoods Tet neighborhood In this neighborhood there are relatively few streets. The structure of the neighborhood is more pedestrian than car oriented, access to the buildings in provided from access streets in the periphery, with buildings surrounding large internal open spaces. Buildings, parks, schools and commercial centers, in most of the cases, are interconnected by pedestrian paths. However, the neighborhood is divided by Jerusalem Av. This is a street with relatively fast car movement and few pedestrian crossings along it. There is a main commercial center on Jerusalem Av. (Figure 3-20) which is small but very active and most of the services can be found there. Besides it there are a couple of smaller commercial areas with a few stores in each one.

56 51 Figure 3-20: Access to commercial center from Jerusalem Av. The parks, in most of the cases are very well integrated to the buildings around them, but at the same time they are almost imperceptible from the adjacent streets, for pedestrians passing by or car drivers. (Figure 3-21) Figure 3-21: Jerusalem Avenue and access to residential buildings from a park The overall level of maintenance of parks in this neighborhood is medium-low. There are many large grassy areas not so well cared for. Some of them look good but not outstanding and some of them seem really neglected.

57 52 There are large areas of POS belonging to the undefined category; empty spaces, neither developed nor planted (Figure 3-22). There we see just exposed soil. Some of these spaces contain trees that receive irrigation but these spaces are still unused and seem neglected. Figure 3-22: Some undefined open spaces Neve Zeev neighborhood Opposite to Tet neighborhood this is a newer neighborhood from the 1990 s, with a notable presence of cars and almost no pedestrian paths besides the sidewalks. It is mainly composed of high-rise buildings, shops on the ground level and some parks scattered along the neighborhood. Most of the open spaces here have playground facilities. There are also some abandoned POS. Jabotinsky Ave. (Figure 3-23) is the main street of the neighborhood and is lined with high rise residential buildings, which also contain offices and a commercial ground floor. Most of the roundabouts are covered with grass and palm trees, which is only visual since they have no function for pedestrians and are not accessible to them. The sidewalks are wide and have trees and some benches along. There is much car movement, and also buses passing through this main street but at low speed. This street is a very alive place. Cars park

58 53 along the street; there are no parking lots next to this street. It is a mixed uses area: there are food stores, supermarkets, medical clinic, clothes shops, housing and offices. Figure 3-23: Jabotinsky Avenue Even though we find in this neighborhood very alive and developed places like Jabotinsky Avenue -which is located in the center of the neighborhood- we also find many unused POS or completely neglected parks (Figure 3-24). These open spaces are usually located closer to the edges of the neighborhood and the neglected parks are the oldest parks of the neighborhood. Figure 3-24: Neglected parks

59 54 The best developed and well maintained POS of Neve Zeev neighborhood are the newest parks and pedestrian streets. Several examples of pedestrian streets between buildings (Figure 3-25) show their usefulness as an active POS and not just as a path to connect between places. In this neighborhood we see different parks with different character. One of the newest parks is at the south limit of the neighborhood (Figure 3-26), next to N. Herz Imber Avenue, a high speed road, with almost no pedestrian movement. This park looks very well maintained but there are no people at all there. There are large grassy areas, paths and benches but no shaded areas. All the benches are made of metal and become really hot when they receive solar radiation. In summer it is impossible to sit there during the day. Figure 3-25: Pedestrian street between buildings. Figure 3-26: Wide park neighborhood. N. Zeev There are many and varied active parks in the neighborhood. Some of them are linear, some are wide. Some have playgrounds for younger kids and others for older kids. What they share are big grassy areas that in most of the cases, at least during the summer, look dry. Playgrounds are in very good condition in general. All of these parks are very well

60 55 integrated to the residential area (Figure 3-27) However, generally they are not visible or directly accessible from Jabotinsky Avenue, the main street. Figure 3-27: Neve Zeev neighborhood parks In most of the parks the pergolas do not really provide shade to the benches; rather they do to the area next to them. The paths are also not shaded, making the walk along the park less comfortable in summer days. In many parks there are some nice areas shaded by trees where one can sit but there are also many trees giving shade to inaccessible areas, covered by bushes. The grass is not very well cared for. Arad This is a small city, built as a development town in the 1960 s, with old neighborhoods with block buildings and peripherally some new neighborhoods. We will examine part of the city center, characterized for the amount of pedestrian streets that connect the buildings between them and with the commercial center, and then we will study a newer neighborhood from the 1990 s: Gevim neighborhood, composed exclusively of detached or semidetached houses.

61 56 Figure 3-28: Arad study areas. Gevim neighborhood and city center. City center This area can be described as two main parts: the open commercial center surrounded by parking and the pedestrian paths with the open spaces adjacent to them and the access to the residential buildings. The main space of this area is the open commercial center (Figure 3-29). This place functions as a civic space with a central plaza. All around this plaza we see a large variety of shops and services, including the main theater of the city, banks, coffee shops, groceries, clothes stores, kiosks, etc. There are some wood benches, street lights, palm trees and a central open stage for outdoor shows. All around the plaza there is a shaded portico that protects the pedestrians from sun and rain, next to the stores windows. This civic POS is

62 57 surrounded by major streets where we see also bus stops. Coffees and restaurants have their outdoor sitting places facing the central square. It is a very permeable place; easily accessible from the four sides through pedestrian passages. These streets are pretty narrow, shaded, with shops, food smells, music, etc. All these spaces are an example of intensively used POS that do not need a big effort in maintenance. It is 100% covered by paving and beside the palm trees there are some flowers around the stage. Next to this place, to the north, there are some public buildings such as visitors center, library, Arad museum and a big shopping mall. Figure 3-29: Open commercial center. Civic POS

63 58 Moving from the commercial center to the north east there is a residential area known as Leva ot and Ye elim neighborhoods are composed of government built housing and pedestrian streets all across them. Some of them are patio buildings and where the internal patios or gardens were closed with fences, the open spaces are much better cared for than those which remain completely open all around the perimeter of the building. Streets are exclusively for pedestrians. They are completely paved, with shading provided by the buildings (Figure 3-30). There are very few streets accessible for cars that work mainly as access to the open parking lots between buildings. Next to the parking lots we can see some undefined POS. In some of them we can even find benches but it is not very clear why they are there because there is no shade and the place looks very unpleasant. The pedestrian streets are around 6 to 12 m wide with wood benches and some palm trees that have a decorative function but do not provide shade to pedestrians. Figure 3-30: Pedestrian street in Ye elim neighborhood and open parking lot.

64 59 Figure 3-31: Access to the housing in Ye elim neighborhood There are no big parks in this area but there are some nice small neighborhood parks with playgrounds, pergolas, benches and shade devices. They are accessible from the pedestrian streets, meaning that children can arrive alone to these parks being safe from car movement. The level of maintenance is not very high. (Figure 3-32) Figure 3-32: Small Neighborhood parks and pedestrian streets in Ye elim and Leva ot neighborhoods Gevim neighborhood This is a neighborhood composed of detached houses and some neighborhood parks. There is no commercial center in this area and almost no services at all, only a small medical clinic and a kindergarten. The streets look deserted. There are four significant POS in the neighborhood; two large ones at the Eastern and Western edges and two smaller

65 60 internal ones. Besides these there are several small pocket gardens along the streets where they intersect with pedestrian paths that run perpendicular to them. The Western open space, is at the edge of the city, where Hakanaim St. enters the city from Road 31. The Eastern open space, is opposite a large empty area, which is designated for schools and public buildings. The parks located in this area are in good condition, they include playground areas, benches, pergolas, etc. But there are large grassy areas that do not look good. In many areas the grass is dry and all over them we cannot find shaded benches, tables or any other facility that invite users. There is a big park at the edge of the city in its west side. It is a decorative park at the entrance to the city. It looks completely isolated, lacks vegetation, shade and infrastructure in general. The view from the park to its surroundings is the road and the industrial area and there is noise from car movement. There is no infrastructure for activities such as playground or sports facilities or picnic areas, there is not even a water dispenser in the park. The park in the other edge of the neighborhood, the east side, looks more developed, with a nice shaded path, nice trees and well maintained plants, but it has no play equipment or sports area. It also included a large memorial to the soldiers who died in the Second World War.

66 61 Figure 3-33: Contemplation park in the south west side and Neighborhood park in the east side. Within the neighborhood there are a few small neighborhood parks and some sitting corners. We find some problems in the sitting corners: first of all some benches are located in completely unattractive spots. As we see in Figure 3-34 a bench is located giving the back to the grassy area and looking to a wall. The bench is not shaded and is made of metal. Figure 3-34: Sitting corner and playground in a small neighborhood park Most of the parks in this neighborhood are pretty closed, meaning that they have very few access points and in some cases it is even difficult to find them because the park is delimited by bushes in almost all its perimeter.

67 ) There are few undefined POS, empty spaces in the middle of the neighborhood. (Figure Figure 3-35: Undefined POS in a corner and park with its sides closed by bushes. Lehavim City center The areas of Lehavim that were studied were those located within and around the old and new commercial centers. This town has been going through a process in which the concentration of public activities moved from the old center to the new one. The old center is surrounded by circular and radial streets. In the center of the circle there is a small commercial center (the old commercial center), a civic plaza and a wide park, including playground area. Other public buildings are located around this space, including theater, medical clinic, municipality, school, etc. This center is easily accessible from the radial streets, of which many are pedestrian streets, with nice vegetation and shade from trees.

68 63 Figure 3-36: Lehavim Study area The residential area is exclusively composed of detached houses with private gardens. Most of the houses in this area are about years old and are very well maintained. The neighborhood parks are in very good condition, well kept, with a good variety of vegetation. There are many green areas and most of them are well cared for, only few are dry. However, in all these green areas there are no benches, pergolas, tables or infrastructure. There are wood benches below a pergola only around the playground in the central area of the park. In the same park there are many nice olive trees but their shade is on the bushes below them, in unapproachable areas.

69 64 Figure 3-37: Lehavim parks The new commercial center is located next to the entrance of the town, being a place of shopping and social encounters, to which almost everyone arrives by car. The access from the front side is only through the parking lot. It is visible and accessible for drivers arriving or leaving the city but it is not well connected to the residential areas of the city and also not as close to them as the old commercial center (Figure 3-38). The linear park (location 8) behind the commercial center could have been a potential connector between the commercial center and the residential area but there is no continuity between them; the park is the back side of the commercial center, only visible from the other side of the complex, which is a service area for trucks. There is neither physical nor visual connection between the commercial center and the linear park. The entire commercial center is open to one side - opposite to the city- where the parking lot is, and closed to the side of the city where the linear park is. There are only a couple of very narrow passages between the park and the commercial center.

70 65 Figure 3-38: Back and front of the new commercial center While geographically the new center is not centrally located as the old one; it is the more successful one, where all the stores are located. In the old commercial center we can find only personal services and hairdresser. (Figure 3-39) Figure 3-39: Old commercial center Figure 3-40: New commercial center Summary Overall, we can see some common patterns in all the green POS of the case study neighborhoods. Almost all of them look the same, mainly the newest ones. They do not

71 66 have a special identity that represents each neighborhood or city. Everywhere the same benches and pergolas are used. In the oldest neighborhoods we see wood benches, and in the newest ones we see metal benches which are much less comfortable, smaller and get too warm in summer to encourage sitting on them. There are lots of trees without function, in inaccessible areas or bushes around them, in the shaded area. On the other hand there are large areas of grass and pavement in POS which are not shaded at all. To cover large green areas only grass is used instead of diversifying with different species. In many of the civic POS arcades are completely blocked by merchandising put out by stores, making them inaccessible for walking. We do not see the eye of an urban planner or landscape architect in the studied parks. Benches, pergolas, green areas and dry coverage do not seem to have been planned as a whole. Pergolas in many cases are even located in the opposite direction that what they should be to be functional at all. In this way we see the benches completely under the sun and the shade can be on the bushes next to it. Bat Yam center is the only place where we can see POS easily accessible and well integrated to the surrounding area, with wide paths that allow access from different directions. In older neighborhoods there are large areas of open space, in which it is not clear whether the space is private or public. In many cases this type of space between buildings is well kept, but in many instances these spaces seem completely uncared for, full of garbage and dry grass. When the access to this type of buildings is through the open space, it looks much better kept.

72 67 In the small settlements (Lehavim and Shoham) we can see a predominance of grey POS (mostly parking) in the central areas, together with the civic POS and finally followed by the green POS which are hidden if one is standing in the area of the main commercial centers. In both cases we can see how the planning of the commercial centers as the main point of encounter in the towns, generates an isolated place that works together only with the parking lot next to it. There is no dialog between these places and the rest of the city, and little thought given to pedestrian accessibility. Moreover, they turn their back to the rest of the city and to green POS, even in close proximity.

73 Spatial distribution of POS In this section the distribution of POS is shown through maps that we have made in ArcMap GIS for the 10 study areas. The different colors show the different types of POS: green, civic, grey and undefined, so we can see how each type of POS is related to the neighborhood. The location of each case study in relation to the neighborhood was shown in the figures of chapter 3.1. Ashdod Center (Figure 3-41) Figure 3-41: Ashdod center and Hei neighborhood

74 69 Ashdod, Yud neighborhood (Figure 3-42) Beer Sheva, Tet neighborhood (Figure 3-43)_ Figure 3-42: Ashdod,Yud neighborhood Figure 3-43: Tet neighborhood, Beer Sheva

75 70 Beer Sheva, Neve Zeev neighborhood (Figure 3-44) Figure 3-44: Neve Zeev neighborhood, Beer Sheva Bat Yam, Ramat HaNassi neighborhood (Figure 3-45) Figure 3-45: Ramat Hanassi neighborhood, Bat Yam

76 71 Bat Yam center (Figure 3-46) Figure 3-46: Bat Yam center Arad center (Figure 3-47) Figure 3-47: Arad center

77 72 Arad, Gevim neighborhood (Figure 3-48) Shoham center (Figure 3-49) Figure 3-48: Gevim neighborhood, Arad Figure 3-49: Shoham center

78 73 Lehavim center (Figure 3-50) Figure 3-50: Lehavim center As we see in all these maps, there is not a unique system of parks or a common pattern. Some countries or cities in other places of the world have a clear plan of green spaces that communicate the residential areas with the civic spaces. Here only few examples seem to show some intention of that. It is remarkable that, beside the total amount of green space in each neighborhood, in small settlements and new neighborhoods we see large green open spaces, mainly located in the borders of the neighborhood and at the same time a few small parks surrounded by residential areas. Civic spaces in most of the neighborhoods are concentrated in one or two places instead of being mixed or scattered along the neighborhood.

79 Amount of different types of POS Through the utilization of ArcMap GIS, after drawing the different types of POS and getting the finished maps, we calculated the areas of each type of POS. In the Table 3-1 we can see in each neighborhood case study the amount of each type of POS, the area of streets and the area of others (private buildings or private open space) Table 3-1: Amounts of POS by type In sqm City Neighborhood Study area Green POS Civic POS Grey POS Undefined POS Total POS Streets Others Ashdod B. Sheva Bat Yam Center Yud Tet Neve Zeev R. Hanassi Center Center Arad Gevim Shoham Center Lehavim Center In percentage City Neighborhood Study area Green POS Civic POS Grey POS Undefined POS Total POS Streets Others Ashdod B. Sheva Bat Yam Center Yud Tet Neve Zeev R. Hanassi Center Center Arad Gevim Shoham Center Lehavim Center As we can see, the low density neighborhoods, Arad Gevim, Lehavim and Shoham have higher percentage of green POS compared to the other denser populated neighborhoods in medium and big cities, with the exception of Ramat Hanassi in Bat Yam, which has also a high proportion of green open space. Arad center and both neighborhoods in Beer Sheva have the lowest one. At the same time, Arad center has the highest percentage of civic POS, mainly composed of pedestrian streets and a large plaza

80 75 surrounded by shops and services. In the desert areas case studies, Beer Sheva, Arad and Lehavim we see the highest percentages of undefined POS. In the case of Lehavim, a large part of it corresponds to a neighborhood in planning, in Arad Gevim to a peripheral open space surrounding the residential area and in Tet Neighborhood, Beer Sheva it corresponds mainly to uncared or abandoned open spaces all over the neighborhood. Comparing the big cities Ashdod and Beer Sheva to the small settlements, Lehavim and Shoham we see how in Lehavim and Shoam the percentage of green space is higher than the neighborhoods in Beer Sheva and Ashdod. In 3.5 we will see the relation between the amount of POS and the population density and how this difference between big and small settlements is much more remarkable when we compare how much open space per person there is in each neighborhood. 3.4 Accessibility to POS One of the parameters taken into account in the existing standards for planning green POS is the accessibility from the place of residence to the nearest neighborhood park or green open space. Most of the international standards of planning define a maximum distance of 300 meters from home to a neighborhood park for any type of settlement. After surveying the POS of our case studies, classifying and locating each type of POS, as a second step, through ArcMap GIS we calculated the area of influence of each green POS. For each green POS in all the case studies, two buffer zones were defined. The first one involved the area from the green POS up to 150 m from it, and it is represented in orange color. The second buffer zone, in red color, is the one that involves all the area located from 150 m to 300 m from the green POS.

81 76 Ashdod Center (Figure 3-51) Ashdod, Yud neighborhood (Figure 3-52) Figure 3-51: Ashdod center Figure 3-52: Ashdod, Yud neighborhood Beer Sheva, Tet neighborhood (Figure 3-53) Figure 3-53: Tet neighborhood

82 77 Beer Sheva, Neve Zeev neighborhood (Figure 3-54) Figure 3-54: Neve Zeev neighborhood, Beer Sheva Bat Yam, Ramat HaNassi neighborhood (Figure 3-55) Figure 3-55: Bat Yam, Ramat HaNassi neighborhood

83 78 Bat Yam center (Figure 3-56) Figure 3-56: Bat Yam center Arad center (Figure 3-57) Figure 3-57: Arad center

84 79 Arad, Gevim neighborhood (Figure 3-58) Shoham center (Figure 3-59) Figure 3-58: Gevim neighborhood, Arad Figure 3-59: Shoham center

85 80 Lehavim center (Figure 3-60) Figure 3-60: Lehavim center As we can observe in the previous maps, in most of the cases, the whole area of the case study has very good accessibility to green POS. Most of the residential buildings have a green POS no further than 150 m distance and few within no more than 300 m. There are almost no areas in our case studies where there is no green POS within 300 m distance from home. Only in Bat Yam center we see a very small area of the neighborhood where there are no green POS within 300 m distance and in Tet neighborhood, Beer Sheva there is a small area far from green POS, although there are no houses there.

86 Population density and ratio of Population to POS. Based on data received from the Israeli CBS (2008) we made an estimation of population density for the specific study areas. Beside the difference in size of the whole settlement we can observe that population density varies significantly between all the case studies. Results are shown in Figure 3-61 Population density by neighborhood People/Sq.Km Beer Sheva N. Zeev Ashdod center Ashdod Yud Bat Yam center Arad center Shoham Beer Sheva Tet Bat Yam R. HaNassi Arad Gevim Lehavim Case studies Figure 3-61: Population density in the ten case studies One of the parameters of the standards for planning open spaces indicates the ratio of population to open space, how many people should be served by the neighborhood open spaces. As we see in Figure 3-62, from our case studies, the less dense populated neighborhoods, Lehavim and Arad Gevim, have the highest ratio of POS per person and the densest populated neighborhood, Neve Zeev, has the lowest ratio of POS per person. We

87 82 see that half of our case studies are above the minimum standards and the other half is under them Amount of green POS per person by neighborhood Sq.m/person sqm/person of green POS. Minimum established standard in Israel 5 0 Arad Gevim Lehavim Shoham Bat Yam R. HaNassi Beer Sheva Tet Ashdod Yud Bat Yam center Ashdod center Arad center Beer Sheva N. Zeev Neighborhood case studies Figure 3-62: Ratio of POS to population in the ten case studies 3.6 Summary The study of the ten case studies through the visual survey and the GIS analysis gave us tools to understand the heterogeneity between them as neighborhoods and paradoxically, the homogeneity of their POS, mainly green POS. While we worked on neighborhoods of different typology, different settlement size and different climate areas, the POS looked very similar in all of them. In all the neighborhood case studies we can observe the excellent accessibility to green POS brought about by adherence to the standards. In the neighborhoods where the building typology is exclusively or almost exclusively detached

88 83 houses with private gardens (the low population density neighborhoods Lehavim, Arad Gevim and Shoham), we see an oversupply of green POS, with a ratio of POS per person much higher than the minimum established in the standards. Neve Zeev in Beer Sheva and Arad center have a ratio of POS per person lower than recommended by the standards. (see Figure 3-62). Visiting the POS of these neighborhoods we realized that most of them remain empty. This difference on the ratio of POS per person does not seem to make a difference in the density of use. We will analyze the patterns of use in chapter 4.

89 84 4 Patterns of use of POS In this chapter we describe the POS that were selected in each neighborhood for detailed observations of the activity that occurs in them. The categories of activity were detailed in Chapter Summer and winter patterns of activities are presented and compared. The activity in the POS is correlated with the pedestrian movement recorded in an adjacent street to each POS. This correlation suggests some inferences on the different patterns of use of POS in desert and non-desert areas, and highlights a distinction between successful and non-successful POS. This distinction is further explored through a qualitative analysis of several exemplary POS. 4.1 Selected POS for observations of optional activity In each neighborhood, an effort was made to select at least three types of POS for observation of activity: a civic POS, a green wide POS and a green linear POS, trying to maintain some characteristics in common among them. For example, civic spaces were chosen in commercial areas and wide parks were chosen from those that have playground area. Desert area Selected POS in Neve Zeev neighborhood, Beer-Sheva The main street, Johanna Jabotinsky Av. was selected as the civic POS, being this the place where all services and shops are located. This area is limited by the roundabout 1 and 3 (see figure 4.1 for all location numbers below). This main street has wide sidewalks and is lined with stores at the ground floor of apartment buildings. The green wide POS

90 85 selected is the location 15, a medium sized park with one main access and five minor accesses from the sides. The park is surrounded by 10 story apartment buildings with balconies facing the park. Location 5 was selected as the linear POS, being a park that connects Avigdor HaMeiri and Gershon Shofman streets. From this park there is an access to a kindergarten and right next to it there is a playground. Figure 4-1: POS in Neve Zeev neighborhood, Beer-Sheva Selected POS in Tet neighborhood, Beer Sheva The civic POS selected in this case is location 11 (see figure 4-2 for all location references below), the main commercial center. This is a relatively small area, not larger than 400 sq. m but well integrated to the neighborhood and includes the main services such as bank, post office, supermarket, etc. The selected wide POS is the location 8, a big park right next to the commercial center composed of a basic playground area and serving as access to some apartment buildings around it. There is a large grassy area next to the playground area, which is paved all around. At the edge of the park, closer to Tuviyahu Av.

91 86 the park looks more abandoned. The linear POS selected is location 7, a park surrounded by apartment buildings and connecting them with the commercial center and the park next to it. It has a very basic playground, with a large, not very well cared for grassy area, and several paved paths connecting the park with different accesses to buildings around and also to the adjacent park (location 8). Figure 4-2: POS in Tet Neighborhood, Beer-Sheva Selected POS in the Arad Center Neighborhood The selected civic POS is the location 13 (see figure 4-3), which is the main commercial area of Arad. This area is completely pedestrian with parking lots on the exterior of the commercial area. There is a main square surrounded by shops, banks, coffee shops and a theatre. The selected linear POS is location 20, a very simple park, with no infrastructure or street furniture, just grass and a couple of trees. The selected wide POS is location 23, a small park adjacent to the pedestrian Shim on Street leading to the east from

92 87 the Arad mall. This is a small playground, shaded by a new shade device that was installed last summer and, next to it, a sitting area under a nice pergola. Figure 4-3: POS in the Arad Center neighborhood Arad, Gevim neighborhood In this neighborhood there is no civic POS where optional activity could be found. The selected wide POS were locations 9 and 3 in figure 4-4. Both are small neighborhood parks with simple playgrounds and surrounded by streets with semi-detached and single family houses. Most of the area of these parks is paved. The selected linear POS is location 8, a simple park, with no playground area. Even its shape is not linear, it has a path crossing it from side to side and it has no equipment, like the other cases of linear parks that we analyze. There is a large grassy area and another area less cared for, with just sand and some poor plants. There is a nice shaded path going along the park.

93 88 Figure 4-4: POS in Gevim Neighborhood, Arad Lehavim The selected civic POS is the paved area at the front of the new commercial center (Figure 4-5, location 10), located right next to the entrance of the settlement. This is the most popular public space of the town. It includes the main services such as the bank, post office and shops like hairdresser, supermarket, bakery, etc. There is a central shaded space with some tables and benches. The selected linear POS is a linear park located immediately behind the commercial center (location 8). This park is a long grassy area, with a few benches in only one area and a linear path. It lies between the commercial center with the residential area to it. However there is no connection between the two places, as the commercial area turns its back to the linear POS. The selected wide POS is the location 3, a simple park with some paths, a playground and a large grassy area. This park is adjacent to the old commercial center with the residential area around it, and near to some other public buildings in the area (school, theatre, medical clinic, etc).

94 89 Figure 4-5: POS in Lehavim Ashdod center The selected civic POS two areas of the open commercial center (locations 5 and 6 in Figure 4-6). Location 5 is an open court surrounded by shops and with a big Ficus Magnolia in the center, with shaded benches next to it. Location 6 is a more open area with shops on one side of it. Some of them are kiosks with tables and chairs outside. There is also a fountain around which people sit. The selected linear POS is location 20, a nice neighborhood park, with benches, picnic tables, shaded paths and a small playground. The selected wide POS is the location 19, a small neighborhood park, with a high proportion of paved area, some shaded benches under the trees and a playground.

95 90 Figure 4-6: POS in Ashdod Center Neighborhoods Ashdod, Yud neighborhood The selected civic POS is the commercial area composed of a semi circled space surrounded with shops and apartment buildings above them (location 1 in Figure 4-7). There are some kiosks with tables and chairs to sit outside, and a linear pedestrian street with shops, a school and some services along it (location 2). The street is also accessed from parking lots located at the sides of the commercial area. The selected linear POS is a simple park with large grassy areas and no playgrounds (8). The selected wide POS is a

96 91 small neighborhood park where there is no playground or other infrastructure; just a grassy area (6). Figure 4-7: POS in Yud Neighborhood, Ashdod Bat Yam center The civic space chosen is very well integrated with green spaces. It is composed of a wide sidewalk flanked with 4 story buildings with shops on the ground floor (2 in figure 4-8). Next to this sidewalk there is a grassy area and another path crossing it. There are some benches to sit along the walk. The selected linear POS is a nice grassy area, with a long shaded path (5). The selected wide POS are different small neighborhood parks with playground areas and shaded benches (locations 3 and 6).

97 92 Figure 4-8: POS in the Center Neighborhood, Bat-Yam Bat Yam, Ramat HaNassi neighborhood The selected civic POS is a paved area next to the city library, and close to the Bat-Yam Shopping Mall (location 7 in Figure 4-9), it includes a fountain, many shaded benches and nice trees. The selected linear POS is a long linear park, with a path for pedestrians and bicycles and many shaded benches on the sides (6). Next to the path there is a small grassy area and a nice playground. The selected wide POS are a very small neighborhood park (3), accessible from some buildings next to it and from the street by stairs. It is somewhat higher than the street, and therefore not very visible from it. The second is a green space between large apartment buildings (1), with some benches and some paved areas where children play.

98 93 Figure 4-9: POS in Ramat Hanassi Neighborhood, Bat-Yam Shoham The selected civic POS is the main commercial center of Shoham (4c in Figure 4-10), composed of all kinds of shops and services, including a bank, a post office, coffee shops, supermarket, clothes shops, etc. There is a central space provided with tables and chairs where people can sit to drink and eat. There is also a large empty paved area where kids play together. The selected linear POS is a nice neighborhood park (9), with a long path, large grassy areas and a nice playground in the middle. There is also an extensive area for skating and biking. The selected wide POS is a big neighborhood park (3), with many entrances from different directions, large grassy areas, different pedestrian paths and a very nice playground,

99 94 Figure 4-10: POS in Shoham Center Area 4.2 Quantitative observations of summer optional activity We performed two sets of observations in summer and in winter in all the POS described above. The following sections report on the number of optional activities observed in each POS, regardless of its size. In the case of Arad -Gevim neighborhood- there is no civic space so that is why it has a 0 value for optional activity. Ashdod Yud neighborhood- and Shoham are the case studies where more optional activity was found in the civic POS during summer.

100 95 Optional activities SUMMER Ashdod center Ashdod Yud Bat Yam Center Bat Yam R. Hanassi Shoham Beer Sheva Neve Zeev Beer Sheva tet Arad Gevim Arad Center Lehavim Civic POS Figure 4-11: Optional activity in civic POS in summer The most active linear POS in Bat Yam s Ramat HaNassi neighborhood. Optional activity in linear POS in all desert city neighborhoods was lower than in non-desert areas, except for Neve Zeev neighborhood in Beer Sheva. Optional activities SUMMER Green linear POS Ashdod center Ashdod Yud Bat Yam Center Bat Yam R. Hanassi Shoham Beer Sheva Neve Zeev Beer Sheva tet Arad Gevim Arad Center Lehavim Figure 4-12: Optional activity in green linear POS in summer

101 96 In green wide POS we see that the higher amount of optional activity during summer was found in both neighborhood case studies of Beer Sheva and in Bat Yam center. In Arad Gevim neighborhood- and in Ashdod Yud neighborhood- the optional activity found there in wide POS was almost equal to zero. Very low optional activity was also found in Ashdod center, Shoham and Lehavim. Optional activities SUMMER Green wide POS Ashdod center Ashdod Yud Bat Yam Center Bat Yam R. Hanassi Shoham Beer Sheva Neve Zeev Beer Sheva tet Arad Gevim Arad Center Lehavim Figure 4-13: Optional activity in green wide POS in summer 4.3 Quantitative observations of winter optional activity Optional activity found in civic POS during winter is considerably higher in Shoham and Arad center than in the rest of the case studies. Arad Gevim neighborhood- again has no civic POS with optional activity so it is equal to zero. The cases with less optional activity in civic POS are Ahsdod- Yud neighborhood, Bat Yam center, Bat Yam Ramat HaNassi neighborhood, and Beer Sheva Tet neighborhood-.

102 97 Optional activities WINTER Number of people Ashdod center Ashdod Yud Bat Yam center Bat Yam R. Hanassi Shoham B. Sheva Neve Zeev Case studies B. Sheva Tet Arad Gevim Arad Center Lehavim civic Figure 4-14: Optional activity in civic POS in winter The neighborhoods where we found more optional activity in green linear POS during winter are Neve Zeev in Beer Sheva and Ramat HaNassi in Bat Yam. Shoham and Ashdod center also show the highest amounts of optional activity. We see clearly how, besides Neve Zeev neighborhood, the rest of the desert area case studies are those where the amount of optional activity in green linear POS is the lowest.

103 98 Optional activities WINTER Number of people Ashdod center Ashdod Yud Bat Yam center Bat Yam R. Hanassi Shoham B. Sheva Neve Zeev B. Sheva Tet Arad Gevim Arad Center Lehavim Case studies green linear Figure 4-15: Optional activity in green linear POS in winter The highest amount of optional activity found in green wide POS was in Bat Yam center, followed by Neve Zeev in Beer Sheva and Shoham. In this case, again, we see how besides the case of Neve Zeev, in all the cases located in the desert area, the amount of optional activity in green wide POS is very low. Optional activities WINTER Number of people Ashdod center Ashdod Yud Bat Yam center Bat Yam R. Hanassi Shoham B. Sheva Neve Zeev B. Sheva Tet Arad Gevim Arad Center Lehavim Case studies green w ide Figure 4-16: Optional activity in green wide POS in winter

104 Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activities The relation between the optional activity that takes place in POS and the pedestrian movement in adjacent streets can show first, if there is any correlation between the two variables, and second if there are significant differences between the two analyzed climate zones. At the same time we can observe which cases are below or above the trend line, representing more or less successfully used POS. Winter We see that in winter the correlation between pedestrian movement and optional activity is rather low. WINTER Optional activity in POS (Ppl/20') R 2 = Pedestrian movement in adjacent streets (Ppl/20') Series1 Linear (Series1) Figure 4-17: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in winter

105 100 The outliers above the trend line in this graph correspond to civic spaces. Shoham, Lehavim and Arad center show the places where more optional activity occurs despite the low pedestrian movement in the adjacent streets. Opposite to that, the points under the trend line represent those places where despite the high pedestrian movement in adjacent streets, the optional activity found in POS is very low. The relevant examples of that are the wide parks in Arad center, Tet neighborhood in Beer Sheva and the linear park in Tet neighborhood as well. We see in the Figure 4-18 that the correlation in desert and non desert areas is very similar, very low in both cases. WINTER Optional activity in POS (Ppl/20') R² = R² = Pedestrian movement in adjacent streets (Ppl/20') Non desert areas Desert areas Linear (Non desert areas) Linear (Desert areas) Figure 4-18: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in winter by climate area

106 101 Summer In summer, when we analyze all the case studies together we see that the correlation is higher than in winter. It means that pedestrian movement in adjacent streets can predict better the optional activity in POS in summer than in winter. This indicates a more casual and less intentional use of the POS. SUMMER Pedestrian movement (Ppl/20') in adjacent street R 2 = Optional activity in POS (Ppl/20') Series1 Linear (Series1) Figure 4-19: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in summer If we analyze separately the two climate areas we see that in desert areas the correlation is considerably higher than in non desert areas. It shows that in the desert area case studies, pedestrian movement can predict better the optional activity in POS than the non desert area. In other words, in the desert area case studies, more people walking along the street decide to enter to the POS and perform some optional activity during summer, comparing to the non desert area.

107 102 SUMMER Optional activity in POS (Ppl/20') R 2 = R 2 = Pedestrian movement (Ppl/20') Non Desert area Desert area ליניארי area) (Desert ליניארי area) (Non Desert zone Figure 4-20: Relation between pedestrian movement and optional activity in summer by climate In both seasons, we see two points where the pedestrian movement is almost zero, despite the high amount of people found in optional activities in the correspondent civic POS. These two cases are the civic POS analyzed in Lehavim, a car dependent settlement where sidewalks are completely empty and streets show a significant car movement. Opposite to that there are POS where we find very low optional activity despite the high pedestrian movement in adjacent streets. The more relevant cases are the linear parks in Arad center and Shoham and the wide park in Ashdod center. 4.5 Qualitative observations of the use of POS Until now we showed the optional activity results in number of people found in POS. But besides this, there are other significant patterns of use that can not be described through numbers. In the following maps we see 2 examples of green POS. The first one (Figure 4-

108 103 21) is a wide park and the second is a linear park (Figure 4-22). In both examples we see represented with symbols the people found there in some optional activity. Each symbol represents 1 person and these maps represent observations during 20 minutes. These 2 cases represent the findings from the majority of the parks. People use the areas where they find any kind of service or equipment. Therefore in the first example wee see the concentration of people in the playground area and in the areas around and closest to it. The rest of the park where we find just grass, without shade or benches to sit on, the park is almost empty. Paths are also places where we can see a medium amount of people Playground area Figure 4-21: observations of optional activity in a wide park In the second example, we see the same pattern of use. Activity is concentrated in the playground area and around it. In this example the path is pretty wide, allowing bicycle and skate riders. All along this area of the path there are many wood benches, one right next to the other, very nicely shaded by tall trees. People sit here to talk in groups or just to rest. The grassy area is completely unused.

109 104 Grassy area Shaded path with benches and big trees Playground area Grassy area Figure 4-22: observations of optional activity in a linear park Usually the grassy areas of parks look abandoned. The grass looks dry and when it is not completely dry there are some dry spots. In many parks we observed pieces of broken glass in the grassy areas or dog excrement. Usually the green area of the parks is not well designed, it is just grass. We see very few green areas designed to be used and not just as decoration. Very few people use this kind of areas. Where there is nice grass, stones are located every 2 or 3 meters to avoid kids playing football there and ruin it. See Figure Figure 4-23: green areas in bad conditions or limited for using them

110 105 Most of the parks which do not contain a playground look empty. These are the parks that teenagers choose to meet in a small group and smoke. We observed many cases of that during the observation process. Kids no older than 14 years old meet in groups of 5 or 6 to smoke in the isolated and abandoned parks. This is the place where nobody will see them because there is nobody else there. Some things have to be said about benches in public spaces. In many cases we see benches located in a way that does not attract people to sit on them. The main reasons are: the view from the bench is completely boring and unattractive. Another important reason for not using benches is the material they are made of. In most of the POS located in the desert area case studies, the benches are metallic. In summer they become extremely hot, becoming uncomfortable for sitting, particularly when people are dressed in shorts (like most people in summer). Another interesting point is that these benches are usually exposed to the sun. They are not shaded. The location of trees and benches does not seem to be planned by the same person. Where there is shade, there are no benches, and where there are benches more often than not, there is no shade. In the summer people look for shade and in the winter people look for sun. The situation found in most of the observed parks seems to fit only winter days. It seems that vegetation is also planned without regard for use, but just as a decoration. Trees are located in non accessible areas, surrounded by bushes instead of providing shade to users. Again, these areas are usually completely empty.

111 106 Figure 4-24: inappropriate landscape design Another interesting thing to note is the use of civic spaces. Besides the high number of optional activities that we find in most of the civic POS, there are some nice examples of spaces that are very intensively used by children. We are talking about pedestrian streets (see Figure 4-25). And when these streets are located very close to the entrance of their homes, what we can observe is that kids play alone, they know this space and move in it as if it belongs to them. They climb the trees, they ride their bikes and come back home when their parents call them. We can say that this type of civic POS works almost like a courtyard for apartment buildings. Mainly when the place is also shaded and is provided with nice benches, it can be the playground for many kids although it has no playground facilities and no grassy areas. Still, we find more kids in this type of spaces than in many parks.

112 107 Figure 4-25: Pedestrian street as recreational space Another successful typology is the civic POS next to housing area and commercial activity. In those places where we find a mix of uses and functions, we see more optional activity, much of it social activity where people interact and children play. We present this data in the next chapter. 5 Analysis of the use and amount of POS In this chapter we show the results obtained in the observations of optional activity, analyzed according to the different explaining variables of climate area and season, POS type, settlement size and neighborhood typology. In addition we analyze the less and most intensively used POS and the relation between optional activity and the amount of POS in each neighborhood.

113 Optional activities by season and climate zone Green POS are more intensively used in non desert areas than in desert areas. This is true in winter as well as in summer (Figure 5-1). In contrast, civic POS are slightly more intensively used in desert areas than in non desert areas in both seasons. The difference in use of Green POS is larger in winter than in summer. Green POS are used 2.38 times more in non-desert areas than in desert areas during winter but only 1.33 times more during summer. In civic POS the difference of use between the two climate areas is slight; in desert areas they are used 1.03 times more than in non desert areas during winter and 1.20 times more during summer. Optional activity, in both climate areas, is significantly higher in summer than in winter. While optional activity in civic POS, in both climate areas, roughly doubles in summer, optional activity found in green POS shows a different pattern. In desert areas green POS are used 3.35 times more in summer than in winter and in non desert areas only 1.87 more times in summer than in winter.

114 109 Optional activity by season and climate area Ppl/hour per dunam Green wide Green linear Civic winter summer winter summer Non desert area Climate areas by season Desert area Figure 5-1: Optional activity by season and climate area The fact that in both climate areas the optional activity found in POS is higher during summer than in winter can be explained by two main factors: 1) In Israel, during summer, due to daylight savings time, sunset occurs around 7:30 pm. In winter sunset is early, at around 5:00 pm. Parks in general and playgrounds in particular, are not used in darkness. If we take into account that most of the users of green POS are children with their parents and that very few of them are able to take their children to the parks before 5:00 pm during working days. During winter time the use of green POS is affected by the lack of natural light during the time that parents are available to take the kids out. 2) Thermal comfort levels: as shown in Table 5-1 we can see meteorological data, collected from the nearest meteorological stations to the case studies, allowing us

115 110 to compare between the two climate areas. This data was obtained from the Israeli Meteorological Service (IMS). In summer, the data corresponds to measurements made in different days between 17:50 to 18:40. In winter the data corresponds to the period of time between 15:50 and 16:40. We can see here the difference between the climate conditions in the two climate zones in the two studied seasons: at the time that the observations were carried out, in summer, in the settlements located in the desert area the average temperature was 29.5 C, the relative humidity 57.8% and the wind speed 5.8 m/sec, while in settlements located in a non desert area the average temperature was 28.4 C, the relative humidity 69.8% and the wind speed 3 m/sec. Table 5-1: meteorological data from summer days temperature (celcius) relative humidity (%) summer maximum wind speed (m/sec) wind speed (m/sec) desert non desert desert non desert desert non desert desert non desert average Having roughly similar temperatures in both climate areas, there is a significant difference in the thermal comfort levels due to the difference in the values of humidity and wind speed. In summer, lower relative humidity and higher wind speed, as we see in the desert area case studies, helps to improve the thermal comfort levels. This may explain why the rise in the intensity of optional activity in summer compared to winter is much more significant for the POS located in desert areas than in non desert areas.

116 111 Table 5-2: meteorological data from winter days winter temperature (celcius) relative humidity (%) maximum wind speed wind speed (m/sec) desert non desert desert non desert desert non desert desert non desert average In winter, as we see in the table, the values in desert and non desert areas, for the time of the day in which we carried out the observation, are very similar and do not show a significant difference. 5.2 Optional activities by POS type In both climate areas, we see a clear pattern that shows a higher number of people involved in optional activities in civic POS in comparison to green POS. Even though most of the activity found in civic POS belongs to services, it is notable the higher amount of social and stationary activities compared to green POS in both climate areas. It shows us that when people arrive to a civic POS in order to use a service such as a bank, shopping or even having a coffee, they choose to stay and get involved in social and stationary activities such as talking with other people or sitting to rest and contemplate or just hanging out - alone or with someone else. Even when there are no playgrounds in civic POS, we find a similar amount of people involved in movement activities than in green POS. These activities include biking, skating and groups of kids playing together. While in summer the optional activity in all the types of POS is higher than in winter, we see a clear pattern that

117 112 shows that the proportions, between POS type stays very similar in both climate areas. In both seasons and both climate areas, the total optional activity found in civic POS is from 5 to 10 times higher than the optional activity found in green POS. (see Figure 5-3) Figure 5-2: Optional activity in civic POS and green POS Optional activities by POS type and climate zone WINTER Ppl/hour per dunam Movement Services Stationary Social Desert Non desert Desert Non desert Desert Non desert Civic Green linear Green wide POS type and climate zone Figure 5-3: Amount of optional activity by POS type and climate zone in winter

118 113 Between the two types of green POS that we looked at, linear and wide, the picture is more complex. In desert areas, the amount of optional activities in linear POS remains almost equal in summer and winter. However, in the case of wide POS activity is more than 5 times more intense in summer than in winter. In non desert areas wide POS are more intensively used than linear POS on both seasons. But the difference between them changes between seasons. Linear POS are used roughly 2.2 times more in summer than in winter while wide POS are used only 1.5 times more in summer than in winter. Optional activities by POS type and climate zone SUMMER Ppl/hour per dunam Movement Services Stationary Social Desert Non desert Desert Non desert Desert Non desert Civic Green linear Green wide POS type and climate zone Figure 5-4: Density of optional activity by POS type and climate zone in summer

119 Optional activities by settlement size and location in settlement Having discussed the effects of climatic area, season and POS type on the intensity of use, we continue to examine the effect of settlement size and the location inside the settlement on POS intensity of use. As can be seen in Figures 5-5 and 5-6, Lehavim and Shoham, the smaller settlements of our case studies, show a very low density of optional activity in green POS, both in winter and in summer. At the same time, in the same settlements, we observe a high intensity of optional activity in the civic spaces, particularly in comparison to medium sized cities. In the case of cities we cannot see a clear pattern of use because we have case studies with low, medium and high amounts of optional activity. In the medium cities we see that the proportion between the optional activities in green and civic POS is more balanced than in larger cities and small settlements. Even though in medium cities the optional activity found in civic spaces is lower than in small settlements and big cities, the optional activity found in green spaces is higher in this category than in the other two. When we compare edge neighborhoods to central neighborhoods we see a clear pattern: in all the edge neighborhoods (Gevim in Arad, Ramat HaNassi in Bat Yam, Neve Zeev in Beer Sheva, Yud neighborhood in Ashdod) we see a lower density of optional activity compared to the more central neighborhoods (Arad center, Bat Yam center, Tet in Beer Sheva, Ashdod center). This pattern remains for both winter and summer.

120 115 Optional activity by settlement size WINTER Ppl/hour per dunam Green wide Green linear Civic 0 Lehavim Shoham Arad Gevim Arad Center Bat Yam 1 Bat Yam 2 Beer Sheva Tet B. Sheva Neve Zeev Ashdod Yud Ashdod Center Small settlement Medium city Big-medium city Case studies by settlement size Figure 5-5: Optional activity by settlement size and type of POS in winter In summer, we also see the pattern found in winter for medium cities, meaning that proportions of optional activity in civic and green POS is more balanced than in small and big cities. However, the amount of optional activity in this category increases. The only case in this category that does not show a relevant increase in optional activity is Arad center. This can be partly due to the refurbishment of the commercial center that took place during the summer, blocking the entrance and view to the central POS. Therefore, the area of this space is not accurately calculated for the summer observations. In the small settlements, optional activity maintains the same pattern as in winter: civic spaces much more intensively used than green spaces, where optional activity is almost non existent.

121 116 Big-medium settlements still show a heterogeneous pattern of use. Nevertheless there is a remarkable increase of optional activity in Beer Sheva, Tet neighborhood, during summer, particularly in its civic space. Optional activity by settlement size SUMMER Ppl/hour per dunam Green wide Green linear Civic Lehavim Shoham Arad Gevim Arad Center Bat Yam 1 Bat Yam 2 Beer Sheva Tet B. Sheva Neve Zeev Ashdod Yud Ashdod Center Small settlement Medium city Big-medium city Case studies by settlement size Figure 5-6: Optional activity by settlement size and type of POS in summer 5.4 Differences between neighborhood typologies There is a clear difference in the use of green POS between Neighborhoods composed mainly by detached houses with private gardens, and those composed mainly of apartment buildings. The former are those in which the use of green POS is much lower than in the latter.

122 117 Newer neighborhoods like Lehavim, Shoham, Yud neighborhood in Ashdod and Gevim in Arad show the lowest amount of optional activity in green POS. This might be explained by a lower population density added to a more prevalent ownership of private open space, making the POS less necessary as an everyday amenity. 5.5 The most intensively used POS There is a common pattern observed in the most intensively used POS: they are green POS integrated to a civic space or located very close to it. Actually, in many cases the distinction between the civic and the green POS is not clear and we can conclude that this is the most successful typology of POS a mix of civic space, green areas including passive and active ones and benches all around where people can sit in different conditions, shaded, sunny, close to a playground or farther away from it. Where there are many benches, which are well located, we see the highest social activity. Usually this type of space has a small grassy area and more paved ones, where people tend to do different activities. People gather there to socialize; they sit together with people that they do not know and start to talk, watching other people around. Kids play in the paved areas with their bicycles or in the playground areas. Since the green areas of these spaces are small, they provide enough aesthetic appeal to enjoy the view and are usually well kept. In cases with larger green areas, as we see in Figure 5-7, the areas where people choose to engage in optional activities are those where they can find benches, in the area next to stores and within the limits of the park itself only around the playground, which is usually paved all around. The adjacent green areas of the park are nearly always empty.

123 118 Figure 5-7: successful POS, integrated civic and green. 5.6 The less intensively used POS Basically we see that most of the green POS in neighborhoods of detached or semidetached houses with gardens are relatively unused. In the case of Lehavim there is remarkably good level of maintenance in parks and streets. Everything looks clean and well kept. Still, the parks are empty both in summer as in winter. As the settlement is completely car oriented; many of the transition green spaces loose their meaning completely. Sidewalks are also unused. There are no pedestrians in the street and no pedestrians crossing through the beautiful linear green spaces, from one place of the neighborhood to another. Nevertheless, there is a frequent movement of cars. Almost all the cars travel with one or maximum two passengers inside. In the case of the Gevim neighborhood in Arad,

124 119 there is almost no public function in the neighborhood besides the parks. It is a neighborhood composed of detached and semi-detached houses and some parks, connected between them by pedestrian streets. Still, people do not use the parks. They do not have the need of moving along the neighborhood. For shopping, for work, for services, they go to the center of the city and in order to do that they use their car. So here too, we see the same pattern of emptiness in the streets. There is no pedestrian movement and no optional activity. In the following maps (Figure 5-8) we see examples of parks almost empty, covered with unused grass. Figure 5-8: Arad, Gevim optional activity and Lehavim optional activity. 5.7 Relation between the amount of POS and the density of use Having observed the optional activity in POS we can relate it to the amount of POS calculated from the maps of each neighborhood (see Chapter 3). In the Tables 5-3 and 5-4 we can observe these two variables organized in descendending order. In the first table we see the case studies ordered according to the amount of optional activity found in them,