Correlation Between Acoustic, Luminous, Thermal Dimensions of A Urban Park In an Oasis Settlement and emotional response of Visually Impaired Users

Abstract

Occupants' interaction with urban spaces and their behavior is often influenced by environmental dimensions: thermal, visual, acoustic or air quality. Many studies have investigated the relationships between occupants' behavior and these dimensions, but just few of them have addressed occupants with special needs, such as the visually impaired. This study, based on measurements' campaign and research activities conducted at Biskra (Algeria) inside an urban park in an oasis settlement, provides further investigations about the relationship between acoustic, luminous, thermal dimensions and the emotional response of visually impaired users as a basis for validating and improving their wellbeing in important spaces of the urban environment such as the public parks. The methodological approach is based on both quantitative and qualitative assessment. The objective study is based on evaluating the physical dimensions of the site, while the subjective one is based on conducting in-situ questionnaires such as a multi-items Likert scale and multi-sensory evaluation towards the environment. Findings obtained from this study could offer a new vision to planners and designers to improve the wellbeing of visually impaired users by including the multisensorial dimensions as constitutive elements of architectural, urban and environmental projects.