AN EVALUATION ON LEVEL OF PUBLICNESS OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACES BY USING CORE DIMENSIONS; SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO GALLE FORT (SEA BATH AREA), FOREST (BEACH) PARK AREA, MAHAMODARA MARINE WALK AND OCEAN PATHWAY IN GALLE
Authors:   Department of Town & Country Planning, University of Moratuwa, Sandaruwan K.L.K.T.B. , Hewawasam C. ,   Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Moratuwa
Published: December 2021

In 1990s, the decrement of non-built-up areas due to urbanization directly cause a reduction in the quality of life of the people & the occurrence of social issues in Sri Lanka due to monotonous lifestyles. Therefore, to overcome these issues with a sustainable Sri Lankan vision by 2030 urban beautification projects like urban public spaces, parks concept was introduced to Sri Lanka especially in suburban areas. Recently, the urban recreational spaces concept came to urban fabric with common characteristics that were developed as social spaces for community gathering and interactions with a variety of physical activities. Although with the emerging public space concept, there is no such consideration on research regarding an evaluation on publicness of urban public spaces by using physical dimensions; Specific Reference to Galle Fort (sea bath area), Forest Park area, Mahamodara Marine walk and Ocean Pathway in Galle. Further, there is no proper regulatory framework in public space monitoring & evaluation to improve the infrastructure of public space. The research aim is to evaluate the level of publicness of urban public spaces based on physical dimensions which are owned by public administration in Sri Lanka. Also, it focused to identify what parameters, need to evaluate the level of publicness and understand satisfaction levels of urban public spaces and key indicators, to assess how contributing indicators, influence to achieve the effectiveness of public spaces among users and to provide recommendations based on the experts’ and users’ views for future improvements of urban public spaces to enhance the publicness level in Sri Lanka. This study was focused on four urban public spaces with the dissimilarity of the availability of design characteristics in Galle. The methodology of the research was comprised of onsite observations, questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews, and photographic documentation. The data were quantitatively analysed by using the VIKOR model which is a democratic model to evaluate the publicness level, AHP analysis, and descriptive statistical analysis using SPSS and EXCEL. Qualitative analysis was based on content analysis and photographic documentation. According to the findings of the research, it proved that based on key physical dimensions, criteria, and indicators publicness level, effectiveness, and truly public or not in four case studies. The highest publicness level and satisfaction level occurred in Forest Park which proved the hypothesis of the study. Additionally, by providing more shady areas, proper waste management, proper sitting opportunities, provide proper security system and monitoring system for control spaces, provide diverse activities for all age categories are some of the comments based on respondents which need to be considered in planning & designing urban spaces for increase attraction levels which are benefited for urban planners and designer.