The provision and use of urban public spaces for female physical activity in Saudi Arabia

Maghrabi, AA

Abstract

With the development and expansion of the city of Jeddah, the increase in the population and the integration of a variety of social structures has changed. The need for public open spaces has increased and the purpose of visiting these spaces has also changed. In previous studies the focus has been on the visits to public open spaces in the urban context of the city for the recreation of family members. In recent years however, new spaces have been designed for physical activities and especially for walking purposes. The vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia aims to develop open spaces to raise the level of public health of the kingdom by provide a good quality of urban public open spaces. Their design must consider the customs and traditions and adherence to Islamic Law.
This research aims to develop design recommendations for urban designers and landscape architects to improve women physical activity in urban public open spaces in Jeddah; Saudi Arabia. To achieve this aim, a comprehensive review of the literature was undertaken. This literature review focused on factors that associated with use of public open spaces for physical activity
The methodology adopted for this case study is using qualitative exploratory research design as a methodological choice to provide a complex contextual description of how people use urban public spaces and their experiences associated with them. The research strategy is developed through an investigation of spaces as an integration of form and cultural practice. Data has been gathered from semi-structured interviews and observations in open spaces. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the interviews. Interpretive structural modelling method conducts to validate the factors relationships that influence women use of urban public open spaces for physical activity.
The results of this research provide some insight in ways to help improve and develop the existing open spaces to meet women’s needs for practicing physical activities in urban public open spaces. The key finding of this research indicates that women visit designed open spaces and non-designed(incidental) spaces that meet their needs. Proximity factors indicate a significant importance of women visitation urban public open spaces. Also, the factor of privacy is also shown to significantly influence how places are used in terms of temporal and spatial dimensions. Other key finding of this research shows that public open spaces often fail to meet the identified needs of women users. Also, it concerns about lacking designed spaces that provide good environment for women use. Therefore, this research enhances knowledge of patterns of usage for public open spaces in countries that follows Islamic law and found some similarities of patterns of use in physical activity purpose when comparing Western studies.

Citation

Maghrabi, A. The provision and use of urban public spaces for female physical activity in Saudi Arabia. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 14, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 14, 2019
• Additional Information: Funders : Saudi Mission London; Projects : Scholarship
• Award Date: Jul 26, 2019