Impact of flora on sense of safety: a study of independence square, Colombo

Abstract

Sri Lanka as a developing country, urban green spaces are important to physical and psychological well-being of the urbanites. These spaces play a vital role in balancing the green of the urban areas as well. Many natural and manmade elements are compromised in the aforementioned urban green spaces. Many researches have proven the importance of these elements in assuring psychological safety while inhabiting the urban public spaces. Among these elements flora plays a crucial role as it has many benefits to the human as well as for the environmental system. This study investigates the relationship between the flora and the sense of safety in the urban public spaces. For the identification of the parameters of the physical and psychological safety, Prospect Refuge Theory, concept of eyes on the street, information processing theory and many other related theories were analyzed. Through this literature survey; visibility, environmental satisfaction and wayfinding were selected as the parameters for the study. Independence Square, Colombo was selected as the case study as it is a functional public urban space which consists with plenty of flora. Primarily observations were done for the proper selection of the spaces and further validation was obtained through the supervisors and the peers. Thirty visitors to the premises were selected randomly for the questionnaire and the open-ended interviews. The results show that the moderately dense areas feel safer than highly dense areas and low dense areas. Darker places were rejected from the users while more visible spaces were selected as safer space. According to the findings visibility of the space is more important and flora density is more impacted on this parameter. Besides, Wayfinding and environmental satisfaction shows insignificant impacts on safety when compared with visibility.