| dc.description.abstract | Colombo was founded as an outpost
by Portuguese in 1505. Later it fell in the
hands of Dutch and British. This nonorganically produced city later became the
capital of the independent Ceylon. Throughout
the history this colonial structure was in a
constant negotiation with the indigenous
community. Despite the historical prominence
present city existence is at a risk. Streets
congested with vehicles affecting the
environment, economy, well-being of the
community is the most prominent issue of
modern Colombo. This situation was once
common to most of the developed cities, and
they termed this issue as an ‘urban crisis’.
Main reason behind this urban crisis was cities
being oriented on auto mobiles. To overcome
this crisis ‘Walkability’ was the best
alternative. This study was basically aimed to
find the compatibility of the Walkability
concept with the socio-spatial structure of
Colombo.
Location specific indicators of walkability
identified through a questionnaire survey and
universal indicators identified through the
literature were used to assess the four
selected case studies within the limits of
Central Business District (CBD) of Colombo, to
list out the prospective and retro-prospective
lies in the social-spatial structure of the city.
As the number of prospective are greater than
the retro-prospective and as most of the retroprospective are potential to be amended into
prospective Walkability can be sustained in
the CBD of Colombo. A change in planning
conception, innovation to mix the land use and
improvement in the physical attributes are the
few needs to sustain walkability in the
Colombo CBD. | en_US |
