Recently, a lot of efforts are exerted to establish barrier-free (BF) environment where people with mobility handicaps can access, use, and move to the various urban facilities freely in a safe manner.
The Korean government established ‘Certificat...
Recently, a lot of efforts are exerted to establish barrier-free (BF) environment where people with mobility handicaps can access, use, and move to the various urban facilities freely in a safe manner.
The Korean government established ‘Certification System for Barrier-Free Environment’ in 2007 in order to get more social attention with respect to establishment of the environment. However, the quantitative evaluation of appropriateness of BF certification indices is still insufficient.
Among diverse urban facilities of Busan metropolitan city, this study targeted three famous beaches located near downtown (Gwangan-ri, Song-do, and Haeundae), which are being utilized as recreational and leisure spaces for a variety of visitors. And current situations of the beaches for the purpose of establishment of BF environment were investigated, and then the priorities of improvement factors were elicited.
The results of this study are as follows:
The surveyed scores of BF environment certification factors: 33 points in Gwangan-ri 36 points and 41 points in Song-do and Haeundae respectively showing they did not reach even the average level (70~80 points) which was the lowest grade of BF certification. Thus, an aggressive measure for further improvement of each factor was necessary.
The results from Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) questionnaire about the improvement factors in the aspect of enhancement of satisfaction, and the priorities of improvement thereof targeting BF experts revealed the importance of each factor in the following order: intermediate facility (33 points); hygiene and sanitary facility (19 points); continuity of BF walk (17 points); guiding and information facility (16 points); convenience facility (15 points). Accordingly, the research results indicated that the standards as provided by the existing BF certification system, i.e. hygiene and sanitary facility (30 points), continuity of BF walk (28 points), intermediate facility (21 points), convenience facility (14 points), and guiding and information facility (7 points) were very different from the importance the people with mobility handicaps felt about each BF factor.
Meanwhile, the results of comparative analysis of AHP weight of BF factors which were estimated through this research, and of the mobility handicapped people’s satisfaction in each factor showed that the actual users perceived intermediate factors, such as stair gap and slope, were the most urgent improvement factors in using and accessing the facilities in the sites. To be more specific, the research results revealed that as for intermediate facility, the stair gaps for approaching the beach was most urgent problem which should have to be addressed promptly, and that as to hygiene and sanitary facility, the construction of multipurpose toilet, which could be used by the disabled, the elderly, and infirm, in terms of ‘responding method according to the type of disabled’ was required most urgently. And that as for continuity of BF walk, the urgent problem was the slope of sidewalk inside the beach, and that as to the guiding and information facility, establishment of information board and guiding facility as an integrated information facility for deaf and blind people was the top priority. Also that, regarding convenience facility which takes a role as the ‘main entrance of the park facilities,’ the most urgent thing was to build a path which would enable people to make horizontal approach thereto without trouble of stair gap.
This study was focused on drawing out the importance of factors in order to establish the beaches located near downtown in Busan as in BF environment, and provided basic materials which would be of help in planning reorganization of the beaches as BF environment. However, it is regretful that the study hasn’t conducted economic analysis at the time of making decision on the improvement priorities, and also hasn’t produced detailed BF designs according to each beach. Therefore, further research on concrete BF designs for a specific beach should be conducted from an integrated perspective in which architecture, urban planning, and transportation plan are included.