Measuring the impact of the built environment on pedestrians in the old Bhubaneswar precinct

ABSTRACT

The old Bhubaneswar precinct is a prime religious and heritage site in India, which attracts millions of pilgrims and other travellers every year. This paper measures pedestrians’ mobility experiences and the influence of different factors in this heritage precinct. Five hundred respondents were interviewed to rate various factors of the built heritage environment using a five-point Likert scale. The data were examined through confirmatory factor analysis, and K means cluster analysis, which established that only one-third of the total pedestrians have positive mobility experiences, and pedestrians are least satisfied with comfort followed by safety factors at this site.

KEYWORDS:

• Old Bhubaneswar
• religious site
• heritage site
• pedestrians’ mobility experience
• microscale factors

Acknowledgements

Authors of this paper are grateful to the respondents for their valuable responses. Also, we are thankful to the editorial team and the reviewers of this journal for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) fellowship granted to the first author for his doctoral studies at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.

Notes on contributors

Rabi Narayan Mohanty

Rabi Narayan Mohanty is a doctoral scholar in Department of Architecture and Planning, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. He has completed his Bachelor of Architecture from CET Bhubaneswar and Master of Architecture from IIT Roorkee. He was a visiting research scholar at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. His research interest includes urban design and heritage and religious tourism.

Prabhjot Singh Chani

Dr Prabhjot Singh Chani PhD, is a professor in Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He has completed his Bachelor of Architecture, Master of Architecture and Doctor of Philosophy from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He is currently working as the head of the Department of Architecture and Planning, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. His research interest includes modern and futuristic architecture.

Ashaprava Mohanta

Dr Ashaprava Mohanta PhD, is a Bhubaneswar based architect. She has completed Bachelor of Architecture from CET Bhubaneswar, Master of Technology in Civil engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and Doctor of Philosophy from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. She is currently working as an assistant professor in School of Architecture and Planning, KIIT deemed-to-be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Her research interest includes biophilic and parametric architecture.