Assessing a riverfront rehabilitation project using the comprehensive index of public accessibility

Good urban riverfronts have both ecological and social benefits in urban planning and development. With rapid increase of urban stream rehabilitation projects in developing countries, the concept of Public Accessibility of Riverfront (PAR) has become a highlight in evaluating river ecosystem improvement. In this study the Comprehensive Index of Public Accessibility of Riverfront (CIPAR) that consists of 4 sub-indexes and 12 indicators is designed for assessing the conditions of PAR. The index system is novel for its combined consideration of riverfront accessibilities and benefits. These four sub-indexes measure (1) spatial accessibility reflecting riverfront openness and main transportation convenience, (2) visual accessibility reflecting visual field openness, (3) corridor continuity reflecting riverfront vegetation condition, water-oriented settings, and spatial continuity, and (4) amenity reflecting comfortable experience of riverfront environment and diversity of riverfront activities. Based on the questionnaire and field data collected during March 1-15, 2011, 24 reaches of the Suzhou Creek and its distributaries were assessed with CIPAR, and the urban riverfront after rehabilitation was quantified. The result showed that most of the reaches of Suzhou Creek still suffered a poor-fair PAR condition, and that among the four sub-indexes, visual accessibility got the lowest score with an average score of 0.7. The unsatisfactory PAR condition along the Suzhou Creek mainly resulted from the failure in synchronizing the planning and management of riverfront land uses and river channels in previous phase of the rehabilitation project. This case study supports the use of CIPAR to assess the effectiveness of riverfront rehabilitation project.