Analyzing the Users’ Satisfaction Levels and Perceptions of the Dubai Water Canal for Future Waterfront Development in UAE

Dubai was developed from Khor Dubai and the city always focuses on the development of waterfront as a public space. The urban waterfront in Dubai is a highly visible public space for recreational activities but also as an urban landscape for placemaking, environmental pollution reduction, and transportation. The objective of this study is to explore the direction of future development of the Dubai Water Canal. By analyzing the characteristics and behavioural patterns of canal users using a post-occupancy evaluation survey, the study presents the management plan necessary to improve the facility. As a methodology, Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) with two-step cluster analysis was used with SPSS Statistics version 20.0. Dubai Water Canal users were classified into friend-based, family-based, and individual-based clusters to investigate the differences in satisfaction levels and perception between clusters. The survey included questions on accessibility, convenience of use, facility management status, safety, and landscape management. The result had shown that family-only parking, convenient pedestrian walkway, signage/distance marker, and pocket parks as green buffer zones are needed to increase the level of satisfaction. Factors to enhance users’ satisfaction comprised 1) efficient road system for light exercise, 2) efficient information signage, 3) convenient pedestrian roads with nighttime lighting system, 4) strict separation of pedestrians and cyclists, and 5) nature-friendly landscape and landscape improvement. This study intended to extract elements for future design and management of urban open space projects, similar to the Dubai Water Canal.