Effect of Physical Urban Environment on Sustainable Urban Development

Certain features, having significant effect on the shape of the urban areas, could be divided to two, as: tangible and intangible. Tangible features are consisted of the physical elements, which forms the urban environment, as land use mix, density (might be based on population, residential, commercial etc.), urban design characteristics etc. On the other hand, intangible features are comprised of the socio-economic measures of the societies, as demographic, cultural, sociological, economical and historical structure of the related societies. Both tangible and intangible features have a significant role in shaping the physical urban environment and since the inner characteristics of these features cause different kinds of physical urban environment, the inner characteristics of the both tangible and intangible features might have substantial impact on the sustainable urban development. Accordingly, in this study, tangible features related with the urban form, as land use mix, density and urban design characteristics and the effect of these characteristics on the configuration of the physical urban environment in the context of sustainable urban development will be clarified. Pros and cons of the different aspects of land use mix, density and urban design characteristics and their effect on the urban form and the sustainable urban development will be discussed by considering the different variations. Therefore, it could be possible to compose a guide, which leads a way to sustainable urban communities.