The spatial configuration of local climate zones reveals effects on wayfinding in human walking

RESEARCH ARTICLE The spatial configuration of local climate zones reveals effects on wayfinding in human walking Ping Yu Fan1, Kwok Pan ChunID2*, Mou Leong Tan3,4, Daphne Ngar-Yin Mah5, Ana Mijic6, Graham Strickert7, Omer YetemenID8 1 Department of Urban Planning and Design, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S. A. R., China, 2 Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom, 3 GeoInformatic Unit, Geography Section, School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia, 4 School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, 5 Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong S. A. R., China, 6 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, 7 School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, 8 Eurasia Institute of Earth Science, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey * kwok.chun@uwe.ac.uk Abstract The importance of easy wayfinding in complex urban settings has been recognized in spatial planning. Empirical measurement and explicit representation of wayfinding, however, have been limited in deciding spatial configurations. Our study proposed and tested an approach to improving wayfinding by incorporating spatial analysis of urban forms in the Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area in China. Wayfinding was measured by an indicator of intelligibility using spatial design network analysis. Urban spatial configurations were quanti-

fied using landscape metrics to describe the spatial layouts of local climate zones (LCZs) as standardized urban forms. The statistical analysis demonstrated the significant associations between urban spatial configurations and wayfinding. These findings suggested, to improve wayfinding, 1) dispersing LCZ 1 (compact high-rise) and LCZ 2 (compact mid-rise) and 2) agglomerating LCZ 3 (compact low-rise), LCZ 5 (open mid-rise), LCZ 6 (open low-rise), and LCZ 9 (sparsely built). To our knowledge, this study is the first to incorporate the LCZ classi- fication system into the wayfinding field, clearly providing empirically-supported solutions for dispersing and agglomerating spatial configurations. Our findings also provide insights for human-centered spatial planning by spatial co-development at local, urban, and regional levels. 1. Introduction Wayfinding is rarely explicitly recognized and presented in determining the agglomerated or dispersed urban spatial layouts [1], despite its importance in facilitating human moving behav- ior and improving the human travel experience. Wayfinding is the process by which people locate themselves, find their way, and then move from one place to another by perceiving and organizing the surrounding environment [2]. Improving wayfinding encourages walking PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289780 September 8, 2023 1 / 18 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Fan PY, Chun KP, Tan ML, Mah DN-Y, Mijic A, Strickert G, et al. (2023) The spatial

configuration of local climate zones reveals effects on wayfinding in human walking. PLoS ONE 18(9): e0289780. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0289780 Editor: Qingsong He, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, CHINA Received: March 27, 2023 Accepted: July 25, 2023 Published: September 8, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Fan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files. Funding: KPC is supported by the Vice Chancellor’s Challenge Fund (CF) Award (2023- 2025) and the Accelerator Programme (2022- 2024) from the University of the West of England. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.