PAPER REF # 8040

Proceedings: Eighth International Space Syntax Symposium

Edited by M. Greene, J. Reyes and A. Castro. Santiago de Chile: PUC, 2012.

APPLICATION OF SPACE SYNTAX IN DEVELOPING.

A regeneration framework for Sharjah’s heritage area

AUTHOR: Ayşe Sema KUBAT

Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
e‐mail: kubat@itu.edu.tr

Samia RAB
University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Yasemin İnce GÜNEY

Eastern Mediterrenean University, North Cyprus
e‐mail: yasemince.guney@gmail.com

Özlem ÖZER
Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
e‐mail: oslem.oser@gmail.com

Serdar KAYA
Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
e‐mail: hserdarkaya@gmail.com

KEYWORDS: Regeneration, Historic City Centers, Space Syntax, Movement

THEME: Urban Space and Social Phenomena

Abstract
In 1998, UNESCO selected the Emirate of Sharjah as the cultural capital of the Arab World. At present
though, Sharjah’s historic area (Al Mureijah and Al Shueiyheen) is suffering from traffic congestion and
environmental degradation that make it unattractive for visitors and inhabitants. These issues need urgent
attention in order to reverse any further degradation of the historic city center, achieve economic and social
gains, conserve the environment, and preserve the cultural heritage.
This research addresses the challenge of revitalizing historic Sharjah by identifying, understanding and
providing solutions to problems that have emerged through its recent rapid growth. The main goal is to
develop an analytical framework that will be utilized for future development strategy and urban design
guidelines for revitalizing the historic core of Sharjah.
The proposed research will use Space Syntax as a diagnostic tool to understand how the history and
evolution of the city’s structure had led to patterns of density, land use and socio‐economic settlement. We
hope to identify spatial causes of what are seen as barriers to social cohesion and develop a priority list of
objectives for future development in Sharjah’s heritage area. We aim to scientifically evaluate the current
problems, determine which land uses are appropriate for the continuance of economic and social gains, and
develop priorities for: safeguarding cultural heritage; protecting the environment; increasing livability for
visitors and inhabitants.
The fundamental achievement of this research will be an analytical framework that will serve as a guideline
for future urban regeneration of Sharjah’s historic area. The findings of this study will shed fresh light on
future research in the field or urban design and conservation and can be used to evaluate proposals to
regenerate historical city centers that are under threat or have lost their economic, social, environmental and
cultural vitality.

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INTRODUCTION

The modernization process that the cities in the Arabian Gulf is experiencing has lead to a rapid growth. In
varying degrees each Emirate in the Gulf exhibits a desire to modernize by growing rapidly and facilitating
the emergence of global urban projects. This has led to destruction and/or degradation of historic
waterfront, landscape, and the built environment.

Figure1: Sharjah and other Al Khalij portal cities

Sharjah is the third largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates, and is the only one with ports on Al Khalij
and the Indian Ocean, thus occupying a crucial access to global trade routes, and ensuring its place as a
centre of international commerce.

Figure2: Views from Historic Sharjah

Sharjah shares with other port cities of Al Khalij three aspects of historic urban development: it naturally fit
in and was open to a body of water; it was protected from the desert edge by a wall and a fort; and it
maintained a diverse and multi‐functional life connected to the waterfront.

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Proceedings: Eighth International Space Syntax Symposium.
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As one of the cities located on both sides of Al Khalij, Sharjah is quite distinct from traditional "madinas" of
the Arab‐Islamic world. While most “madinas” were typically developed as, and actively participated in,
trading activities across land, Khaliji portal cities relied on across the water exchange and only secondarily
traded with the nomadic hinterland. While inhabitants of most “madinas”, even when they were situated on
a river, considered the water as a vulnerable edge of the city requiring forts and towers for protection, most
port cities in eastern Arabia considered Al Khalij as a "friendly" zone and, in contrast, heavily protected the
desert edge of the city from the tribal nomads.

The traditional “madina” in the Islamic world that have inspired large corpus of academic literature (Fez,
Damascus, Allepo, etc.) originated as "Polis1 and their growth continued some aspects of pre‐Islamic
conceptions of “Islamic urbanism”.2 In contrast, most port cities in eastern Arabia were urbanized due to
mercantile activities along the water edge and in most cases had their "backs" to the desert. The eastern
Arabian port cities historically do not have the origination, configuration or management system of the
traditional "madina". Since port cities in eastern Arabia were settled by people from different origins from
the "land" that occupied the settlement, the patterns of land tenure, ownership rights, and control of space
were very fluid. We still do not know how these patterns affect the configurations of buildings, streets, and
the alignment of shops in commercial areas and markets, but we do know that they were distinct and less
defined than has been noted in cities of the Arabian Peninsula and Northern Africa.3

The process of land demarcation and subdivision in the early formation of “madinas”4 is quite distinct from
the process undertaken for allocating land to public and private uses in port cities of eastern Arabia. The
allocation of public land to private individuals preceded the consideration for the layout of public right‐of‐
ways. Moreover, merchant patrons financed development of residential areas and the provision of services
for the population, including the establishment of mosques for ma’tam congregation for the Shiah muslims.5

While the institution of Waqf6 functioned in “madinas” from the early Islamic period, its existence in eastern
Arabia is very recent (post 1930s). This lack of a public authority to develop and monitor religious buildings is
at the heart of a distinct typology of port city impacting buildings and by extension urban form, where the
merchants were directly responsible to develop public services and institutions. The impact of "waqf" as
controlling authority for a large number of buildings and real estate in the “madina” as a whole is well
studied,7 but there are no studies of the origination and maintenance of public institutions in port cities of Al
Khalij. As we can imagine, distinct processes of "merchant‐led" development and maintenance of public
buildings and urban open spaces produces a distinct type of port city.

1
Akbar, Jamel. Crisis in the Built Environment: The Case of the Muslim City, Concept Media,1988.
2
Bonine, M. E., "Islamic Urbanism, Urbanites, and the Middle Eastern City," in Choueiri, Y.M. (ed.), A Companion to the History of the
Middle East, Blackwell, 2005.
3
Bennison, Amira K and Gascoigne, and Alison L., Cities in the pre‐modern Islamic world: the urban impact of religion, state and society,
Routledge, 2007.
4
Abd Al‐Kader, Ali. “Land, Property and Land Tenure in Islam,” Islamic Quarterly. (1959): 4‐11.
5
Fuccaro, N., Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf, op.cit., 73‐75.
6
The Arabic term Waqf (plural Awqaf) means a philanthropic institution developed in the Muslim world during the early days of Islam,
th
firmly established by the 10 century in most of the Arabian Peninsula, making a significant contribution to the development of early
Muslim societies. Waqf refers to the permanent dedication by a Muslim of any property for any purpose recognized by the Muslim law
as religious, pious or charitable. See Chapra, M.U. "Ibn Khaldun's theory of development: Does it help explain the low performance of
the present‐day Muslim world?" Journal of Socio‐Economics, Volume 37, Issue 2, April 2008, Pages 836‐863.
7
Owen, R., New perspectives on property and land in the Middle East, Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by
Harvard University Press, 2000; Leeuwen, R., Waqfs and urban structures: the case of Ottoman Damascus, Brill, 1999;

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To summarize, Khaliji portal cities did not originate as "Polis" and their growth primarily took place at the
hands of Muslim merchants. Moreover, “waterfront” in Khaliji portal cities is not the “vulnerable” edge, and
these cities are heavily protected from the desert maintaining an open space for secured interaction with
the tribal hinterland.

Though it has been recognized that existing models on spatial and functional evolution of ports and cities
are mainly derived from European and American cases, attempts thus far have introduced evidence from an
Asian perspective, focusing on the particular case of global hub port cities such as Hong Kong and
Singapore.8 The unique historical development of pre‐modern “portal urbanism” in many Eastern Arabian
cities is in the ‘blind spot’ of academic literature.9

Though UNESCO in 1998 selected the Emirate of Sharjah as the cultural capital of the Arab World, Sharjah’s
historic area (Al Mureijah and Al Shueiyheen) is suffering from environmental degradation despite the fact
that it encompasses a vibrant community of residents, inhabitants, visitors, shopkeepers and workers.

This paper addresses issues of heritage conservation by investigating problems in the historic area of Sharjah
through the application of the Space Syntax method. The methodology of the study includes Space Syntax
analyses, physical structure analyses and observations on existing pedestrian movement patterns and
activity schemas. Through the evaluation of analyses, we aim to identify, understand and provide solutions
to problems in the historic area that have emerged through the recent rapid growth of Sharjah.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CITY OF SHARJAH

Figure3: Gulf Coast

The city of Sharjah is one of the port cities of eastern Arabia. The distinct but inter‐connected spaces that
historically emerged in Sharjah’s urban form are directly related to Al Khalij. The water body, called Al Khalij
in both Arabic and Persian, was historically the space for interactions between buyers and sellers, and
exchange between indigenous cultures and the subsequent empires (both regional and European). Each
Khaliji city was a portal to the land, playing a significant and distinct role in facilitating the primacy of the
Indian Ocean trading route from the seventeen through the nineteenth centuries. This water body until the
mid‐20th century was a unifying agent facilitating the development of the city of Sharjah from a small fishing
town to a settlement and then to a portal city.

8
Lee, S‐W., Song, D‐W and Ducruet, C., "A tale of Asia’s world ports: The spatial evolution in global hub port cities," Geoforum, Volume
39, Issue 1, January 2008: 372‐385.
9
With the exception of a recent study on Manama, Bahrain: Fuccaro, N. Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf: Manama since
1800, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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Figure 4: Sharjah 1976 Air View

The 1970s planned modern interventions not only disrupted and disconnected the traditional spaces, their
planners imagined a new city with its back to Al Khalij and for the first time in its history settled Sharjah
encountered the desert, as opposed to historically defending itself from its nomadic inhabitants.

A strategic move to pull the urban growth of Sharjah internally toward the desert and away from the
waterfront led to the development of the University City and the ensuing residential development around
the ancient Muweilah site. The waterfront that once provided a vital foreground and a primary entry point
to Sharjah acts as an industrial backdrop for the larger metropolis. Sharjah now presents itself as a primarily
a landed community with water inlets as a source of recreation, as opposed to a vital portal city along Al
Khalij.

In the 1990s, the loss of place identity resulted in the documentation and restoration of the historic
buildings, demarcation of the Heritage Area, and the reconstruction of select lost structures, including the
Hisn Fort and the city wall. There are 85 listed buildings in the Muriejah and Shuweihein areas that are
constructed before the 1970s, 44 are unrecorded and 37 have been restored since 1990.

Figure 5: Sharjah, 1994 (left) and 1996 (right) air views

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As Sharjah evolved from a small fishing village to a permanent settlement, it facilitated maritime trade and
transactions of goods between port dwellers and the interior bedouin tribes. The continuous port activity
along Al Khalij waters generated a linear pattern in the initial urban form. Four types of distinct but inter‐
connected spaces had emerged to support the internal dynamics of urban life. The internal market districts
(souqs) spread along the creek (sahil) through almost the entire length of the settlement. A gated protective
wall with the Hisn Fort marking the central entrance comprised the defined outer limit of the settlement.
Immediately outside the Hisn Fort was the space of the external market (saht Al Hisn) where the settled
community came in contact with nomadic families of the hinterland. The residential quarters (fareej)
between the souqs and the wall were generally divided into two main (uneven) sectors located to the east
and west of the Hisn Fort.

Though the introduction of vehicular road and loading/unloading activities have disrupted the former
relationships with and access to the water; the lost spaces along the sahil have persistently been used as
places for interaction by Sharjah’s diverse inhabitants. Currently, the port function has been discontinued.
The souq continues to exist, along the sahil, despite its disjointed state due to the introduction of a main
thoroughfare.

Figure 6: A view of Sharjah historical core

The Bank Street, with its precarious island housing the reconstructed Al Hisn fort, divides the historic core
into two distinct zones: Al Mureijah Heritage Area and Al Shuweyhein Arts Area. Two distinct types of
commercial activities characterize each part: the reconstructed Souk Al Arsah with largely staged traditional
handicrafts commodities that attracts tourists and the evolving old souk that is maintained by individual
shop owners bringing the city’s inhabitants along the cornice to search for objects of daily life. The objects

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sold and the souq display techniques have certainly changed over time, but its link to the sahil, and its
persistence and its evolution to cater the changing needs of Sharjah’s inhabitants is an important element of
urban continuity.

Across the Bank Street, as we encounter the official “Heritage Area”, the souq is maintained more as a relic
of the past as opposed to an evolving urban continuity. Introduction of modern architectural interventions
along the Bank Street resulted in the demolition of major part of the historic district. It is the fareej and its
community of inhabitants living within a tightly knit dense urban fabric that has mostly been lost
reconstructed and cleansed for the benefit of Sharjah’s visitors.

The Saht Al Hisn, the open space outside the Al Hisn Fort, has survived through the three centuries of
Sharjah’s existence along Al Khalij. Until last year, it functioned as the only all inclusive public space in
Sharjah called the Rolla Square.

Figure 7: Sharjah, Views from Sahil and Saht

While only the continuity of district names mostly based on the affiliations of its original inhabitants
commemorate the lost fareej, the sahil, souq and saht Al Hisn have persisted and evolved as urban
continuities throughout the history of this exemplary Khaliji portal city.

Figure 8: Sharjah, View from Souq area

METHODOLOGY

The methodology included three strategic steps to conduct this research. The first step was to survey the
pedestrian and vehicular activity in Sharjah historic center in order to understand current movement
patterns. The second step was to analize physical structure based on understanding the spatial configuration
of the historic center, for which Space Syntax method has been utilized. Data obtained from the analyses

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generated a multi‐level, electronic database of urban form and function, containing: levels of spatial
integration in the current street networks; levels of pedestrian and vehicular movement. In the third step of
the study, the results achieved from the analyses have been comparatively evaluated. This evaluation leads
to better understand the reasons of the decay of the historic area.

ANALYSES

The first step of the research, as mentioned above, has been carefully observing how people and vehicles
are flowing through Sharjah historic area at the present. This has been done by counting pedestrian and
vehicular flow rates at numerous locations in Sharjah Historic area. The survey of pedestrian and vehicular
activity to designate the relations between movement patterns and the function areas has been done using
the gate method. To define daily densities in both working days and holidays the counts has been
conducted;

1. On a day on weekday, (14th April 2011)

2. On a day on weekend, (16th April 2011)
3. And on Friday, (15th April 2011) weekend and an Islamic religious holiday.
4. In two‐hour time periods, to define peak hours (08:00 – 10:00; 10:00 – 12:00; 12:00 – 14:00; 14:00 –
16:00; 16:00 – 18:00; 18:00 – 20:00)
5. For five different categories of people (adult men, adult women, elderly, teenagers, children) and one
category of vehicle

Figure 9: Study Area within the city of Sharjah (left) and Gates Observed in the study area (right)

Pedestrian and vehicular movement levels were recorded at 130 locations. Each location was observed from
08:00 to 20:00. The observed pedestrian and vehicular movement levels have been digitized to create the
movement database. Using ArcGIS software, the movement database then has been related to a map
document showing the locations of observation points.

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These surveys have been complemented by a ‘spatial modeling’ study that has analyzed the accessibility of
linkages through the area. Space syntax method has been used to analyze the spatial configuration of
Sharjah Historic area. A segment map has been constructed showing all the accessible space in the study
area. The segment map has been processed using the Depthmap software and integration and choice values
for each line on the axial map has been calculated. These values of the spatial structure have been
superposed with the pedestrian and vehicular movement levels. By this superposition, integration and
choice values of the lines standing on each observation point have been conveyed to the GIS database. Also,
an axial map of the entire city of Sharjah has also been created in order to see how the study area that of
the historic center of the town is related to the city in general.

The next stage of the study was to comparatively evaluate the pedestrian and vehicular counts and spatial
analyses. In the evaluation, the overall observation data for all three days are compared with the spatial
integration and choice values. This comparison has been conducted through statistically analyzing the
correlation between the pedestrian and vehicular movement levels and the values of the spatial structure.
SPSS software has been used for the correlation analysis. In order to comprehend if a specific time period or
a category of users correlates better with the spatial values, a series of correlation analyses has been
conducted.

FINDINGS

Pedestrian and Vehicular Movement: The different categories of people (men, women, elderly, teenagers
and children) as well as vehicles observed in the study area have a similar pattern in distribution of
movement but there is a significant difference among their volumes of movement.

Table 1. Pedestrian and Vehicular Movement Volumes for each day observed

Weekday ‐ Thursday
35000

30000
Male
25000
Female
20000
Elderly
15000
Teeneager
10000 Children
5000 Vehicle

0
08_10 10_12 12_14 14_16 16_18 18_20

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Weekend ‐ Saturday
30000

25000
Male
20000 Female

15000 Elderly
Teeneager
10000
Children
5000 Vehicle

0
08_10 10_12 12_14 14_16 16_18 18_20

Religous Holiday ‐ Friday

60000

50000
Male
40000 Female

30000 Elderly
Teeneager
20000
Children
10000 Vehicle

0
08_10 10_12 12_14 14_16 16_18 18_20

Most of the time, the vehicular movement is dominant except Thursday late afternoon and Friday all day
when the male pedestrian volume is higher than the vehicular volume. The female pedestrian volumes, on
the other hand, are always lower than the male figures. Female volumes starts low in the mornings and are
usually higher in the afternoons. The male pedestrian volumes make a peak on the religious holiday, Friday.
Especially after 10:00am, male pedestrian volume is drastically higher than the others and it is especially
higher during the Friday sermon period, between 12:00‐14:00pm and similarly high between 18:00‐
20:00pm. This is expected as the Friday sermon is a must for Muslim males while females usually stay at
home during this period. On Friday late afternoons both male and female pedestrian volumes are higher.

The relationship between pedestrian movement volumes for different categories of people and vehicular
movement volume is summarized in Table 2 below. As can be seen the vehicular movement dominates the
weekday and weekend followed by male movement rates. The pedestrian volume for male is the highest for

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the religious day Friday followed again by the vehicular movement volume. The female pedestrain volumes
are the second highest pedestrian group for movement volumes. Movement levels of children follow them
and the categories elderly and teenager is rather weak.

Table 2. Total Pedestrian and Vehicular Movement Levels Compared

14000

12000

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
Male Female Elderly Teeneager Children Vehicle

Thursday (Weekday) Saturday (Weekend) Friday (Religious Holiday)

Axial Analysis at the City Level:

When we look to axial analysis (rN) at the city level, we see that the roads running paralel to the waterfront
and connecting Sharjah to Dubai city such as Second Industrial Avenue and Al Nahda Street and in addition
the streets such as King Faisal and King Abdulaziz Streets that run perpendicular to these are found to be the
most integrated streets. We can say that these integrated streets show a gridal pattern, as important streets
in terms of the intensity of activities are properly highlighted showing some “structure” in the urban grid of
Sharjah. What is interesting about this gridal pattern is that, inside of each integrated gridal road system the
center, where the residential neighborhoods are located, is segregated reflecting the characteristics of an
Islamic city emphasizing the importance of privacy of neighborhood for the society. This reasoning is also
supported when we examine the structure of the integrated streets of the industrial area located on the
southern part of the lagoons.

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Figure 10: Axial Map of the city Sharjah Showing Global Integration (rN)

The progressive isolation and decline of the old city center, the heritage area including the traditional suq,
from the newly developed sites can easily be read from these axial maps. The spaces in the heritage area of
Sharjah city, instead of being a focus for pedestrian activity, are largely empty for most of the day, thus
making the area seem dangerous for pedestrians. Despite the lively neighbourhood surrounding the study
area and the effective landuse activities within the study area such as museums, art galeries and the souq,
the heritage area remains disjointed and rigidly separated from the rest of the city. Thus, this historical site
of Sharjah is in the process of deterioration.

At the global level, there is no indication of the “edge effect” as the properties of the axial lines near the
borders of the map are no different then the ones within the map. Only the border where the lagoons are
located show a disjointed effect.

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Figure 11: Axial Map of the city Sharjah Showing Local Integration (r3)

At the local level (r3), we see that the integrated gridal system effect is emphasized. In relation the the
heritage site, the area where the historical Old Wall Mosque is located is defined as one of the integrated
spaces even though the surrounding area around the mosque is still one of the segragated areas.

The following maps show the axial maps colored by choice value.

Figure 12: Axial Map of the city of Sharjah Showing Global Choice

The choice map seem to highlight the integrated gridal system of the axial integration: The streets that
create the gridal system is much more clearly differentiated then the ones within the grid. Moreover, the
choice map is even less sensitive to edge effect and the values look more properly distributed among space

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so that some important streets are more clearly highligted even if they are located in the periphery of the
map, such as Al Meena Street on the waterfront.

Figure 13: Axial Map of the city of Sharjah Showing Local Choice(r3)

The analysis at the local choice level is similar to the global choice except one major difference which is
related to the industrial area located at the southern part of the lagoons.

Segment Analysis of the Study Area:

Figure 14: Segment Map of the city of Sharjah Showing Global Integration (rN‐left), Local Integration (r500‐middle) and Local
Integration (r100 right)

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When segment maps are analyzed for integration values at the global level, the streets surrounding the
heritage area as well as the Hisn Avenue are more integrated. At the local level, Sharjah heritage area
located within the reconstructed historic wall is more integrated.

Figure 15: Segment Map of the city of Sharjah Showing GlobalChoice (rN‐left) and Local Choice (r500‐middle) (r100‐right)

When segment maps are analyzed for choice value at the global level, the streets surrounding the heritage
area as well as the Hisn Avenue show similiar characteristics as the heritage area is less integrated. At the
local level, the choice value for Sharjah heritage area located within the reconstructed historic wall is higher
then the rest of the historic area.

Analysis of the Relation Between Movement Patterns and Spatial Configuration

Pedestrian and vehicular movement levels have been statistically analyzed to see how they correlate with
the spatial integration and choice values.

Correlation analyses have been carried out for each observed category separately in addition to the total
values. Results of the analyses have shown no significant correlation between pedestrian movement levels
and spatial values. The only significant result has been achieved with the total number of pedestrians and
choice values at the local level (r=500m) for Friday and Saturday counts (Table 3).

Table 3: Correlations between Pedestrian Movement and Choice Values

Friday Total Saturday Total

Pedestrian Pedestrian Choice (500 m)
Choice (500 m) Pearson Correlation ,230(**) ,218(*) 1
Sig. (2‐tailed) ,008 ,013
N 130 130 130
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2‐tailed)
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2‐tailed)

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However, results of the analyses have shown that total number of vehicles correlate better with both spatial
integration and choice values. Correlations between choice and vehicular movement levels are 0,407 for
Tuesday; 0,411 for Friday and 0,382 for Saturday (Table 4). Correlations between integration values and
vehicle movement levels are 0,420; 0,417 and 0,422 for the three days, respectively (Table 5).

Table 4: Correlations between Vehicular Movement and Choice Values

Tuesday Total Friday Total Saturday Total

Choice Vehicles Vehicles Vehicles
Choice Pearson Correlation 1 ,407(**) ,411(**) ,382(**)
Sig. (2‐tailed) ,000 ,000 ,000
N 130 130 130 130
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2‐tailed)

Table 5: Correlations between Vehicular Movement and Integration Values

Tuesday Total Friday Total Saturday Total

Integration (rN) Vehicles Vehicles Vehicles
Integration (rN) Pearson Correlation 1 ,420(**) ,417(**) ,422(**)
Sig. (2‐tailed) ,000 ,000 ,000
N 130 130 130 130
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2‐tailed)

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Sharjah, as the third largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates, occupies a crucial access to global trade
routes with its ports on Al Khalij and the Indian Ocean, thus ensuring its place as a centre of international
commerce in the region. However, very recently the port on Al Khalij, where the historic city center is
located, has lost its function. Thus we were not able to include the trade function and its connection to the
rest of the city to our analysis. We believe this is one of the crucial reasons why the historic center has been
found so segregated in the analysis. Similiar to Margate and Galata studies, we believe that if we could
connect the historical core with the movement on the waterfront area, even though it’s limited in
comparison to when the port was active, will help increase the integration value of the historic core. Thus it
would be possible to recreate and strengthen a continuance of waterfront streets between heritage area
and the waterfront area and in turn lead to an increase in the vitality of the center and thus create an
economically productive historic core.

Another important result of this analysis is related to the historical wall that is reconstructed within the
heritage area. The analysis has shown that the wall separates the area within the wall from the rest of the
heritage area and in turn in fact operates on the heritage area being segregated from the rest of the city. We
can propose to transform some selected local alignments to form a network of larger scale streets, which
connect the heritage area with the rest of the city, which would also enable to link the waterfront area with
the rest of the city.

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The analysis of the pedestrian and vehicular movements in the heritage area has shown that spatial
structure of the area has more correlation with the vehicular movement data than the pedestrain data. This
result suggests that the spatial structure of the heritage area has more potantial for vehicular movement
rather than the pedestrian movement. Pedestrian movement is not as much related with the spatial
structure of the area. Thus, we can understand that there are other factors at work for directing the
pedestrain movement.

Even though there is quite a pedestrian movement in the area, the fact that this movement is not related to
the spatial structure indicates that the space itself has low potential for pedestrian movement. The area
houses many banks and and the increase in male movement indicates that land use characteristics and
religion related uses are important factors in the study area. Thus it is important to examine the land uses of
the area and compare them with the pedestrian movements as the next step of the study.

Since the land uses are important determinants of the pedestrian movement in the area, any interference
with land use might have a significant effect on the movement potential of the area. Thus, it would be
important to keep this in mind for any future design proposal for the area; instead of proposing land uses
that promotes pasive uses such as recreation area, it would be important to have land uses that promote
active uses such as services, accomodation and entertainment to protect the vitality of the heritage area.

In conclusion, we are convinced from our analyses that it is very cirtical for Sharjah heritage area to be
sensitively developed as a place that is people‐focussed, connected, inclusive & integrated, and that can
radically enhance the social, economic and environmental quality of the wider Sharjah city.

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