Microscale Audits of the Built Environment and the Challenges for Pedestrians in 4 Residential Areas in Oman

Ensuring a livable and healthy built environment that addresses challenges of climate change and the pandemic of noncommunicable diseases should include creating an environment support of physical activity. This study aims to build local evidence on improving the residential areas by assessing the built environment of 4 residential areas in Oman.

This study uses the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes-Mini, a 15-item tool with 4 subscales (destinations and land use, aesthetics, pedestrian infrastructure, and crossings/traffic safety), to conduct environmental audits of 4 areas in Barka and Nizwa, Oman. In each neighborhood, two 1-km long routes that crossed the diameter of the area, and passed by, or led to one or more group of amenities were selected. Each route was scored independently by 2 raters and showed good interrater agreement.

The overall score was poor walkability across the 4 neighborhoods (mean = 0.18; range: 0.14 and 0.20) where scores >0.80 are considered excellent for walkability. Aesthetics was the only subscale with a good quality score (0.64) compared with the others (pedestrian infrastructure: 0.19, crossings/traffic safety: 0.06, and destination and land use: 0.06).

This study demonstrated the utility of the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes-Mini tool for cities of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The low scores point to the urgent need to identify cost-effective adaptations of the built environment that could substantially increase physical activity outcomes of the population. Further regionally relevant research can help identify specific design elements needed for more walker friendly neighborhoods.