Browsing by Author "Berhanu, Mesfin"

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    Assessment of Safe City for Women and Vulnerable Groups in Addis Ababa: the case of Bole, Nefas Silk, Kolfe and Lideta sub-cities
    (Addis Ababa University, 2014-06) Berhanu, Mesfin; Abeje, Wondimu (PhD)
    This research is concerned on the assessment of safe city for women and vulnerable groups, Even if the issue is burning no researches have been carried out in Ethiopia except the work of Action aid 2013 that Action aid only sees the link between services and violence against women; however, why the city is unsafe? What are the factors affecting safety in the city? What are the public spaces perceived as unsafe are not addressed by any researcher? My study; however, attempts to determining key f actors affecting safety and safe city, identifoing spaces that are perceived and experienced as unsafe and distinguish the major safety risks of women to access public spaces, The study employed a case study approach to observe single case at a time, Quantitative and qualitative approaches and data collection instruments were also employed. Both primary and secondary data sources were used in gathering the necessary il?fo rmation. On the other hand purposive sampling and simple random sampling used to select the target group, The major findings of this study were that most of the public ;paces such as bus stations, public transport and markets in some areas and road sides were perceived as unsafe, On the other hand the study further found that robberies, assault, sexual harassment, rape and murder are the major risks in using public spaces, Poor lighting, poor environmental design and poor infrastructure, crowded public transport/bus station, lack of efficient police patrol, lack of people 's movement, lack of clean and safe public toilet and lack of clean and safe road sides identified as major factor that contribute to unsafe conditions, In general safety and safe city are affected by poor environmental design, poor infrastructure, crowded public transport/ bus station and lack of visible police, Hence to attain the Millennium development goal of 3 "promote gender equality and empower women" that concern on women's empowerment there is a need to build safer city, To this regard it is suggested to urban design and planning institute to design plan and policies to ensure women '.I and girls' safety and to create safer city, Key Words: safe city, environmental design, police patrol, surveillance,
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    Plug-in Urban Design for activating blind street frontages of Addis Ababa: the Case of the Central Business District
    (EIABC, 2017-02) Berhanu, Mesfin; Zebenigus, Darik
    Blind fence in this context means, a fence that might has a length of 20 meter and above dead wall along its frontage, with no doors and windows that screens from view the interior of a property or it is not accessible even if it is visible. The existence of blind walls in the Central Business District of Addis Ababa thus causes economic, social and environmental problems on the city residents; which calls for planning and design intervention the blank walls of mega structure buildings not only generate less street activities & poor building- street interaction but they also killed the whole street life. Hence, underutilization of the prime land, inaccessible and inactive street frontages due to dead wall barriers, lack of quality public realm, problem of sense of place, lack of safety and security, environmental pollution, darkness and poor visual quality are some of the major problems in the CBD. The objective of this study is thus, to assess the major causes of the dead street frontages in the CBD and to find out possible solutions for these problems to crate livable, comfortable and active city center. In order to achieve the purpose and objective of the study, a descriptive and explanatory research method is used and different instruments such as: questionnaires, interview as well as different documents are reviewed and a questioner is distributed to a total of 60 pedestrians using simple random sampling technique. Moreover, structured and unstructured interview is conducted with different government officials and other relevant stake holders. Based on this, about 43.2% of the total area of the CBD is found to have dead street frontage and has less contribution for its economic role, there is a problem of safety and security along the dead frontage of most blank walls of mega structure buildings, the blank walls are now become a waste disposal & urinating sites and causes pollution problem in the city and the blind street frontages create poor building- street interaction that in turn kills the whole street life. Generally, the urban quality in the CBD become poor and not comfortable for working and living. Hence, this calls for change of the existing condition by intervene and apply appropriate design and management solutions to activate the dead street frontages and create livable street and vibrant city center using urban design intervention especially of plug-in urban design which could be appropriate method for already developed settlements and urban settings.