The contribution of social sustainability on livability of pedestrian streets in Urban settlements: An example of Santa Monica, Los Angles

During the last two decades, social sustainability in communities has become an interested topic among urban scholars and researchers. Unfortunately, there is no pervasive study that has been carried out to evaluate the impacts of social sustainability on the livability of public spaces in urban settlements. Especially, pedestrian streets are an important part of open spaces that have significant contributions to creating a better quality of life, lowering atmospheric emissions and increasing rates of walking in urban settlements. However, the livability of pedestrian streets are not the concern of social sustainability studies. Thus, to fill this gap, this research attempts to investigate the role of social sustainability on the enhancement of the livability of public spaces particularly pedestrian streets. In this regards, this research has employed three important common determinants of social sustainability (Social Equity, Safety, and Social Interactions) plus quantitative analysis to assess the effect of social sustainability on the sample of the 3rd Pedestrian Street in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. Consequently, the results show social sustainability has a significant role to increase the livability of pedestrian streets.