HEALING LANDSCAPE AS A TOOL FOR DESIGNING A BLUE-WAY SYSTEM

Abstract

This thesis mainly elaborates on a research gap dealing with blue-ways and healing landscape. Since mental health is the fulcrum of human behavior, there is a pressing need to develop a design method for improving mental health. In a deep search to get new landscape design elements as a design for mental health strategy, the notion of blue-ways comes to light. This thesis is a testimonial study that discusses how to use the blue-way system as a tool to improve human mental health and achieve the blue mind effect utilizing healing landscape design principles. It establishes an applied framework for a healing blue-way system elaborating on the healing landscape as a tool for blue-way system design. To understand how healing landscape can complement the main goal of blue-way systems, literature on blue-ways concept and its main goals have been reviewed. In addition, healing landscape as a trending landscape technique has been also revealed through an extensive literature. Since the blue-way system is a water bodies-related system, it is obligatory to differentiate between waterfronts and blue-ways as two water bodies-related concepts. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates the correlation between the existence of large water bodies and the healing effect. This triggers an acute need for a new perspective to experience waterfronts and maximize the value of water body existence in terms of healing approach through the creation of an integrated water- land-based journey. Proving this relation, sheds the light on the integration between healing landscape and blue-way system. Concerning land-based journey, the