Urban Planning
rasoul Babanasab; asghar zarrabi
Volume 4, Issue 13 , February 2015, , Pages 57-70
Abstract
Objectives In recent decades, a concept that has been comprehensively investigated is the concept of E-city. In a lot of developed countries and societies, E-city has been successfully implemented and recently the global approach is towards constructing E-societies. Nowadays, societies that have rapid ...
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Objectives In recent decades, a concept that has been comprehensively investigated is the concept of E-city. In a lot of developed countries and societies, E-city has been successfully implemented and recently the global approach is towards constructing E-societies. Nowadays, societies that have rapid access to information and have expertise in exchanging information are more developed. E-city is a new form of urban life which can be formed along with a real world and in complete adaptability with it. It can solve many challenges including traffic, air pollution, administrative corruption, and social inequalities faced by real cities. Furthermore, in addition to presenting a new model in cities, it can provide citizens’ and managers’ access to the wants of a developed, creative, and knowledge-based urban society. Findings The present study aims at analyzing the indices of e-citizen from the perspective of citizens in Tabriz City. This study is an applied-developmental one in terms of objective, and a descriptive, analytical, and survey research in terms of nature and method. To collect the data, documentary and field (questionnaire) methods were employed. The sample population included citizens living in 10 areas in Tabriz City. Using Cochrane’s formula, the sample size was determined as 322 individuals and for a higher confidence rate, the number of participants was increased by 10 percent bringing the final sample size to 354 participants. To determine the required questionnaire of each region, weighting method based on the proportion of the population of each area was used. To analyze the data SPSS, Pearson correlation coefficient and one sample t-test were used. The findings indicate that in terms of the quality of citizens’ access to ICT facilities and centers of E-servicing, after administering one sample t-test, the mean scores and t-value were 3.19 and 5.13, respectively. These figures indicate relatively acceptable levels of access to these facilities. The current mean scores of the indices of e-citizen (2.79) by considering infrastructure are at an acceptable level. In addition, from citizens’ points of views, the optimized use of ICT and electronic services, in the case of Tabriz City, will have a positive effect on the different social, economic, environmental, and physical dimensions of sustainable urban development. After conducting one sample t-test, the mean scores and t-value were 3.71 and 19.03, respectively. In regards to the degree of citizens’ experiences in using ICT, the results reveal that more than 79% agreed with the necessity of expanding the use of ICT and creating an E-city. There is a significant correlation between citizens’ electronic preparedness and acceptance of the effects of using ICT and the expansion of e-city. The magnitude of the correlation as r=0.433 indicates a positive and increasing correlation between these two variables. Results Based on the results, information and communication technology and electronic city can have an impact on different economic, social, environmental and physical dimensions. This means that optimal use of ICT results in urban sustainable development. Since Tabriz is the capital city of East Azerbaijan Province, the largest city in the north western region and the fifth most populated city of Iran, it has many problems such as air pollution, sound pollution, traffic, energy wastage, low citizen cooperation, and providing services to citizens. Despite such problems, novel instruction methods, contents and experiences in use of IT are required to be offered to citizens; role of ICT and creation of an electronic city is considered as a valuable movement toward experiencing a better life. Therefore, in addition to paying attention to the necessity of training with modern methods and contents, citizens consider the function of ICT as a valuable application for experiencing a better life.
