Urban Sustainability
Ali Riahi Dehkordi; Mahdi Montazerolhodjah
Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 01 August 2022
Abstract
Abstract
Objectives:Neighborhoods can play an important role in corona virus pandemic by improving the residents quality of life. Among the affecting dimensions on quality of life in neighborhoods, the physical dimension has a tremendous effect; Organizing environment and meeting the residents needs ...
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Abstract
Objectives:Neighborhoods can play an important role in corona virus pandemic by improving the residents quality of life. Among the affecting dimensions on quality of life in neighborhoods, the physical dimension has a tremendous effect; Organizing environment and meeting the residents needs in order to self-sufficiency of neighborhoods, preventing presence of people in cities and reduce population density in urban centers , and finally cut the virus transmission chain. Therefore, the present study tries to compare the physical quality of residents life in contemporary neighborhoods of three scales; Metropolitan, middle cities and small towns in Iran.
Methodology:The research method of current article is causal-analytical, furthermore library resources and internet questionnaire were used to collect required data and information. The size of the statistical population was determined based on the second Cochran's formula, which provides 90 samples due to the uncertainty of the population. But to increase the validity of the research, 300 questionnaires were distributed by stratified sampling method. Kruskal-Wallis test and one-way analysisof variance(Anova) were used to analyze the extracted data.
Findings: The obtained results indicate that among the six categories of physical factors, in metropolitan areas according to the average opinions, mental health (170/29), environmental design (159/28), lighting (178/19) and residential (188/01) have maximum figures. In the middle cities, environmental health (171/55) and in small cities, accessibility (159/48) rank first respectively. In addition, the categories of environmental health, lighting, accessibility, environmental design and residential are not significantly different between the three groups of research.However, only the category of mental health with chi-square statistics (14/163) and a significant level (/ 001) between three scales has a significant differences.
Results: Epidemic have always occurred at different times in human life throughout history, and the Covid 19 virus is the newest type of these,which affects cities in addition to medicine and health,so the cities should try to change; flexiblity and resilentility can help reduce and resolve these crises. Urban neighborhoods as the most involved urban element in the Covid 19 epidemic with higher quality of life at different scales from large cities to small towns have played a key role in this regard. Taking into account the priority of the opinions of the neighborhoods residents of all three cities scales, suggestions are made for the sustainability and responsiveness of neighbourhoods in times of crisis of the epidemic of viral diseases:
1- Pay attention to the legibility of spaces and routes for people in metropolitan areas through the design of appropriate lighting, eliminate places where people are not visible to others, eliminate closed and narrow paths to increase the psychological security of pedestrians during public quarantine .
2- Pay attention to the design of open spaces in metropolitan areas and do not leave them as empty lands by designing separate spaces related to physical activities such as walking, cycling to facilitate the maintenance of physical well-being of people involved in public quarantine.
3- Designing the adjacent spaces of residential blocks in metropolitan areas in order to meet the psychological and basic needs of residents through the location of small green spaces and grocery stores to prevent congestion in neighborhood centers.
4- Pay attention to the proper placement of garbage bins and places for them related to patients of coronavirus in the neighborhoods of middle cities in order to cut the transmission chain of coronavirus.
5- Organizing pedestrian paths in small towns for easy and carefree access to homes, from unnecessary congestion caused by unsuitable asphalt, paving, narrow passages and various obstacles in sidewalks.
Keywords: Physical Quality of Life, Residential Areas, Pandemic, Yazd, Covid19.
Urban Design
Mahdi Montazerolhodjah; B N; mojtaba sharifnejad; Z F
Abstract
Rapid sprawl of urban areas in Iranian cities in the last few decades was the result of two population growth factors: (1) natural increase in population, and (2) migration to urban areas. These conditions are aggravated during times of transition from a pre-industrial society to an industrial one. This ...
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Rapid sprawl of urban areas in Iranian cities in the last few decades was the result of two population growth factors: (1) natural increase in population, and (2) migration to urban areas. These conditions are aggravated during times of transition from a pre-industrial society to an industrial one. This trend has led to a shortfall in many sectors, primarily housing. One of the innovative schemes in response to this problem in many cities like Yazd, which has received wide acknowledgement, has been “sites-and-services” scheme. In a sites-and-services scheme, the preparation of land and procurement of infrastructure and services are the responsibility of the project authorities. Depending on the investment made, resources available, the implementing agency or degree of organization of the beneficiaries, sites-and-services schemes were activated in a number of differing ways in Yazd. These types of schemes provide only what the households cannot easily get or afford themselves: a plot of land with basic, essential utilities (clean water, sanitation, flood protection, security lighting, etc.) and municipal services (waste collection, schools, etc.). Sites-and-services projects have formed the main pattern of urban development during the past decades in Yazd. However, many of these projects have had a planning oriented process, have just focused on land use planning, population density and transportation and have ignored the environmental qualities. These condition has created urban textures with very poor quality, image and townscape. Although there are references to the aesthetic aspect and its role in urban contexts in some of these layouts, what is witnessed in reality is discrepancies between buildings and spaces and, therefore, their lack of visual appeal. Meanwhile, the visual environment in urban contexts is composed of a sophisticated structure of physical and non-physical elements; it is the cognitive joint between humans and their environments; it can facilitate people’s perception and evaluation of their living context and boost their environmental comprehensibility. The objective of this research is to assess the physical indicators affecting the aesthetic component in contemporary urban developments formed as a result of site and services projects during the past four decades in different regions of Yazd. The related literature was reviewed to collect information and determine the study criteria regarding the physical indicators of aesthetic component in urban areas. The results from the literature review and observation survey served very well in codifying the variables and attributes for developing the questionnaire to examine the resident’s perception of the aesthetic components in their neighborhoods. The questionnaire survey was done in 3 selected regions (region 10 in Imamshahr, 92 hectare project in Azadshahr and 93 hectare Kowsar project in Safayeh) that have been formed in difference times. A sample of 100 participants was selected randomly from residents in each region. Pearson correlation and regression analyses were performed. According to this study, the effect of any physical indicator is different from a region to another. Nevertheless, the width of the road and façade continuity has been mentioned in all the three studied regions. After that, visual balance and architectural style have an important role in the aesthetic component. The findings may also be used to improve the site and services scheme strategies and design guidelines regarding future urban development in Yazd and other cities in Iran.
