Urban Sustainability
Sina Razzaghi Asl; Farzaneh Khoshghadam
Volume 6, Issue 22 , May 2017, , Pages 59-74
Abstract
Urban authorities and residents of urban deteriorated areas have faced many problems including, among the most important, unstable social condition of these areas. Social problems are one of the most important issues in renovation of and intervention in these kind of urban fabrics. According to the literature, ...
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Urban authorities and residents of urban deteriorated areas have faced many problems including, among the most important, unstable social condition of these areas. Social problems are one of the most important issues in renovation of and intervention in these kind of urban fabrics. According to the literature, definitions of urban regeneration have evolved over time and now are strongly influenced by the concept of sustainability. In fact, intervening in urban deteriorated areas is quite a social issue. There are different approaches for intervention in urban deteriorated areas. Regeneration and its recent approach - urban renaissance - is considered as the newest concept for intervention in recent years. On the other hand, the dominant and recent view of urban regeneration is social sustainability. Therefore, the subject of social sustainability seems essential in the intervention with the social approach in urban deteriorated areas. This study tries to review the existing literature about social sustainability and then extract and analyze the key factors of social sustainability in deteriorated areas of Shiva Neighborhood in Tehran. The aim of this study is to examine social problems of deteriorated areas of the study area and evaluate the effective factors on improving social sustainability. This research is a descriptive survey in the context of library studies which uses SPSS to analyze data. The study is also a qualitative–quantitative research with an applied goal. The results of this study indicate that the most important indicators affecting social sustainability in deteriorated areas, in Shiva Neighborhood in particular, are sense of belonging, walkable neighborhood, vitality, security, supply of affordable housing, social participation, equitable distribution of resources and services, creating job opportunities, education, activity in the place, residents’ empowerment, environmental health, sense of satisfaction, free time, and satisfaction with income. These indicators were grouped in seven categories of equity, quality of life, social security, social interaction, social justice, social participation and social cohesion. These seven categories have respectively the most impact on improving social sustainability in deteriorated areas of Shiva Neighborhood. Equity represents the economic situation of residents. Based on the conditions of deteriorated areas, it seems reasonable that this factor is the most effective one. Despite the importance of this factor, its impact was negative and reduced social sustainability. Social security and social interaction were other factors having a negative impact on social sustainability after renovation in the neighborhood. Quality of life, social justice and social participation were the factors that improved social sustainability in this neighborhood. The impact factor of social cohesion shows that the measures taken have not been considerable in the eyes of the residents. Overall, based on the average of all factors, social sustainability increased after renovation in Shiva Neighborhood, but the amount of this increase was very low and required more serious efforts. It will be very effective to consider these factors in the future planning process of renovation in this neighborhood, an issue that will prevent behavioral, mental, occupational and identity disorders.
