Urban Sustainability
Farshad Noorian; reza ghazi; seyed sajad abdullahpur
Abstract
Concern for happiness and its strategic dimensions plays a key role in provision of desirable environment quality in urban neighborhoods, ignorance of which is an issue with which cities, metropolises such as Mashhad, Iran in particular, are faced as a requirement for man to achieve sustainable urban ...
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Concern for happiness and its strategic dimensions plays a key role in provision of desirable environment quality in urban neighborhoods, ignorance of which is an issue with which cities, metropolises such as Mashhad, Iran in particular, are faced as a requirement for man to achieve sustainable urban life. In recent decades, new and old developments have been made in Mashhad, and neighborhoods have been created that do not meet the desired level of quality, and suffer many problems such as lack of public areas, insecurity, lack of visual beauty, lack of local facilities, poor sense of belonging, environmental pollution, and inappropriate conditions for neighborhood relations. This has actually lowered the level of happiness and vitality as a missing, neglected factor in the citizens’ lives, highlighting the need for proper, happy environmental design. Among the newly-developed neighborhoods is the Fareghottahsilan neighborhood, and Tabarsi is one that has been developed long ago. The purpose of this study was to assess the dimensions and indicators of happiness in old and new areas of Mashhad with different characteristics, to identify the dimensions and indicators of a happy city to solve the problems in urban neighborhoods fundamentally and efficiently towards achievement of greater sustainability in local communities. The present applied-developmental, quantitative, descriptive-analytical research was based on library studies. 320 citizens were randomly selected from among the residents of the Tabarsi and Fareghottahsilan neighborhoods to fill out the questionnaires. Data analysis was made in SPSS using statistical tests including Friedman, Mann-Whitney, Spearman, Chi-square and Cramér’s coefficient. According to the results of the analysis, it was only the physical dimension among those of happiness that exhibited relatively favorable conditions only in the Fareghottahsilan neighborhood (3.22), and both neighborhoods had unfavorable conditions in the other dimensions. Moreover, a significant difference was found between the indicators of happiness in the old and new neighborhoods. Another finding was that the average rate of happiness in the Fareghottahsilan neighborhood (167.90) was higher than that in Tabarsi (135.45), which demonstrated that the residents of the new neighborhood were happier than those of the old neighborhood, but the difference between the two in terms of happiness was not big. Happiness was positively related to income, residence ownership, ethnicity, employment, marital status, and family size, and it was negatively related to age. Finally, the greatest correlations with happiness and vitality were observed for job security in both neighborhoods from an economic perspective, level of safety and quality of lighting in the old neighborhood and access to green spaces and quality of water spaces in the new neighborhood from a physical perspective, level of security in the old neighborhood and participation in local celebrations and participation in solving the problems in the new neighborhood from a social perspective.
Urban Design
Sahar Samavati; Ehsan Ranjbar
Abstract
The topic of happiness has attracted the attention of urban experts in the last decade. Cities such as Copenhagen and Bogotá are creating literature based on their experiences in this area. The quality of the city and urban spaces is a significant factor affecting happiness. The amount of happiness ...
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The topic of happiness has attracted the attention of urban experts in the last decade. Cities such as Copenhagen and Bogotá are creating literature based on their experiences in this area. The quality of the city and urban spaces is a significant factor affecting happiness. The amount of happiness in urban spaces can be a reflection of the quality of these spaces. Similar to vitality, hence, happiness can also be seen as a quality of urban spaces. Happiness has become a key concept in recent urban studies. Happiness literature considers the role of place, local communities, social cohesion and sense of belonging. Unveiling the concept of “urban happiness”, Enrique Penalosa, the mayor of Bogota, revealed the potential for happiness and wellbeing in government policies, planning, and decision making. Penalosa’s policies and decision makers in the “wellbeing infrastructure” emphasize the crucial role of planners and decision-makers in improving citizens’ quality of life and happiness. The global data indicates Iran’s inadequate status in the field of happiness, part being due to the poor quality of urban spaces that cannot provide the grounds for happiness. As one of the first researches in the field of urban happiness in Iran, this research seeks to analyze the factors affecting happiness in Tehran’s urban spaces. Reviewing the global and domestic studies based on the content analysis method, a specific conceptual model was developed. The model presents the factors affecting the macro-to-micro level happiness in urban spaces. As pedestrian spaces and walkways are important due to the presence of citizens, these spaces were selected in Tehran center based on the analysis of the case study in order to provide a realistic understanding of the factors affecting happiness in urban spaces. Purposeful questionnaires were developed based on field study, preliminary discussions and conceptual model. To find hidden relationships between variables, SEM method was used to analyze the data extracted from the questionnaires. The Veenhoven index was used as one of the most reliable indicators for assessing the overall state of happiness in this area. This research seeks to find the factors affecting happiness in urban spaces based on a comprehensive survey that analyzes citizens’ mental and objective perceptions of space. Providing such a comprehensive outlook on factors affecting happiness in urban spaces in Iran, especially in Tehran, can be a suitable basis for formulating policies and strategies for organizing and improving the quality of urban spaces in order to promote the status of happiness in the city. Also, based on the impact of cultural and social conditions on the overall state of happiness, the results of this study can provide an understanding of the dimensions of happiness based on the status of urban spaces in Iran. The findings show that the average level of happiness among citizens on the basis of Veenhoven index is 5.90 out of 10. The results of the analysis indicate that physical aspects, urban space qualities, subjective dimensions, and community characteristics are the most important factors affecting happiness, and physical characteristics have the highest impact on happiness. Also, the citizens’ happiness in pedestrian zones of Tehran’s historical center is more affected by the quality of urban space, especially its physical properties, than the macro aspects of community.
