Strategies for Enhancing the Quality of Urban Natural Public Spaces: Tehran s Farahzad River-valley s Landscape

The focus of this study has been the application of the concept of eco-hydrology through the rehabilitation of Tehran’s Farahzad River-valley’s urban landscape. The key element in the implementation of the concept has been the ecological management of the river-valley as the spatial link between geomorphology, vegetation, hydrology and land use. The study follows the proposition that to attain more qualified public spaces resulting from the development of urban river-valleys’ natural environments, it is necessary to stop the continuous ecological destruction of landscapes and to take steps to improve their ecological connectivity. Based on the potentials and the limitations of the region, the solutions for enhancing the quality of Tehran’s Farahzad Rivervalley’s public space, are derived from different levels of landscape management: System Ecology, Urban Ecology and Human Ecology. According to principles of landscape ecology, these strategies are provided to manage landscape’s resource allocation (level of construction and use), landscapes’ sociospatial programming (level of ground coverage), and landscapes’ bio-socio-spatial network function (level of recreational infrastructure). In this study,the analytical framework of the proposed component model is used for examining the quality of Tehran’s Farahzad River-valley’s Public Space. The information regarding this assessment is collected through observations and statistics gathered from relevant organizations.