Assessment of visual landscape of Mellat Park in Zahedan from different age group's point of view

Urban spaces was eco-friendly before Industrial Revolution; however, after the revolution, urban spaces was influenced by industry so life style has been changed that makes more people to go to suburban areas to be get in touch with nature. To address this issue, city managers attempt to consider green spaces and public parks in their planning outside of cities. Mellat Park of Zahedan is a good example of these types of parks. This paper examined the current visual aspects of Mellat Park based on residents’ preferences using a classification model quality (Q-Sort). According to this model, there are three different zoning in parks: 1. Designed areas, 2. Playgrounds or Recreational zone, 3. Green spaces. In two different times, 495 photos were taken from different three areas. Then the photos were categorized based on the objectives of the study and a total of 24 images for all areas (8 for each) were selected. The respondents ranked the photos with these 5 scales: (very nice picture, nice, ordinary, ugly and too ugly). The results show that 50% of the visitors who are 15-24 years old, prefer green spaces, while 46% of those who are 25-49 years prefer to use “designed spaces”. Finally 36% of visitors who are above 50 years prefer to use playgrounds or recreational zones.