Comparison of Social Sustainability in Motahari Street and Bahman 22nd Street of Rasht City

Sustainable development has been defined in many ways¡ but the most frequently quoted definition is from “Our Common Future”¡ also known as the Brundtland Report: “Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations¡ to meet their own needs. It contains two key concepts: • The concept of needs: in particular the essential needs of the world’s needy¡ to which overriding priority should be given; and • The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs”. Sustainable development constantly seeks to achieve social and economic progress in ways that will not exhaust the earths finite natural resources. The needs of the todays world are real and immediate¡ although it’s necessary to meet these needs in ways which do not disregard the future. The capacity of our ecosystem is not limitless which means that future generations may not be able to meet their needs the same as us. Establishing the principles of sustainable development seems necessary in every society. One of these important principles is social aspects. When it comes to city and urban planning¡ establishing social principles of sustainable development becomes more significant. Utilizing principles of sustainable development¡ in every kinds of planning¡ requires indexes which are localized and appropriate for target especial society. These indexes are extracted from theoretical principles¡ scientific documents and also background of the issue in Iran and the world which are combined with local samples and also their weak and strong points. Absence of positive interactions in cities¡ struggle between citizens¡ and unwillingness to participation are some of the reasons that influence negatively on sustainability in cities. Sustainable social development has been studied in different researches and also several domestic and international articles. Despite of it¡ there are some points which differentiate this article from other similar works. Since social sustainability is a new concept and in Iran and there are not enough background and rich experience about it¡ therefore¡ the present article theoretically have presented this issue and in general¡ have tried to explain it¡ rather than expanding and developing its dimensions and indexes. The goal of this article is explaining indexes of social sustainability and assessing it through studied samples. Due to the focus on social aspect of sustainable development¡ urban streets were chosen as study samples. These samples are Motahari Street and Bahman 22nd Street¡ both situated in central zone on Rasht¡ Iran. Both of these two streets are parts of main routes of the city and according to the fieled studies and reports in comprehensive plan of Rasht¡ they are among the second type of arterial streets. The main reason for selecting these two streets as study sample is their multi-functionality and also being all-inclusive. In addition¡ their physical¡ economic and social features are similar which make them comparable. In the process of assessing social sustainability among samples of this study¡ questionnaires designed by Likert Scale and also multi-functional regression were used to determine the selected indexes. In addition¡ Goeller matrix was applies to compare scores for social sustainability in these two samples with every social sustainability indexes. Results gathered by multi-functional regression analysis show that three indexes including Reducing poverty and social gap¡ preventing from different pollutions and climate-specific design in each area are not related to dependent variable regarding to the significant level¡ since it must be less than 0.05 to prove the relation. Meanwhile¡ Person coefficient shows the amount of dependency of each dependent variable to other variables. It indicates that promoting the health and hygienic condition of citizens is the most effective factor while paying attention to children and their activities is the least effective factor in establishing social sustainability in the society. Resulted figures show that Bahman 22nd Street has preceded the other street based on the social indexes of sustainable development. However¡ in other indexes¡ Motahari Street was superior. This result can be traced to different issues including differences between them in attracting population. Motahari Street¡ with its mixture of traditional and modern structure attracts different groups of people with different requirements. Therefore¡ it can be concluded that its structural deficiencies are hidden by visual and practical attractions in this street. In addition¡ among different indexes of social sustainability¡ health and hygienic condition of citizens and easy access to urban services for all citizens gained the highest score in Bahman 22nd Street.