Urban Green Space and The Quality of Life (A model for the assessment of the social impact of urban green space and its empirical application in three parks of Tehran)

Urban parks and green space, as city shared areas, in addition to environmental impacts, as their important functions, have other important effects. The present article aims to provide a general model for the assessment of the social impact of urban green spaces based on the concept of "quality of life"; the results of its application will be discussed and used for the assessment of the social impacts of three urban parks in Tehran. The final model employed in this study is a combination of four models: Green space impact model of land use consultants, green space health impact model of Scotland, green space, nature and health model of Health Council of the Netherlands, and green space and sustainable city model of Chiesura. In addition, the documents and theoretical studies, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques such as observation, in-depth individual interviews, focus group discussion and survey have been utilized. According to the results several important considerations are required in designing green space such as its impacts on different aspects of social life in the area, like its effects on community solidarity, equity and social diversity, local societal security, leisure time of the residents, traffic, residential properties, economic activities and local social health. Moreover, among the important results of this study is the necessity of identifying the perceptions people of desirable green space before constructing parks or urban green space.