An approach towards effective ecological planning: Quantitative analysis of urban green space characteristics

In the best practices, planning of urban green spaces is managed in such a way that it follows the key principles such as meeting per capita standards and providing accessible and balanced distribution of these spaces all across the city. In the context of emerging economy, these principles are unfortunately not followed strictly all times. In this study, it is attempted to investigate Tabriz city of Iran is in terms of ecological planning to quantitatively analyse its green space characteristics. The used methodology includes determining the relevant urban green space development indicators (e.g. accessibility, per capita supply, balanced distribution, and continuous development of urban green spaces) from the literature and using the secondary data collected from variety of sources to analyse the study area. The study seeks to provide a comprehensive view on status of green spaces in Tabriz in the light of ecological principles and indicators and GIS-based spatial analysis. Results indicate that: a) Green space per capita provision in Tabriz is much lower than the national and international standards (some districts offer only 0-1 sq.m. per capita green space); b) Districts of Tabriz do not have a balanced distribution of green spaces and access to green spaces on foot (only 18% of the population can access green spaces within a 5 minute walk); c) Except for the provided street side green spaces, all other passive or active types of green spaces in Tabriz are not continuously linked (no continuity to form a green corridor or linear greenways). This study also comes up with some recommendations for Tabriz and other cities with similar characteristics.