Ecological status analysis of urban parks (Case study: Tabriz)

The evolution in industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to greater human domination of the planet and the environment. In the field of clean environment, urban parks are regarded as an important element in creation of a sustainable city. They provide opportunities in various areas for instance by improving the environment quality, enabling active and passive entertainment, and creating a beautiful environment. Accordingly, thinkers have considered the strengthening of the relationship between the urban man and the nature as a major way of dealing with the problems of urbanization. Therefore, cities need particular attention today in terms of revival of the urban nature, as presence of the nature in the city, to the necessary extent, and its composition and distribution is a requirement of sustainable development. Evidence from Iran and the area under study in regard to current urban green space planning and design indicates that the idea of ​​ecological design and planning is very weakly treated. Due to the dissatisfaction with the current conditions in the design of urban green spaces as an important part of the city, development of green spaces with high ecological efficiency, significant bioclimatic features in particular, should be considered.

In the ranking provided by the TOPSIS method, Elogli Park exhibits the lowest positive ideal (5.41) and the highest negative ideal (13.45), followed by the Shams, Baghmishe, and Eram parks, in that order. This is because the cli coefficient, the negative ideal divided by the sum of the positive and negative ideals, for Elogli Park (15.93) is higher than those for the other parks, assigning it the highest priority in ecological terms among the parks under investigation. The four studied forest parks were classified by ecological indicators using the electric model. According to the results obtained by this method, Elogli Park was ranked first in ecological terms, and the Shams, Baghmishe, and Eram parks were ranked next. A point to be noted concerned the improper conditions of the Baghmishe and Eram parks, the latter in particular, in terms of the indicators, calling for greater attention to these parks. Based on the data on vegetation density, Shams Park exhibited denser coverage than the other parks, followed by Elogli, Baghmishe, and Eram, in that order. The denser the vegetation, the higher the priority of the park, and the better its ecological conditions. According to the three indicators studied in the GIS environment, Shams Park was in better conditions in ecological terms than the other parks.

The results demonstrated that today’s cities need multi-purpose ecological balancing spaces rather than gardens and lawn. The prioritization of the parks based on cultural criteria indicated that the Eram and Shams parks were in better conditions than Shahgoli and Baghmishe. Physically, Elgoli Park was found to hold the highest priority, followed by Shams, Baghmishe, and Eram, in that order. In environmental terms, the Elgoli, Shams, Baghmishe, and Eram parks were ranked in that order. In terms of access features, Baghmishe and Shams were ranked first, followed by Elgoli and Eram. Finally, Elgoli and Shams were both identified through combination of the maps for all the criteria according to their weights as the best parks in terms of accessibility and cultural, environmental, and physical features. They were followed by Baghmishe Park, and Eram exhibited the lowest score among the parks in terms of the above features.