Urban Spaces Preparing for Children Based on Child-Friendly City Principles (Case Study: Hezar Jerib District and Takhte Foulad,Esfahan)

Urban areas allocated the major part of the daily lives of citizens. Planning and design experiences of urban spaces has shown that these spaces in responding to the needs of children, as the most sensitive and important cla ss of society, were ineffective, and most of urban plannings are done based on adults’ wishes and needs. However, in recent years, attention to kids in various aspects has been considered, but it has not led to suitable physical and environmental proceedings. Nevertheless, with increasing the importance of citizenship rights issues, attention to all segments of soc iety especially children as citizens have been more considered by planners and city managers. Child-Friendly City provides possibility of participation in urban decision-making process and viewpoint expression for all children. In this regard, current study is fulfilled in order to recognize and evaluate principles and criteria of Child-Friendly Cities and realization assessment of these points in Hezar Jerib and Takhte Foulad district of Esfahan. This research is done by descriptive-analysis methodology based on library studies and documents, field surveys and interviews, also data analysis are accomplished by SPSS and Arc GIS software. In this study, children’s needs have been recognized by derived literature review from theorists’ different viewpoints and principals have been considered in some Child-Friendly Cities. Safety and security, accessibility, recreation, participation and environmental health are five main indicators which are considered in two mentioned districts a nd are evaluated via questionnaires, surveys, interviews and data analysis by GIS software. Research findings illustrate that the score of Child-Friendly Cities indicators, except of ch ildren participation that had not good status, have moderate amount . At the end, according to conducted interviews and needs assessment, strategies and policies to achieve the children welfare and Child-Friendly Cities are suggested.