Evaluating the Effects of Urban Design Qualities on the Citizens Mental Health and Happiness: A Case Study of Sanandaj City ( Chaharbagh and Soran Neighborhoods)

From the beginning of human civilization, man has always been in search of happiness. Aristotle believed that "happiness is the ultimate meaning and purpose of life" (Chen & Zhang, 2018). Happiness and mental health are the most important factors of public health. Assessing the extent to which our place of residence can affect our emotions and overall qualities of life has always been one of the most important theoretical and empirical topics in the various professions of human geography, urban and regional studies, urban design and planning, and assurance. Citizens’ high quality of life in all its objective and mental dimensions is one of the most important concerns of managers and urban planners around the world (Moore et al., 2018 and Ballas, 2013).Designing and planning to improve people’s health in many scientific circles, especially since the early 90s in the 20th century, have been already discussed. However, the researchers’ main problem in this field has been addressing people’’s physical health and neglecting the issue of the impacts of urban spaces on citizens’ mental, emotional, and spiritual health conditions (Pfeiffer & Cloutier, 2016).In general, the spaces of urban neighborhoods should be in a way that they provide citizens with easy access to interactive and green and public environments ensure their healthy physical and mental lives, and make a positive feeling in them. It is clear that having positive face-to-face experiences in the neighborhood can affect the level of citizen happiness (Han et al., 2019).Given that mental health requires extensive studies to determine a specific framework of factors affecting it, this research was innovative in this regard. Also, considering that the outputs of theoretical studies are evaluated in the context of urban spaces, they can be a suitable source for implementation of practical measures and fill the gap between thought and action. Therefore, doing this research was necessary.According to the definitions provided by the World Health Organization, an individual’s happiness and mental health is affected not only by intrapersonal characteristics, but also by social and economic factors related to some other environmental components, such as safety. Existence of environments for leisure time, existence of green spaces and vegetation, vitality of the environment, etc. have all been considered as factors that are related to individuals’ levels of happiness and mental health (Hoisington et al., 2019; Wu et al., 2014;Firdaus, 2017;and Melis et al., 2015).Various studies have shown that citizens’ quality of life is directly related to their living environments. In the meantime, the public spaces of cities are of special importance as a platform that provides the ground for collective life and can strengthen or weaken citizens’ health. In general, the artificial environment is one of the most influential determinants and prerequisites for citizens’ health. In many studies, its impact on various aspects of health has been examined. Among them, citizens' mental health and happiness are the most influential dimensions that are strongly influenced by urban structures and environments (Melis et al., 2015).According to Choe (2012), "Of the main concerns of urban designers and planners in different cities, especially in the old and worn-out contexts of cities, are reduction of citizens’ quality of life and their loss of vitality, as well as reduction of the physical quality of the environment." "It is a concept that seems almost difficult to define. This concept is mainly definedbylife satisfaction, mental comfort, and enjoyment for well-being and security (Choe, 2012).Urban neighborhoods and streets have a special role in attracting people to the public space of cities and are very important for the city vitality and its inhabitants. This is while the growing trend of using vehicles has reduced the social role of cities and this issue has led to less human interactions in cities and paying more attention to cars and the need for motor vehicles (Horijani, 1397).Therefore, in the profession of urban design and planning, creating a context to provide spaces that can improve the residents’ positive feelings and emotions and reduce their negative emotions is necessary and undeniable. Accordingly, the effort to create a happy atmosphere for citizens in the society that can provide them with a peace of mind. This should be considered as one of the main tasks of social institutions, such as municipalities, city councils, and urban management systems in general. Due to the importance of the issue and lack of a comprehensive and useful research on it in Sanandaj, this study was done to make a comparison between two different neighborhoods with worn and new structures and different social contexts in Sanandaj City.

The present study was based on a descriptive-analytical method in terms of purpose and data collection was done in the two ways of library and field studies. To achieve the research objective, which was investigation of environmental qualities affecting the citizens’ happiness in Sanandaj City, the necessary framework was identified and extracted by reviewing the existing sources and documents and then a questionnaire was used to collect the background data.To answer the research questions, Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, one-way analysis of variance, and regression analysis were utilized, as well as SmartPLS software. To test normality of the research variables Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied. The results related to the citizens’ different levels of vitality, mental health, and happiness and also differences in urban design qualities in both neighborhoods were used via one-way variance to evaluate the effectiveness of qualities. Urban design was used on the level of the citizens’ mental health.Also, using regression analysis, different levels of each of the urban design qualities in the mentioned neighborhoods were studied through statistical calculations. Finally, SmartPLS software was employed to develop structural equation modeling and provide suggestions.Considering the importance of looking at cities for citizens' happiness and joy, the main purpose of this study was to explain the framework of urban design qualities that affected the citizens’ mental health and happiness.

From the structural equation model of the research, it could be stated that the research hypotheses were confirmed with 95% confidence and the quality components of urban design had a positive and significant effect on the citizens’ mental health. Also, based on beta coefficients, it was clear that the components of perceptual and transportation qualities had the most and least impacts on the citizens’ mental health and happiness, respectively.In general, evaluations of the components of functional quality, transportation quality, ecosystem quality, perceptual quality, visual quality, social environment quality, and total time quality (coefficient of determination: 97%) related to health changes determined the citizens’ mental health and the rest of changes in the citizens’ mental health were related to other factors that were outside the scope of this study. Table 13: Structural equation results (source: authors) mental health Ecosystem Quality 0.31 3.84 Confirmation Positive mental health Perceptional Quality 0.77 7.37 Confirmation Positive mental health   Visual Quality 0.53 6.78  Confirmation Positive mental health Social Environment Quality 0.50 6.13 Confirmation Positive mental health = Time Quality 0.41 4.15 Confirmation Positive mental health  Urban Design Quality 0.94 240.52 Confirmation Positive |t|>1.96 significant at P<0.05, |t|>2.58 significant at P<0.01

The results of the statistical analyses showed that based on what was asked in the first question, the residents of the two different neighborhoods of Sanandaj located in the two different types of traditional and developed contexts enjoyed life on different levels of satisfaction , mental health, vitality, and happiness, which could be attributed to the differences in the levels of some environmental qualities, such as environmental sensory richness, attractive visual qualities, and existence of different spaces for them to stop and spend time. Leisure time could create a ground for improving the residents’ social interactions in the two neighborhoods.The results obtained in this study are consistent with the results of the studies of Zuniga-Teran et al. (2017), Pfeiffer et al. (2016), Cao (2016), Taheri and Taheri (1398), and Abrun et al. (1397).Regarding the impacts of environmental qualities on the citizens’ levels of mental health, the studied qualities, i.e., functional quality, quality of transportation, quality of ecosystem, perceptual quality, visual quality, quality of social environment, and quality of time, could be mentioned as the factors affecting their health.In addition, it could be stated that the existence of such qualities could be the definitive environmental predictors that ensured part of the citizens’ mental health that was affected by the environment and urban design qualities. These results are consistent with the results obtained by Han et al. (Impacts of Access to Parks and Green Spaces on Mental Health) (Han & Kim, 2019), Wales (Impacts of Sense of Safety and Security on Mental health and Well-being) (Wills, 2014), Zhang et al. (The Effects of Different Environmental Qualities on Mental Health and Happiness) (Chen et al., 2018), Griff et al. (The Effects of the Physical and Social Structures of the Environment on the Health and Mental Stress of Citizens) (Greif & Dodoo, 2015), Taheri et al. (The Effect of Physical Environment on Citizens' Satisfaction with the Environment and Their Happiness) (Taheri and Taheri, 2009), and Abron et al., 1397), thus confirming their results and completing their studies.The research results emphasized the importance of urban design in the citizens’ mental health. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the citizens’ happiness based on the research approach, besides including the related courses of urban design for obtaining the master's degree at the university, the criteria of a happy city based on the results of the present research and other similar researches, as well as the related experiences gained by the relevant organizations in Iran so as to take valuable steps for achieving the goal of Masharaliyeh in the medium and long term.