فصلنامه مطالعات شهری
پیاپی 34 (بهار 1399)

How does the framework of the planning research process define the elements of the ontology, epistemology, methodology, and methods continuum to employ a constructivist grounded theory method? This paper aimed to provide a rationale for use of such a method for urban and regional planning research. Embedded within the framework of the emic approach in planning research, the theory describes it from the participants’ points of view, generating a perspective on how they recognize it as a real, meaningful process. The underlying values and shared perceptions can be deciphered in urban and regional planning applications through recognition of the significance of stories and narratives on the factors involved in planning processes. In a constructivist grounded theory method, the researcher’s approach is explicitly based on the assumption that any theoretical interpretation suggests an interpretive image of the universe under investigation rather than a detailed image thereof. Constructivist inquiry begins with experience and how members construct it. In other words, constructivists recognize their interpretation of the studied phenomenon as a construction, a step forward in participants’ understanding of meaning. The application of the theory was described and analyzed in this research in accordance with the process proposed by Charmaz. The data for analysis of the participants’ mental elements were provided through semi-structured in-depth interviews. After the pre-coding steps, including data collection and implementation, were taken, the data analysis stage and the three phases of coding, i.e. initial coding, focused coding, and, finally, theoretical coding, were delineated.Furthermore, the conceptualization processes in constructivist grounded theory were highlighted using memo-writing and theoretical saturation. The recognition of this approach among those adopted to the theory and its successive process, which is applicable to planning research with a descriptive-analytic method, has resulted from extensive theoretical studies and the practical experience of applying the process as a survey. It can be concluded that the constructivist grounded theory method can be applied to arrangement of urban and regional planning, detection of planners’ understanding of the outcomes of planning, the planning environment, and the social context. Given the spatial nature of planning theories, middle-range content planning associated with a particular situation is applicable in their practice. In the present study, the scholar’s philosophical position was realized through adoption of constructivism. The ontological and epistemological bases of the research—the relativist ontological position and the subjectivist epistemological position—are consistent with the research purposes, plan, and methodology. The constructivist grounded theory was focused here on the measures, interactions, and social processes of planners.

Objectives:

 The sense of place is directly related to people’s levels of satisfaction with and continued presence in a neighborhood Insufficient understanding of the factors effective on the sense and differences and similarities between the effective factors reduces the residents’ unity, social participation, and motivation to continue residence in different urban areas The purpose of this paper was to compare the factors effective on the residents’ sense of place in the new and old neighborhoods of the city of Ardabil, Iran.

Methodology:

 For the above purpose, the descriptive-analytical research method was used First, a researcher-made questionnaire with 57 items was made based on a review of the literature and field studies and interviews with neighborhood residents and analyses of their statements The research population consisted of 200 people, selected by the cluster sampling method using the Cochran formula from among inhabitants in the residential areas of Ardabil 100 questionnaires were distributed and filled out in the old neighborhoods, and 100 in the new ones In the next step, a statistical analysis was made of the obtained results using SPSS 21, including the t-test and Pearson’s correlation test.

Findings :

In the old neighborhoods, the residents have usually lived there their whole lives or for a long time Therefore, they are deeply acquainted and connected with each other As a result of these historical and family links, they have greater senses of belonging and ownership with respect to their neighborhoods and greater incentives to influence them, participate in different activities including public ones, increase compatibility with the place and provide social control and monitoring Other factors that increase the sense of place in the old neighborhoods include the activity of the neighborhood center as a turning point, the cultural and religious commonalities, and the centrality of the mosque, enabling individuals to communicate with each other, which are less serious in the new neighborhoods On the other hand a lack of certain elements and factors was felt in the old neighborhoods, or a need for new places to meet today’s requirements, such as urban green spaces and parks and places for activity and interaction of different age groups In the new neighborhoods, desirable levels of resident satisfaction were observed as compared to those in the old neighborhoods due to the great effectiveness of certain physical factors such as presence of natural elements, open spaces, and recreational facilities

Conclusions:

 Based on the results, the sense of belonging to place is stronger in the old neighborhoods than in the new ones, while the factors effective on the sense are of different natures in the two types of neighborhood In other words, certain factors are more important in the old neighborhoods, causing the residents’ satisfaction, whereas other factors matter more in the new neighborhoods People’s different residential motivations lead to their choice of old or new neighborhoods As a result, people in old and new neighborhoods gain advantage in certain factors effective on the sense of place, and lose advantage in others It was concluded from this research that the first step for inclusion of the different factors effective on the sense of place in a neighborhood is ideally to identify and compare them

Urban passages are one of the most important urban spaces that have long been the main focus of citizens’ social attendance, particularly the youth. Young people can increase the dynamism and vitality of these spaces with their purposeful attendance. It is of great significance today to address the issue of young people’s attendance of urban spaces and its relationship with architectural components. It is an important step in reduction of the problems of the youth to identify the roles played by these elements in their attendance of passages. Their interaction with other citizens in the streets of the city of Shiraz, Iran can increase the vitality of the urban spaces and provide them with a valuable opportunity to manage their leisure time. The main purpose of this research was to assess the impacts of architectural elements on young people’s attendance of urban spaces. These elements include the shapes of the urban buildings, their colors, flooring types, furniture, and land use variety, and the locations and shapes of the gardens and fountains. The area under investigation is Afifabad Street in Shiraz. The street is 950 meters long and 13 meters wide with about 11 meters of sidewalk on each side. It extends from Qasr al-Dasht Intersection to Afifabad Garden. This urban passage provides a crowded, powerful commercial texture with shopping attraction. This study was aimed at investigating the environmental and functional quality components of its architectural design in order to increase youngsters’ attendance of urban passages. For evaluation of the impacts of physical architectural elements on young people’ attendance of urban passages and their liveliness in this applied research, expert views on the components of urban attendance were first identified through library and documentary studies with an emphasis on the youth. Then, the physical elements that enhance attendance of urban passages were examined, followed by an identification of the components of its reinforcement. In this descriptive-analytical research, the required data were collected through questionnaires obtained from a random sample of 400 respondents that resided, did business, or walked in Afifabad Street. The statistical analysis of the questionnaires was made using SPSS 24, and the important factors related to the environmental components were obtained using the method of factor analysis. The findings demonstrated that the urban furniture element was correlated with some other components such as public and welfare services, environmental components, functional characteristics, safety, and security. Spatial diversity and physical components were found to exhibit the greatest impacts on the attempt to increase young people’s attendance of Afifabad Street, where the correlation coefficient of the relationship was 0.64. It should also be noted that the factors most important to the youth included the concern for the cleanliness of the urban environment and the availability of public services, which can motivate their attendance of the urban area. 

Adoption of strategies such as compact city design and urban intensification are claimed to positively affect the levels of social sustainability within the city. The sense of safety and social interactions within neighborhoods are also important factors affecting residents’ quality of life and community cohesion and sustainability. However, no research has been conducted on the relationship between density and social ties, and contradictory claims are made about the impacts of higher density on social life in residential environments. It has been demonstrated that people’s experience and perception of density could vary by its levels, and is inadequately expressed by any of its measures. Previous research has found that most of the negative associations of density concern the perceptions thereof, and perceived density is correlated with social interactions and the sense of safety in residential environments. The causal nature of the relationship, however, has not been established. Furthermore, the constructed shapes, residential layouts, and hybrid land uses in a neighborhood and the relevant socio-demographic variables have been found in some studies to play important roles in achievement of social sustainability. A physical element known as gatedness is also believed to influence local community relationship networking and the sense of safety. Therefore, one of the most common strategies that developers adopt to establish communities that provide residents with closer-knit, safe places to live in involves gated communities: residential areas with access restricted through physical barriers such as fences, walls, security guardhouses, and electric gates. Based on the social ecological model, this study highlighted the importance of evaluations and perceptions derived from communal spaces as motivators of social interaction, and demonstrated that the physical environment affects people’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about a local neighborhood through everyday contact and experience. The aim of this study was to examine the structural relationships between perceived density, social interaction, and the sense of safety in gated and non-gated communities. For that purpose, six neighborhoods of the same net residential and population density and the same socioeconomic resident status but with different layouts in the city of Mashhad, Iran were selected for detailed investigation. A total of 590 randomly-selected residents completed a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire, originating from the reviewed literature. The data analysis was made using SPSS 19 and Amos 23. The reliability of the questionnaire, developed specifically to elicit individuals’ perceptions, was demonstrated, and the latent constructs were validated through confirmatory factor analysis. Then, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the relationships between the predictors and outcomes. It was found that social interaction was greater in gated communities than in non-gated ones. However, residents in non-gated residential areas exhibited greater senses of safety than those in gated communities. The results of SEM demonstrated that the direct effects of perceived density on social interaction were significant in both groups, and there was a negative causal relationship between perception of density and social interaction. In gated communities, the non-recursive model suggested a feedback loop where a decrease in perceived density would increase social interaction, thereby increasing the sense of safety, in turn further decreasing perceived density. In non-gated communities, however, the sense of safety was influenced by perceived density and thus correlated with social interaction as an independent factor. This finding indicated the mediating role of the sense of safety in the relationship between perceived density and social interaction in non-gated communities.

Open spaces play a vital role in enhancement of the quality of any environment or space. Human biological conditions can be improved through an increase in the quality of space, which can be achieved when individuals’ everyday psychological needs as well as the functional, environmental, and aesthetic aspects are considered. Therefore, environmental vitality can be regarded as an integral part of a desirable architecture that seeks to convey a sense of vitality to the audience. The present paper sought to explore the theoretical domain of the research conducted in the area of vitality through meta-analysis of environmental vitality factors. The research population consisted of forty articles (twenty domestic and twenty foreign papers) published during the 2008-2018 period. The data were collected from the articles based on the Prisma protocol, which had been adapted by experts. A systematic review method was used for data collection, meta-analysis was employed for data analysis, along with the funnel, linear regression, distribution error, and heterogeneity Q test methods, and the data extracted from the review were evaluated using CMA2. Linear regression and multivariate regression were then used to investigate the relationship between every two independent variables and their relationship with the dependent variable, environmental vitality. The findings of the study were addressed from two aspects. From the structural analysis aspect, the general characteristics of the articles were studied in terms of vitality. From the content analysis aspect, the most important assumptions of meta-analysis (the homogeneity of the studies and consistency among them) were examined. The findings of the research demonstrated that there were positive, direct relationships between the effects of the independent variables on vitality and between vitality and the independent variables. This means that vitality increases as the independent variables rise. The theoretical foundations of the field have not yet reached the depth and breadth required for research, which needs greater organization. The research topics, theoretical frameworks, and theoretical achievements should be subjected to methodological revision to gain scientific accuracy, which is also dependent on research, including studies that involve meta-analysis. The best efforts to conduct such research should reduce the drawbacks. Some of the weaknesses in previous studies can be noted on that basis. More than half of the research performed in the field (60%) was evaluated as based on moderate and weak theoretical foundations. This could be accounted for in terms of the failure to utilize up-to-date, firsthand resources, to provide high levels of consistency, and to adapt the structures of the materials presented in the theoretical foundations to meet the main purposes of the papers. This could be attributed to the weakness of the theoretical foundations of the research. A total of 49 variables were extracted after the theoretical foundations were examined and analyzed. Furthermore, the variables of safety and security exhibited the greatest impacts on environmental vitality, and social participation and social interaction were found to be the most effective. Conversely, building shape exhibited the least effect on environmental vitality, and the effects of the other variables were found to be almost constant. Thus, the above design recommendations and planning criteria can lead to high quality in an urban open space in terms of communication, vitality, diversity, and appearance.

Today, urban development and air pollution are the most important issues concerning urban climate that can affect the quality of urban life. Despite the significant progress made in the fuel and engine technology, emission of pollutants in urban environments is still prevalent. As in many other countries, the environmental issue is particularly evident in the large cities of Iran such as Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Arak, and Karaj. The rapid urbanization, industrialization, and increasing trend in the use of motor vehicles have caused numerous environmental issues, including the production and distribution of different types of air pollutant, especially in Tehran, the capital. Tehran’s confinement by mountains and meteorological factors such as temperature inversion, the persistence of high-pressure systems with cold air, and local winds exacerbate pollution. Hence, numerous studies have been conducted on air pollution in Tehran. The results have indicated that 73% to 85.5% of the air pollution observed at urban stations is caused by temperature inversions, which are influenced by high pressure and surface radiation. According to the above research, the key factors involved in the spread of pollution over the streets besides the spatial and natural factors that can affect the distribution of air pollutants (i.e. geographic location, topography, etc.) include the arrangement of the buildings, particularly in terms of street width and orientation, distance, and intersections. It should be noted given the significance of the issue that the pollution can have extensive effects although it occurs at the street level, due to the interaction of the dispersal and diffusion of pollutants through meteorological conditions (wind speed and direction and atmospheric stability), the configuration of buildings, and the orientation of streets. Therefore, the main purpose of this research was to specify the characteristics of pollutant flow and dispersion on urban passages in micro scale. For that purpose, the meteorological data, including air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed and direction, were extracted from Iran Meteorological Organization (IMO) Geophysics Weather Station (the closest station to the area under investigation) for a 20-year statistical period (1991-2010). Two areas (1 and 2) in Municipal District 6 were specified as making up the area under study in this research. Then, the pollutant dispersion data were obtained based on the relationship between traffic volume and pollutant production during two winter and summer months (July and January) and at three times of the day (morning, midday, and afternoon). Finally, the distribution of air pollutants was simulated using the ENVI-met microscale model for building configuration and street orientation in the area under investigation. The results demonstrated that street and pathway orientation plays an important role in the accumulation or distribution of pollutants. Accordingly, the density of pollutants is higher in streets that are perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction. Furthermore, the concentration of pollutants in the main streets of the area under study exhibited a significant relationship with their directions. Pollutant concentration was moderate in streets with prevailing north winds, while the highest and lowest amounts of pollutant concentration were observed in streets with south and southwest winds, respectively. It can be concluded that consideration of the climate conditions in urban design and development (wind speed/direction in particular) can be effective in improvement of air quality in urban areas.

Urban development is aimed at meeting public interest, but it sometimes leads to conflicts between the goals and accepted results of different groups and contributors. The significance of managing these conflicts as a methodological, practical approach is highlighted by the background of its impacts. Recent models of conflict management include public-private partnership in urban development (3P) and public-private-people partnership (partnership model) (4P). Public-private-people partnership is a new concept in urban planning, establishing new ways to improve the inclusion of various public-sector actors, private actors, residents, NGOs, and other civil-society actors in planning processes. The notion of 4P has arisen partly to respond to the criticism of public-private partnerships for insufficient inclusion of citizens, NGOs, and other actors in the civil society, and is used to refer to a variety of processes involving public actors, private actors, citizens, and NGOs in urban planning. For an understanding of 4Ps, it is useful to have a basic understanding of the background of public-private partnerships. In general, partnerships are urban development tools involving changes where strategic planning arises alongside more traditional land-use planning, and the roles of public- and private-sector actors, residents, and associations are reassessed and changed in a process that is perceived as a shift from government to governance. The concept of governance focuses on the interplay between the public sector and other actors in a situation where the public sector is no longer delivering all public goods and instead has the role of coordinating public actors at different levels and private actors and other partners. Central in the shift from government to governance is also the blending of public and private resources for delivery of public goods. In high-standard urban development projects, therefore, where common visions are created, and conflicting goals are managed, the strengths of each type of actor are utilized. The government provides the resources and a long-term development framework, and citizen initiatives organize and activate citizens to act, while companies provide the kinds of service that are demanded, and produce tax revenues for the government.This applied, perceptual research uses a qualitative method involving interpretation, and provides descriptions of the 3P and 4P aspects, addressing conflict management in the new 4P model using library documentation and a simple overview. For data collection in a case study of Jahan-Nama Citadel in the city of Isfahan, Iran, a semi-structured interview method was used to identify the problems with the project and to specify the conflicts between actors, including beneficiaries and stakeholders. Finally, the intergroup conflicts in the project were analyzed using the achievement matrix. The inter-organizational conflicts between the public and private sectors and the groups of people in the project were considered in three areas: land ownership (the land owners in the caravanserai), the type of land use proposed for the area (switching from green space to cultural and, ultimately, commercial uses), and the physical type of construction of the citadel, (regardless of the Naghshe Jahan Square skyline altitude). It was concluded that both the public and private sectors and different groups of people involved in the design and planning process have caused conflicts through their failure to recognize the actors in the Jahan-Nama Citadel project and to consider partnership in a wider sense (sharing the profits and losses and innovations of the plan), which has hindered achievement of the plan objectives.

Iran’s urban planning system has undergone many changes in recent decades. An issue that has had a significant impact on the development of Iranian cities has been that of building density in urban development plans. In order to address the issue, the present article was aimed at specifying the density of residential buildings in comprehensive plans of Iran’s provincial capitals since the preparation of the first plan so far and providing a typology thereof and explaining its features. This original descriptive-analytical article adopted a documentary data collection method with direct reference to access the data, analyzed simply through description of the relationships between them. The findings indicated that five different types of residential building density specification method could be identified: Traditional Method (with three subtypes: Reduction, Incremental, and Three-Level), Floating Method, Strategic-Structural Method, Combined Method, and Other Methods. On that basis, a historical trend was identified in the proposed typology, where each type or subtype in a certain period of the timeline has the greatest impact in specification of the density of residential buildings in cities. Moreover, the study of the historical evolution of such types demonstrated that laws approved by the upper hand and regulations concerning the issue of building density have functioned as turning points for application of these methods in Iran’s comprehensive urban plans. The adoption of the Regulations for Increasing Density and High-Rise Buildings by the Iranian Supreme Council of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1990 turned the inverse relationship between the two variables of parcel size and building density into a direct relationship. This resulted in the development of open spaces and increase in building density in the municipal rules and regulations for construction and urban planning, considered particularly in the theoretical foundations and development patterns in plans. Another important factor in the shift from traditional to three-tier subtypes was the Rules and Regulations for Cities’ Residential Zoning to Apartment Complexes, Multi-households, and Single Units to Preserve Neighborhood Rights in Residential Units, ratified in 1992. Along with the earlier regulations, these induced a lasting change in the approach adopted in the plan to the issue of specifying building density. This approach causes the increase in the density of buildings to be conditioned upon increase in outdoor space, decrease in the level of residential infrastructure, avoidance of segregation, and observance of neighborhood rights through provision of light and sun and avoidance of overlook. Another influential factor that has led to the creation of a strategic-structural type involves the (Comprehensive) Strategic-Structural Plan of the city of Tehran, ratified in 2007, which was followed by nearly all the subsequent plans. Finally, the comprehensive plans of Tehran in 1969, 1991, and 2007 have played an important role in specification of density in other plans, where the widespread zoning of building density began from the comprehensive plan of Tehran ratified in 1969. In general, the study of density specification experiences in provincial capitals can provide urban planners and designers with guidelines for specification of the density of residential buildings. Thus, they can pathologize the existing methods and provide optimal density specification methods based on the requirements of each city and the internal and external advantages, so as to achieve the correct forecast in the use of resources, lands, natural environments, and infrastructures according to population capacity and upper-hand rules.

Throughout the past century, cities have lost their vital connection with the nature due to the fundamental changes in their functions and physical forms. The development of urbanization and attachment of villages to metropolises in recent years have led to destruction of vegetation in these regions. The importance of identifying the effects of cities on their climates can be indicated only through accurate research and quantitative assessment. The overall increase in air temperature as a result of urbanization is 1-3 degrees Celsius. In stable climatic conditions, however, the air temperature difference between urban and suburban areas can be as high as 10 degrees Celsius. Increasing the amount of vegetation, planting trees, and developing ecological networks are some of the effective passive methods available for improvement of microclimates. Similar methods have been used in the ancient cities of Iran, where the temperature inside the cities has always been lower than that of the surrounding areas due to the utilization of a special type of urban planning which has been capable of providing appropriate climatic conditions at micro scale by controlling climatic elements. Ozgol is one of the northern neighborhoods of Tehran, where green spaces have diminished as a result of the development process and space quality at the centralized focal points has decreased. This study attempted to identify the relationship between green areas and temperature decrease on the hottest day of the year to help improve the quality of the public spaces and increase thermal comfort at the focal points of the neighborhood. This research used a hybrid methodology based on logical reasoning and software-assisted assessment to study a site in the Ozgol neighborhood under two conditions: current status and optimal design. The data on the current situation of the neighborhood were obtained by field measurements, and those on the latter situation were obtained via computer simulation and addition of plants to the area. Then, the PMV model was used for assessment of the comfort conditions and specification of the exact effect of plants on microclimate elements. The two conditions were compared, and the impact of urban design with plants on environment quality was evaluated. The evaluation criteria included temperature and relative humidity. The measurements were made at a height of 1.65 meters to prioritize pedestrian comfort. The findings suggested that allocation of a low percentage of city space to greenery can greatly improve microclimatic conditions. The computations indicated that every square meter of green space added to the area under study would expand the comfort zone by 3.71 times. The results also demonstrated that retention of the amount of relative humidity can reduce air temperature by 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. The findings of this study highlighted the significance of preserving the current green spaces over the neighborhood and the necessity of avoiding any change in the land use of the remaining gardens (about 6,000 m2 in the 4-hectare area of the site). The computations also showed that addition of the existing green spaces over the area by 2.69% can expand the area within the range of thermal comfort to twice as wide as the pre-intervention area. One the other hand, the issue of global warming, the 1-degree rise in the world’s temperature during the past century, highlights the value and significance of this 1.5-degree temperature decrease. Thus, it is possible to make significant changes through extension of the results of this study to a larger scale to involve the entire city. 

Nowadays, it is one of the most important urban development strategies to increase the quality of the environment with the pedestrian approach. Pedestrian networks play an important role in urban regeneration by increasing social and cultural interaction. Sidewalks, which connect people to the environment, can pave the way for public participation and facilitate the achievement of urban regeneration goals. Clearly, it is possible to enhance pedestrian axes and other urban spaces given users’ matching criteria and various needs. In this paper, the central texture of Shahrekord, which contains features such as proper access to natural resources, prominent historic monuments, specific behavior settings, and appropriate cultural communications, was selected as a case study. The aim of the paper was to identify areas that are prone to development of pedestrian networks with an emphasis on effective measures taken in the field. In this applied descriptive-analytical method, the data were collected and ranked using a questionnaire. In fact, what distinguishes this research from others is that planning was based here on criteria found by local experts as more important in the development of the sidewalk network. Given that it is effective in the physical, social, economic, and environmental fields to promote pedestrian indicators, the results of the present study could enhance certain sustainable urban development infrastructures, such as social security, the environment, and the urban economy. Studies have demonstrated that the traffic network in the central part of Shahrekord is composed of routes with relatively diverse structures, each with its own strengths and weaknesses for turning into a sidewalk. For evaluation and prioritization of the potential areas, therefore, it was necessary first to identify the appropriate criteria for such areas and then to estimate the level of availability of each criterion for different routes based on distressed-area studies, field observations, and interviews. First, the theoretical foundations were reviewed, the effective criteria for increasing ‎pedestrianization were identified,‏ ‏and a ‎questionnaire was developed according to the proposed components. Then, we measured the significance of the criteria using the Delphi method and the Likert scale. The average weight of each criterion after numerical normalization was between zero and one, which provided an effective measure in location of the pedestrian network. The results of the research indicated that safety, comfort, and attraction exhibited the greatest impacts among the fifteen selected criteria on the increase in pedestrianization in the area under study. For specification of the capability of each route, Expert Choice was used, where the score ​​for each route was calculated through application of the coefficient of significance of each criterion. A comparison of the final scores indicated that the historical axes of Aghabozorg, Valiye Asr Street, and Mellat Street were the best options to turn into pedestrian axes. Finally, suggestions were made for enhancement of the pedestrian network in the area. These included reduction of traffic to increase pedestrian safety, change of land use on the main route to increase owners’ willingness to invest and participation, provision of new opportunities to increase citizens’ attendance through enhancement of supportive spaces over the pedestrian network, establishment of new construction laws to protect historic monuments and valuable public spaces.