فصلنامه مطالعات شهری
پیاپی 45 (زمستان 1401)

The urban landscape is part of the understandable objectivity of the reality of the existing space around people in the city. As a phenomenon, urban landscape cannot be assumed to have only subjective or objective dimensions. The connection between different methodological components in different fields of landscape research is always necessary. The research aims to strengthen the necessary foundations of research in urban landscape with a holistic, comprehensive viewpoint by examining the components and layers that the onion model of urban landscape research includes. Therefore, a systematic review was applied of the articles conducted in the field of urban landscape. The identification and analysis of the cases used in the majority of the research onions presented by Saunders et al. led to the urban landscape research onion through changes applied to this model. Researchers can choose their lines of research more accurately and faster using the research onion.

Theoretical Framework:

Specifically in the field of research methodology, a book entitled Research in Landscape Architecture: Methods and Methodology was published in 2017 by Routledge Publications. This book deals with the conflict between objectivists and subjectivists. It states that pragmatism is the only solution to this duality (Hashemizadegan, 2019: 55). In addition, many studies have been conducted with an emphasis on urban landscape and its relationship with other urban concepts. However, there has not been a comprehensive viewpoint on their methods and processes. The research onion (moving from the outer layers to the core) was developed by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2016) for business studies. It is widely used in social sciences to construct a theoretical framework for research. In various studies, the layers proposed in the research onion model have been modified and changed according to the field of study. The research onion consists of six main layers: research philosophy, approach to theory development, methodological choice, strategy, time horizons, and techniques and procedures including data collection and analysis (Melnikovas, 2018: 33; Sahay, 2016: 1).

After a search of article titles and keywords for the concept of urban landscape, more than 110 with more citations were selected. After a study of the article abstracts and other preliminary studies, 71 articles were selected, analyzed, and categorized using the qualitative method and content analysis. Finally, the research onion for each of the areas (the concept of urban landscape, visual evaluation of landscape, and visual management of landscape) was drawn and explained. Then Comprehensive research onion could use in landscape study and research compiled.

The research conducted in Iran in the field of visual management of landscape has generally been carried out at the macro scale (city), medium scale (watercourses and parks), and micro scale (streets). The survey research method and the descriptive-analytical approach have been adopted to investigate and analyze the current situation with the questionnaire tool. Many articles in the field of visual management have evaluated the visual aspects of landscape. Visual evaluation of the landscape is proposed as an independent concept in the field of landscape. In the field of evaluation, it is possible to become closer to people’s experience; therefore, quantitative methods, an experimental approach, a variety of techniques and analytical tools, such as visual protection levels, and Philip Thiel’s technique were used.
The concept of urban landscape was addressed further with a view of the landscape as a whole. Aesthetic, critical, and semiotic theories were proposed as the theoretical support for the studies. The research process pursued in most of them is qualitative and analytical, and comparative, inductive, interpretive, and descriptive methods have been used therein. After choosing the desired method, the authors have used the Delphi technique, aerial photos, cluster analysis, systematic review, in-depth interview, review of narratives, photography, and collaborative mapping as data mining and data analysis tools. The model presented in this article involves an extra layer with respect to Saunders’s research onion model. The outer layer, which includes the ontology of the research, corresponds to the stage that specifies the researcher’s beliefs in the research process. The researcher must select their position from among the three categories of objectivist, structuralist, and subjectivist, as considered by Deming and Sowfield.
A) The descriptive approach is added to the analogical inductive one proposed in Saunders’ research onion.
B) In the strategy layer, experimental simulation and descriptive, correlational, hermeneutic, and analogical-adaptive analysis are added.
C) In terms of time horizon, all studies are placed in one of the two categories of longitudinal and transverse research, and most of them are conducted with a longitudinal time horizon.
D) Techniques and procedures are proposed in the central core of the urban landscape research onion. Research techniques are divided into two general categories with an emphasis on the opinions provided by experts: direct (by asking people) and indirect (through specialist analysis) (Karimi Moshaver, 2013; Tveit et al., 2006; Briggs & France, 1980).

The urban landscape research onion model is composed of seven layers. It can be of different types according to the research problem, questions and objectives, choice of ontology, methodology, approach, strategy, and appropriate tool for analysis of the collected data. Given that most of the conducted studies applied various techniques, it is necessary to consider other layers of the research onion. This model attempted to provide a comprehensive overview of urban landscape research and introduce an integrated framework of the diverse, scattered types thereof. The model can help determine the paths of the research and avoid confusion and incorrect choices of analytical tools. The onion of urban landscape research can open the doors to researchers in the field. In future research, emphasis can be made on the specific concepts of landscape such as cultural landscape and vernacular landscape. On the other hand, similar research onion models in the field of urban landscape can be investigated with an emphasis on landscape scale (micro, medium, or macro).

This article is extracted from the first author's PhD thesis in titled "Explaining a semantic model of the urban landscape; a case study of the urban landscape of Shiraz". It is in progress at the Art University of Isfahan under the guidance of Dr. Mahmoud Ghalehnoee (the first guide) and Dr. Armin Behramian (The second guide).

- Participation of citizens in various urban affairs brings many benefits such as enhancement of social capital, satisfaction, and improvement of the civil society.
- A condition for achievement of sustainable development in today’s cities is the participation of citizens in its various affairs.
- The constituent components of citizens’ participation include mental-spiritual participation, participation in provision of human resources, political participation, and financial participation.
- A low level of participation of citizens in urban management can be attributed to various factors, including the weakness of city managers and the rules and regulations concerning their selection, citizens’ lack of concern, etc.

Citizens’ participation in various matters of urban spaces is one of the most important issues in achievement of sustainable urban development, an acceptable level of which is one of the most significant concerns of policy makers and urban planners. For achievement of sustainable development in Ilam, a border city in Iran, it is of particular importance to investigate the status of citizen participation in urban management and identify the factors affecting the level thereof, which makes up the main purpose of this study.

Theoretical Framework:

Living in a democratic society requires people to play an active role in various aspects of their lives (Predescu & Darjan, 2010: 3241). Citizen participation is of great importance in systems claiming democracy (Ginieniewicz, 2007: 328) and is vital for any democratic society, and democracy can be developed only through involved, informed citizens. In addition, it is important to have citizens ready to take responsibility for changing the reality of today’s world (Manganelli et al., 2012: 1476). For this reason, public participation is seen today as a new strategy in development (Khajeh Shahkoohi et al., 2015: 4). An inductive look at the existing patterns of participation in the world indicates that they can be classified according to three different criteria: the type of participation (1- decision-making, 2- financing, and 3- manpower), the field of participation in activities (1- construction, 2- environment, 3- ensuring city safety, 4- monitoring, 5- municipal services, and 6- social welfare), and the type of organization (1- spontaneous, self-motivated organizations and 2- formal, motivated organizations). Of course, it is also possible to classify participation patterns based on the activity to perform which the participation is made (Rezaei and Asyabani, 2018: 146).
In a general conclusion, it can be stated that citizen participation in urban management involves different aspects and a particular position in the issue of sustainable urban development. However, different factors affect the level of citizen participation in urban management, which can vary by urban space.

This is a descriptive-correlational applied quantitative study using the analysis of covariance-variance among correlation methods. The research area is Ilam, and the research population includes 194030 citizens of the city who are over 18 years old. 383 citizens were selected based on Cochran’s formula using stratified random sampling. In addition to documentary studies, the main research tool for data collection was a researcher-made questionnaire. It should be noted that the design of the questionnaire used to measure citizen participation in urban management was based on the works by Amirahmadi et al. (2016) and Meymandi Parizi (2017). The validity of the research tool was evaluated and confirmed through consultation of experts and university teachers (face validity) and also using convergence. Combined reliability coefficients (greater than 0.7) and Cronbach’s alpha (greater than 0.7) were used to measure reliability. The two methods of descriptive statistics (frequency, frequency percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (correlation analysis and structural equation modeling) were used to analyze the data. It should be noted that one  statistical method used in the field of structural equation modeling is partial least squares, calling for the use of relevant software such as SPSS and SmartPLS to analyze the data.

The results of the structural model analysis demonstrated that the variable of satisfaction with the performance of urban managers exhibited a significant effect on other independent variables. Thus, it had the greatest impact on the variables of proper urban governance (with an impact factor of 0.275), job satisfaction (with an impact factor of 0.262), and social capital (with an impact factor of 0.255). On the other hand, the variable of satisfaction with the performance of urban managers exhibited the slightest effect (with an impact factor of 0.05) on the level of citizen participation in urban management, where we can point out the low level of citizen satisfaction with the performance of urban managers (2.37 on average).

The results demonstrated that there were significant relationships between citizen participation in urban management in the study area (the dependent variable of the research) and job satisfaction, satisfaction with the performance of urban managers, social capital, proper urban governance, quality of life (negative correlation), and sense of belonging to the place. Thus, it can be stated that the level of citizen participation decreases and increases as the level of each of these variables is decreased and increased. The results obtained from the structural analysis model (with the partial least squares method) indicated that the independent research variables were capable of explaining 75.8% of the variance in Ilam citizens’ participation in urban management. The values of the coefficients for the impacts of each of those variables on the dependent variable include 0.35 (quality of life), 0.05 (satisfaction with the performance of urban managers), -0.075 (social capital), 0.131 (job satisfaction), 0.372 (proper urban governance), and 0.275 (spatial affiliation).

- Streets are where urban spaces and activities are connected and linked.
- Jan Gehl argues that activities performed in the public sphere are particularly important in the understanding of this space.
- Streets of Tehran do not provide favorable conditions for social activities.
- There is a kind of centralism in the quality of street scenes in the northern regions of Tehran.

Streets are a key part of our societies and human life. An abundance of theories have emphasized how streets and sidewalks can be utilized for social purposes, because street design is mainly treated as part of the general planning cycle component. This reflects the fact that people use the streets in front of their homes, those from their neighborhoods, and those around their workplaces, and the quality of streets and other public spaces thus affects their everyday lives and directly contributes to their sense of welfare.

Today, the human dimension of public spaces has been considered more than ever by urban planners and designers, because activities performed in public spaces can affect the quality and quantity of people’s encouragement to stop and interact in these spaces.
Streets are the sites where urban spaces and activities are connected and linked. In his well-known book Life between Buildings, Jan Gehl argues that activities performed in the public sphere are particularly important in the understanding of this space. According to Flower, people’s activity in public spaces can be classified into three categories. Firstly, there are necessary activities, which are only partly influenced by the physical quality of the environment, as it is essential to perform them to continue life. Secondly, there are optional activities, which occur only in optimal conditions and are thus regard as the direct means of measurement of the quality of public spaces. These activities also affect users’ perceptions of space. Thirdly, there are social activities, almost all of which arise from cross-fertilization activities.
Life between Buildings is the most important study by Jan Gehl, which belongs to the social context of urban design according to Carmona’s classification and has turned into a classic source in the field. The importance of Jan Gel’s studies lies in the observation that the relationship between the levels of activities and physical elements in public spaces has not been sufficiently considered, because social designers have usually paid attention to the forms rather than the activities of outdoor open spaces. Therefore, it can be stated that this book is of exceptional importance for those who seek a deeper understanding of social planning and architecture. The present study attempts to contribute to the theoretical development of the key concepts addressed by Jan Gehl in the context of Iranian urban studies.

Using an exploratory sequential mixed method in the first stage (qualitative part), observational and thematic analyses were made to analyze the data, and in the second stage (quantitative part), the survey method was carried out. In the qualitative part, five streets in Tehran were selected using purposive sampling with maximum variation, and 302 individuals were selected as the sample population in the quantitative part using sampling proportional to volume and simple random sampling. The research population involved all citizens of Tehran at the age of 15 years or higher. To analyze the data, SPSS 23 and PLS 3 were used.

The findings demonstrate the occurrence of a larger number of necessary activities than optional ones, which obscures the quality of the street scene of Tehran and indicates that the streets of Tehran do not provide favorable conditions for social activities; this is the very unfavorable situation that Jan Gehl has mentioned. Another notable result in this regard concerns the occurrence of optional activities among residents of northern Tehran and of necessary activities among residents of southern Tehran, which clearly indicates a kind of centralism in the quality of landscape of streets in the northern parts of Tehran.

Tehran, as a city that has experienced various manifestations of capitalist life since the 1920s, has also exhibited a variety of spatial inequality in the course of its social and historical development. This problem has created a different unequal space within the urban context, which involves a different demographic and class context in terms of quality and desirability. The existence of this form of inequality is evident on the surface level and in people’s daily life.
The better quality of streets in the northern parts of Tehran than in the southern parts and the occurrence of optional activities among the residents of Northern Tehran clearly indicate a kind of centralization in the northern areas of the metropolis. This should be considered more closely in the future urban development policies for the southern parts of Tehran (with the approach of spatial justice). It should be subject to the scientific, practical attention of urban planning officials, because the expansion of outdoor activities is greatly influenced by physical planning. Just as a certain design can be created in a city through the selection of materials and colors, better conditions can be provided for outdoor events that lead to urban vitality through decisions and planning.

This article is taken from the doctoral dissertation of the first author entitled " A Sociological Approach to the Impact of Street Scene Quality in Urban Ethics: Spatial Justice Analysis in Tehran " which was defended under the guidance of the second author at University of Mazandaran.

- The physical characteristics of streetscapes, including the widths of the pathways, are effective on the functions of Kaplan’s matrix.
- Kaplan’s visual preference matrix plays a more effective role in non-urban landscapes than in urban ones.
- A higher green index causes more final visual preferences.
- Narrower pathways are stronger functions of Kaplan’s matrix.
- Mystery was found to be the most stable variable, and legibility was identified as the weakest in urban landscapes, as well as non-urban ones.

Evaluations and assessments of the visual preference matrix adopted from Kaplan’s theory in natural and non-urban landscapes have demonstrated that landscapes are preferred by individuals that fulfill the audiences’ needs in four types of perceived quality, including coherence, complexity, legibility, and mystery, under the title of informational variables. However, the theory has not been studied effectively in urban landscapes. The importance of the vegetation that is there on urban pathways, like streets and alleys, due to the daily observation of such landscapes by the citizens, in view of the observers’ environmental and mental health, caused the authors to investigate the effect of this part of observable vegetation in urban landscapes besides other structural factors of pathways, such as their widths, on the perceived and informational variables of Kaplan’s matrix, thereby evaluating the role of the matrix in urban landscapes.

According to Kaplans, the visual information that facilitates understanding and exploration is very important in the formation of human preferences. The sum of the two information needs and the degree of their deduction by time (urgent or in near future) resulted in a matrix consisting of four informational variables: coherence, complexity, legibility, and mystery. The structure of mystery and complexity is based on the need for exploration (the former by lapse of time and the latter immediately), and the structure of legibility and coherence is based on the need for understanding (the former by lapse of time and the latter immediately). Any landscape, having a degree of these variables, provides a type of perceived quality for the audience. This study aims at understating the level of effectiveness of each of these variables on the audience’s preference, based on the increase in the greenery in pathways of particular widths (8, 10, and 20 meters), to provide the necessary attention for their desirable effectiveness through knowledge of the level of effectiveness of each of such variables.

Given its aim, i.e. to recognize the quality and degree of the effects of the relevant variables on each other, the methodology of this study is descriptive-correlational, and the method of data collection is quantitative based on the structured questionnaire. 280 participants were provided online with the questionnaire, involving a combination of questions and colored images from the streetscapes in question. The streetscape images were taken from the observer’s perspective based on location at the pathway crossroads and some other features, and the questions were borrowed from those raised by Kaplans on the informational variables and provided to the participants more clearly and more fluently. The understanding of the green index of each image and its increased level was accomplished using Photoshop 2020. Finally, the responses were analyzed and assessed through a number of tests using SPSS 24.

The results of preference in States (1) and (2) for the green index obtained through the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test indicated that the average of this variable has increased significantly in all the three pathways with the increase in the green index.
 
In the investigation of the effect of informational variables on the preference variable, the results of the linear regression test indicated that the increase in the green index in the 8m pathway has raised the preference variable, affected by the three variables of coherence, legibility, and mystery (rather than the single variable of mystery in State (1)). Moreover, there have been effects in the 10m and 20m pathways from the two variables of mystery and complexity (rather than the single variable of complexity in State (1)) and the single variable of complexity (rather than mystery in State (1)). An increase in pathway width reduced the effect of informational variables on the preference variable.

The results of this study indicate that even in the present situation of the urban landscapes, suffering deficiency in coherence and coordination, an increase in the green index could significantly affect citizens’ satisfaction generally in all pathways. However, with respect to the effect of Kaplans framework on visual preference in artifact landscapes, the results demonstrated that informational variables affect preference more significantly with an increase in the green index in narrower pathways, and the effect decreases as pathway width rises. This implies the sensitivity of concern for narrow pathways, which calls for greater attention to an increase in all informational variables due to the severer enclosure. If pathway width increases, there will be less concern for the lack of coherence in the buildings, while an increase in complexity and mystery is effective in the satisfaction of the audience of such residential streetscapes. Due to its lively, dynamic nature, therefore, vegetation inherently involves the required variety and complexity and great capacity for exploration. It also exhibits sufficient potentials for an increase in the mystery feature through the creation of an attractive enclosure and blockage of the observer’s view. Moreover, this study demonstrated mystery (the most stable of the four informational variables) as the strongest variable with the highest degree of significance and legibility (the last predictor of the preference matrix) as the weakest variable. Thus, it seems that vegetation could have an effective role in the increase in the legibility of urban landscapes with a particular form and scale.

- The great part of the construction sector in national investment affects the achievement of urban efficiency.
- Destruction of durable buildings is in conflict with optimal use of capital.
- Destruction and reconstruction of buildings without rights is an obstacle to achievement of life quality.

Management of the demand for destruction and reconstruction has been known as a challenge to preserve durable buildings which are still available for use as places to live in or perform activity. It is also effective on urban productivity, a general concept that contains all the urban functions. Buildings make up the main factor in specification of the economic and spatial structure in a city. They have a determinative role in urban management and development, and their productivity is interpreted as the use of all the physical and structural capacities. Therefore, it can be claimed that buildings are important in urban productivity.
Buildings are a priority in the investment made in cities, particularly in our country. However, managerial patterns and legal system are not established based on the roles and rights to manage the demands for destruction and reconstruction. This results from the readily-available benefits of destruction and reconstruction, which conceal the costs. Due to the importance of buildings as a national value and given the concept of sustainable development, it is necessary to analyze the statistical trends and study the different factors which impact the public tendency to destroy and reconstruct buildings.

An essential approach to protection of durable buildings concerns infill development. This approach, which originates from sustainable development, includes one of the most serious activities performed to preserve durable buildings: adaptive reuse of buildings which exhibit the capacity to be preserved (based on their forms and functions). In other words, adaptive reuse of buildings is based on their capacities and characteristics.
Therefore, the main approach to durable building preservation stems from sustainable development. Return to life cycle is the relevant pattern which can increase the efficiency period of a building. Urban efficiency is a way to improve urban management.
It is worth mentioning that urban land, as a basis for creation of buildings, has a remarkable role in the attempt to achieve urban efficiency. The city and the functions which are created there are defined on that basis.

In this research, statistical information on destruction and reconstruction permits granted in a twenty-year period has been analyzed. In addition, 4526 cases have been selected as durable buildings using random sampling. Moreover, an evaluation of the income codes of Tehran Municipality in the defined period has been considered. Therefore, this research has studied the public and managerial trends concerning the preservation of durable buildings and the relevant side effective factors.

The results of this investigation revealed that the value added due to destruction and reconstruction is the most important factor that encourages people to make such demands. However, an analysis of urban management income shows that destruction of durable buildings has no great impact thereon. It seems that a number of modifications in urban terms and restrictions need to be considered in durable building preservation. In this case, one must consider definition of new methods for creation of value added to satisfy the owners of durable buildings in order to preserve them.

The factor that distinguishes this study from others is that it has focused on legal principles in management of the demand for destruction and reconstruction. Moreover, failure in supervision and administration and management inconsistency have been identified as the most important factors in the decision to destroy buildings which have the capacity to be preserved. In other words, urban management does not provide appropriate techniques to manage the demand for destruction and reconstruction.
In conclusion, the tendency to destroy durable buildings could be explained in terms of the following.
A. Economic and Social Factors
The lack of balance in urban economics and uncertainty of investment in productive departments have been recognized as parameters that increase the tendency to destroy and reconstruct durable buildings.
B. Legal Factors
- There is no definition for durable buildings and the importance of their preservation as a national value.
- Economic policies such as reduction of interest on bank deposits have facilitated investment in construction.
C. Cultural Factors
There is conflict between individual and public benefits which stem from culture. Therefore, people’s priorities are defined by their own benefit. In addition, the importance and priorities of individual benefits over public ones result from legal documents. Thus, the public tendency to give priority to individual benefits has been affected by laws and rights. Moreover, the poor sources of supplying sustainable income in urban management make up another factor that increases managerial tendency to construct.
In other words, urban management benefits from the added value of destruction and reconstruction. However, there are no facilities or techniques to modify the tendency.

- COVID-19 has revealed gaps in health management along with a high rate of infectious diseases in informal settlements.
- We focused on three components and eight indicators of resilience to evaluate the performance of NGOs in the control of the COVID-19 outbreak.
- The vulnerability of informal settlements in the city of Urmia, Iran to COVID-19 was based mainly on economic-livelihood components.

In recent years, the global crisis of the coronavirus pandemic has placed cities and urban management in difficult conditions. Plenty of evidence and research emphasizes that the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 was severer in informal settlements due to the low quantitative and qualitative characteristics of these areas. These settlements are always encountered with many problems such as poverty and unemployment, lack of security and various social damages, socio-economic injustice, health-environmental problems, and lack of concern from the municipality. Furthermore, people living in these settlements face greater risks due to the high population density, improper waste management and low-quality drainage systems, and very poor health conditions and high rates of transmission of infectious diseases. In recent years, therefore, it has turned into one of the most important challenges for urban managers in these areas to examine the ways to address and control the spread of this pandemic disease and increase the resilience of informal settlements against it. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the promotion of the resilience of informal settlements in Urmia against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plenty of research investigates various indicators of resilience. This research is focused mainly on the explanation of the components and indicators of social resilience. Based on the theoretical framework, the three main components of social resilience include the socio-cultural, socio-economic, and environmental-physical components. In the following, the effective indicators for promotion of societal resilience in informal settlements are explained.
Elimination of the panic caused by problems. When a crisis occurs, residents of an informal settlement should not feel that they are alone, and it is necessary for government institutions and NGOs to support them.
Increase in the level of knowledge. Through a rise in the level of knowledge and information of the residents of informal settlements, appropriate conditions can be provided to control crises and increase their resilience.
Provision of education to everyone. In many cases, the conditions required for facing a crisis can be provided with inclusive, targeted education, especially upon social, economic, physical, and health crises.
Enhancement of participation. An important achievement of NGOs is to enhance public participation and increase social capital, which can establish a powerful link between the society and government.
Enhancement of coordination between people and executive institutions. A specific effective role of NGOs is to function as an intermediary between the government and society.
Financial and subsistence aid. The social, economic, physical, and health crises that occur in an informal settlement often lead to severer poverty and deprivation, where many families need direct financial and subsistence aid.
Employment. Assisting administrative bodies, NGOs are considered as appropriate trustees for the implementation of job preparation, vocational training, entrepreneurship, and marketing and creation of a business environment.
Public health. Through improvement of public health in an informal settlement, the quality of the environment can be raised, and the spread of infectious and pandemic diseases can be reduced.
The quality of the environment. The quality of the residential environments in these settlements is often low, and many citizens living in these areas do not have proper access to services, facilities, infrastructures, and public spaces.

This is a descriptive-analytical study with a quantitative approach. The research population includes all NGOs in the city of Urmia, Iran that are active in the field of countering COVID-19. The simple random sampling method was adopted using a lottery. The data were analyzed using descriptive mean statistics and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Friedman tests in SPSS.

The results demonstrate that the activity of NGOs to improve the resilience of informal settlements in Urmia against COVID-19 in the socio-cultural component is above average, with a score of 3.66. Moreover, the economic-livelihood component exhibits an average of 2.95, which is equivalent to average and below, and the environmental-physical component shows an average of 3.11, which is evaluated as a moderate score.
Hence, it can be stated that the NGOs in Urmia have failed to provide a balanced, coordinated, fair approach with respect to the socio-cultural, economic-livelihood, and environmental-physical components due to the lack of coherence and integrated management in the face of unexpected crises such as the COVID-19 disease. The similarity of this research to others lies in the unified, integrated, coordinated management of government and local institutions upon crisis. Moreover, most researchers emphasize the management authority and social power of NGOs. Generally, it should be stated that NGOs must be equipped with effective financial, support, and educational tools in order to increase the resilience level of the residents of the settlements against crises. They should be strengthened to facilitate institutions’ provision of financial services, economic empowerment, and job creation.

Overall, we conclude that NGOs have performed appropriate activities to improve the resilience of informal settlements in Urmia against the COVID-19 disease. However, their performance has been different in a comparative analysis of components and indicators. The results of the Friedman test on the indicators demonstrates that the NGOs in the informal settlements of Urmia have exhibited effective activities on most socio-cultural and environmental-physical indicators (such as essential skills against COVID-19, provision of sanitary products, prioritization of disadvantaged people, encouragement of the benefactors to help the poor, disinfection of the environment, and encouragement of residents to help clean their neighborhoods). However, most economic indicators have failed to function effectively. Finally, we suggest that NGOs focus on attraction of financial and economic support from the governmental institutions, because this study shows that this pandemic disease has the most tangible impact on the economy of residents of informal settlements. It is also necessary to pay particular attention to provision of incentives and financial support packages to protect the health and economic and social security of people living in these settlements.

- When infill occurs in a scattered pad area, it can be said that an unused, inefficient space is formed in the city.
- Of the 18,650-hectare legal area of the city of ​​Ahvaz, more than 6,726 hectares has the possibility of infill development.
- Infill development with a suitable design can be a new type of development with a mixed residential structure and residents with different income levels.

In the country of Iran, while the growth and development patterns of towns were determined by local, endogenous parameters, there was some balance between life and the growth of urban economy. As exogenous factors began to play a role, however, some cities grew extremely and irregularly. The city of Ahvaz has undergone extensive physical-spatial changes due to the increase in population, the development of oil industries, the centrality of the province, the establishment of urban services, and the attraction of the residents of the cities and villages of the province in the past decades. This caused the uneven expansion of the city and the emergence of the phenomenon of dispersion therein. The physical parameters that trigger development in Ahvaz include industrial towns, military lands, the airport complex and its facilities, the academic functions of the city, its role as the main communication pathway, the market line to the east of the river, and the integration of suburban areas. These factors have caused many domestic capacities and potentials to remain unused, such as distressed and less developed or undeveloped lands in the city. Therefore, according to the current conditions in Ahvaz, it is a necessity to know about the areas and regions that are prone to infill development, in order to present plans to prevent the phenomenon of dispersion and realization of infill development.

To describe the notion of infill development, a large number of definitions have been proposed. The most common cause in the world is people’s residence in less wild areas of the city. Given that civilization has often happened in developing countries, and that many of the urban districts in these countries have undergone enormous growth that could be efficient in regard to the key principles of development, a three-dimensional strategy could be adopted for the development of a vast area, involving:1- new construction on a land that has not been developed, or, at least, cultivated, 2- physical rehabilitation of the current unusable buildings, and 3- compatibility with the forms and functions of these buildings.

The data used in this research includes Landsat and IRS satellite images, which were processed in the PCI Geomatica environment. The first stage of pre-processing (geometric correction) in this research includes integration of the coordinates of the prepared images. For this purpose, 25 control points were used. In order to better distinguish body spaces from shadows, the histogram equalization operation was also performed on the corresponding images. Then, the distressed fabric map was extracted using the WS model. MLC classification was applied to the images in order to generate and present a map of empty and barren lands in Ahvaz. For this purpose, different bands of two types of data were merged (fused) with image-merging operations to obtain the best combination of bands for classification.

The statistical investigations showed that of the total 18,650-hectare area of Ahvaz, 958.2 hectares was identified as distressed fabric, which makes up 5.13% of the city. The identified areas mostly correspond to the central parts of the city (the border between Salman Farsi and Taleghani Streets) and the old fabric around the Ali Mahziar Shrine. Moreover, in almost all the eight districts of the city, more or less scattered parts were identified as distressed fabric.

The results of the research showed that of the 18650-hectare legal area of Ahvaz, more than 6726 hectares (including the identified barren areas and distressed fabric) have the potentials for infill development. This value represents 36.2% of the city’s area, which is a relatively large ratio. Furthermore, over the entire area prone to infill development in Ahvaz, including distressed fabric and barren lands, the largest area concerns barren lands, with more than 5768 hectares, and the lowest values pertain to parts of the distressed fabric, with more than 958 hectares, representing 85.7% and 14.3%, respectively, of the entire area studied as prone to infill development. The results concerning the distribution of distressed fabric as identified in this research show that Municipal Districts One and Seven exhibit the largest values, with 3197360 and 3231110 square meters, representing 33.36% and 33.75% of the total distressed fabric of Ahvaz, respectively, and District Five has the smallest values, with 5850 square meters, making up 0.06%. These statistics are highly consistent with the field data, because Districts Seven and One of Ahvaz are considered as the old parts of the city and mainly contain the historic fabric. On the other hand, District Two, with a little more than 1720 hectares, and District One, with about 80 hectares, representing 28.5% and 0.3%, respectively, are known as the most and least severely barren and empty lands. The data in this section seem logical because District One (Old Ahvaz) is considered as part of the historic fabric and the primary, central core of Ahvaz, so the least severely abandoned, barren, and empty land occurs in this area.

- Creation of fields of social participation requires an understanding of the capabilities of these communities.
- The theoretical approach of phenomenological research and its experimental planning is qualitative.
- From the point of view of the lived experience of the studied social group, the space expands until it provides livelihood.
- Construction of flexible spaces is required to meet daily needs.

According to official documents, the population of informal settlements in the country has increased to more than twice as much in the ten years between 2003 and 2013, from 4.5 million to 12 million. There have been many studies on this urban phenomenon in the country that have influenced government policies and plans, ranging from destruction of the settlements to their reorganization. These studies have investigated the causes and factors concerning the formation of these settlements mainly with quantitative and sometimes with qualitative research methods, indicating social harms and assessing the needs for services. However, many of these studies have relied on outdated existing theories and inherent pre-judgements. This research attempts to understand the dynamics of resident social groups with respect to the informal urban spaces of these settlements. This aim is pursued through attempts to learn about the residents’ ability to overcome urban poverty and the ways they organize their daily lives, given the shortcomings of the research methodology.
 The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of space from the perspective of the lived experience of the inhabitants of informal settlements and to answer the central question of how this has shaped the lives of those who live there.  
 Theoretical Framework
The theoretical approach of this phenomenological research and its empirical planning are qualitative. This approach has made it possible to understand the phenomenon under investigation from the perspective of the lived experience of the residents and has helped develop the methods of observation, enquiry, narrative analysis, and theme extraction. Theories are considered as a tool for analysis of the findings of this research and support the narratives for understanding and reflecting the dynamics of social-livelihood groups with respect to the informal urban space of Akbar Abad, Iran. In line with this approach, beyond the physical geography of the place, this research investigates the lived fabric considering the symbolic meanings and importance of places, as reflected in the theoretical writings of human geographers and urbanists such as Massey (1994). Accordingly, the reciprocal interaction between the built environment, social space, and actors’ agency, with imagined, lived, and perceived spaces, results in the construction of new lived and perceived spaces.

Most of the previous studies have been conducted through survey questionnaires and are not profound enough to identify the relationship between residents and where they live. Therefore, based on the phenomenological theoretical framework on informal settlements, the research design involved qualitative methods of data collection, including in-depth semi-structured interviews, participatory observation, and purposeful sampling. The subject of the case study was Nasimshahr (Akbarabad), 15 km southeast of Tehran. The researcher lived in this city for a while and came to a general understanding of the relationship between space and the inhabitants’ lives. The observations, interviews, and sampling were carried out at three spatial levels. These included Nasimshahr as the first level, the area within ​​this city named Akbarabad as the middle level, and the urban space of Imam Hassan Mojtaba Bazaar (known as kooche tolidi (‘manufacturers’ alley’)) as the micro level. The socio-economic group of clothing producers was chosen as the unit of analysis. The data obtained on the residents’ lived experience were combined with available census data. A one-year intermittent residency within the scope of the study area provided the researcher with an opportunity to get closer to the social group of interest, and a different understanding of the presuppositions concerning the subject was formed through participatory observation.

 In this research, it was found that understanding the phenomenon of space in Nasimshahr is not possible without an understanding of the interaction between socio-livelihood groups with socio- physical space. At the beginning of the formation of these settlements in the 1980s, individual agency along with the support of family and kinship networks played a key role in the generation of a private space (home) incorporating any means of livelihood. After that, until the late 1990s, the collective movement that is crystallized in the livelihood group–which is the focus of this study–took shape through labor, skills, and employment networks. Imam Hassan Mojtaba Bazaar resulted from the events in this period. For twenty years, capital has become more important than availability of labor, skills, and social networks, and physical space is dominating, and limiting, residents’ agency in the organization of the space they can afford to interact with livelihoods. The space of Imam Hassan Bazaar is the pinnacle of residents’ understanding and shaping of space. In this informal market space, clothing manufacturers try to establish a dynamic connection between Tehran and their livelihood and social group and hope that this city will turn into and be recognized as the clothing hub of the country using the opportunities in Nasimshahr. This study contributed to the phenomenological method of understanding space, and the findings are limited to the researcher’s understanding of the participants’ lived experience and life in Nasimshahr.

The preliminary results showed that although economic activities grow in Nasimshahr, as in any other urban region within a metropolitan area, some activities to earn income such as those of brokers, recyclers, street vendors, and producers and sellers of garments assume a particular position. The socio-livelihood group of clothing manufacturers was selected as a research unit for this study due to characteristics such as inclusivity, entrepreneurship, and the ability to move the activity between the living environment (home) and the general environment of the market place. Therefore, Imam Hassan Mojtaba Bazaar, which was formed over time in the interaction with this income and employment generation activity, was studied as the subject of a case study on informal urban spaces.