Evaluation of Effective Factors on Strengthening Vitality of Urban Walkways (Case Study: Alam-Al-Hoda Walkway in Rasht)

Subject Areas : Urban and Regional Planning Studies

Maryam Ghorbanpour ¹ , Nader Zali ² , Mokhtar yourdkhani ³ , Seyed Reza Azadeh ⁴

1 - M.A. Student in Urban Planning, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
2 - Associate Professor, Dep. of Urban Design, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Dep. Of Geography, University of Payam Noor, Tehran, Iran
4 - Ph. D Candidate of Geography & Urban Planning, Factually of Geographical Science and Planning, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Received: 2017-06-11 Accepted : 2018-04-16 Published : 2018-05-22

Keywords: vitality, Urban Space, walkway, Alam-al-Hoda in Rasht,

Abstract :

In recent decades, following the uncontrolled urban expansion and the growing importance of cars, the role of pedestrians in urban areas reduces, this has created dull spaces in cities and reduced the vitality of urban spaces.Therefore the vitality of urban spaces is one of the most important concerns of urban planning knowledge. In this study with the purpose of assessing the status of city walkways vitality and with the descriptive-analytical method, Alam-al-Hoda walkway of Rasht is studied. In this regard, the conceptual model of research with four criteria (land use and activity, physical, access and connection and climatic and environmental) and 16 indexes were considered. Then, these criteria were evaluated by questionnaires within the framework of the Likert scale by 380 users of Alam-al-Hoda walkway. In the land use and activity Criterion diversity of people activities in the walkway, in the physical Criterion urban furniture, in the access and connection Criterion movement fluency on the streets around the walkway and  in the climatic and environmental Criterion, climatic comfort are gained the lowest average of each criteria. Then, the strategies derived from SWOT were ranked by AHP technique and a survey of 20 experts. The results show that the strategy of "equipping of the space based on climate of Rasht in order to increasing the presence of people in the space" gained the first rank and the strategy of "Increasing connection of the walkway" gained the last rank. Finally, based on the strategies, action plans for enhancing the vitality were presented.

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