Investigating the relationships between indicators of the concept of quality in urban open spaces for spending leisure time (case study of Arak city)

Subject Areas : Urban planning

Mohammadkazem Yavari ¹ , Alireza Sheakholeslami ² , farzaneh sasanpour ³

1 - PhD Student in Urban Planning, Department of Urban Planning, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran.
3 - - Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2022-07-26 Accepted : 2022-10-02 Published : 2022-10-23

Keywords: quality indicators, Arak, urban open spaces, leisure times,

Abstract :

Urban open spaces have a high potential for all kinds of urban activities, including leisure time. This issue has become more important with the growth of urbanization and changes in the lifestyle of citizens. And the introduction of indicators explaining the concept of quality in these spaces, and how the relationships between them can be of special importance for urban planners. The current research is a descriptive-analytical study with a quantitative-qualitative approach. In this research, considering the relationship between the quality of open spaces as a goal, and the objective indicators that explain it, as indicators of the concept of quality, a structural measurement model has been proposed. And by using confirmatory factor analysis, the relationship between the introduced indicators and their impact factor on the purpose of the research has been investigated. Based on the findings, among the 45 indicators counted in the theoretical studies, 7 indicators did not have the necessary explanatory power and were removed. And the indicators of the concept of quality reached the number of 38 indicators. In examining the relationships and how these 38 indicators affect each other, it was found that 11 of these indicators are not correlated with other indicators. Also, by examining the factor loadings calculated for the mentioned indexes, it was observed that the index "the existence of land and facilities for play and excitement for all ages" has the greatest impact on the quality of open spaces with an impact factor of 0.66. This index is one of the indicators that have independent and non-correlated performance. Also, some indicators, such as the index of "entertainment activities, sports and physical fitness" with an impact factor of 0.62, although it is not part of the eleven independent indicators, it still has a high impact factor. This issue can be explained in this way, that the importance of the eleven independent indicators is not due to having a higher impact factor, but this importance is due to their independence and non-overlapping of possible shortcomings by other indicators. Therefore, managers and urban planners should be more sensitive to their situation (independent agents).Citation:Extended AbstractIntroduction:     Urban open spaces have a high potential for all kinds of urban activities and are considered a platform for urban development. One of the important functions of urban open spaces is the issue of spending leisure time in these spaces, which has become more important in recent decades due to the rapid growth of urbanization and the revolution that has occurred in the lifestyle of citizens. It is obvious that addressing the issue of quality in urban open spaces and introducing the causes and contexts of quality in these spaces as indicators of the concept of quality, and examining relationships and how they influence and influence each other, can improve the quality of leisure time for managers and Urban planners are of special importance.Methodology:     This research is a descriptive-analytical research with a quantitative-qualitative approach that was conducted as a case study. In this research, using the theoretical foundations of research, 45 quality indicators in urban open spaces have been introduced as indicators of the concept of quality in these spaces, and their status in the studied open spaces has been evaluated in the form of a checklist. The method of evaluating and collecting data using the aforementioned checklist was the exploratory walking technique. In this way, the aforementioned indicators were evaluated in 82 examples of the open spaces of the studied city (Arak - Iran), and a score between one and ten was given to the current state of each indicator.  After completing the evaluation and data collection, considering the relationship between the quality of open spaces as a goal and the objective indicators that explain it, as indicators of the concept of quality, a structural measurement model was proposed and how the relationships between the introduced indicators and the coefficient Their impact on the purpose of the research has been investigated using confirmatory factor analysis.  Then, by examining the output data, among the 45 examined indices, the indices that did not have the necessary explanatory power were removed. Then, considering the remaining 38 indicators, a structural model was presented again to measure the correlation between these indicators and the research objective.  After confirming the fit of this model with confirmatory factor analysis and Lisrel software, the software's output charts including: standard factor loading charts, T-Value charts, and correction proposal charts or correction indices were used to answer the research question.Results and discussion:  Based on the findings, out of 45 indicators that were considered as indicators of the concept of quality in urban open spaces for spending leisure time in theoretical studies, 7 indicators did not have the necessary explanatory power.  As a result, the indicators of the concept of quality in urban redevelopment spaces reached 38 indicators. Among these 38 indicators, based on the chart "Suggestions for Lisrel Software Improvement", it was found that 11 indicators without correlation with other indicators are effective in explaining the concept of quality in urban spaces and as a result, they are more sensitive in this field.      Conclusion:      In identifying the relationships and how these 38 indicators affect each other, it was found that 11 of these indicators are not correlated with other indicators. Also, by examining the factor loading calculated for the mentioned indexes, it was observed that the index "the presence of land and facilities for play and excitement for all ages, code V20" has the greatest impact on the quality of open spaces with an impact factor of 0.66. This indicator is part of eleven indicators that have independent and non-correlated performance. Also, some indexers such as the indexer of "Entertainment, sports and physical fitness activities, code V28" with an impact factor of 0.62, although it is not an independent component of the 11 indicators, it still has a high impact factor, it can be seen from this He explained that the importance of 11 independent indicators is not due to having a higher impact factor, but this importance is due to their independence and non-overlapping of possible shortcomings by other indicators. Therefore, managers and urban planners should be more sensitive to their situation (eleven independent indicators).

References:

1. Amin A., Ivani H., & Iqbal S. ع. . (2021). Redesigning the visual and physical dimensions of the urban space according to the preferences of people and professionals (Case study: North House-Kabul). Journal of Urban Planning and Engineering, 2 (1), 69–100. (in Persian)


2. Carp F. Zawadski R. T. , Shokrkon H., (1976). Dimension of urban envirimental quality; Enviroment and Behaviore, vol. 8, No. 2, pp:239-264.


3. Ebrahimi, Ghorban Ali, Razeghi, Nader, Muslimi Petroudi, Roghayeh. (2014). Leisure time and social factors affecting it: (Case study of 15-64 year olds in Joibar city). Applied Sociology, 22 (4), 71-98. (in Persian)


4. Falahat, M., and Kalami, M. (2008). The impact of urban open spaces on the quality of citizens' leisure time. Urban Management, 6 (22), 85-97.


5. Gholami, Mohammad, Amininejad, Gholmarreza and Khodakarem Karam Benari (2022). Measuring and evaluating the indicators of an elderly-friendly city (Study: Barazjan City), Urban Environment Policy Quarterly, Year 2, Number 5, Shiraz, pp. 17-30.


6. Golkar Kourosh (2000), Constituent components of urban design quality, Sefeh Scientific-Research Journal, No. 32, pp. 38-65. (in Persian)


7. Golkar Kourosh (2014), Creating a Sustainable Place: Reflections on Urban Design Theory, Tehran, Shahid Beheshti University, Printing and Publishing Center.


8. Gorman, G.E. and Clayton, P., (2005), Qualitative Research for the Information Professionals, London: Facet Publishing.


9. Haghi, M., and Karimi Moshaver, M., and Zulfi Gol, S. (2017). Landscape quality assessment of urban public spaces (Case study: Imam Square of Hamadan). Environmental Science, 43 (3), 529-541. (in Persian)


10. Jalali Nasab Mohammad Ali, Fahimi Amir Hossein, Nashanifam Shokouh, (2016). Case study: Arak city parks. Urban and Rural Management 15 (42): 227-248. (in Persian)


11. Kline, P. (1994). An Easy Guide to Factor Analysis. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.


12. Kline, R. B. (1998). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. Guilford Press.


13. Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (1995). Urban Form and Social Context: Cultural Differentiation in the Uses of Urban Parks. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 14(2), 89–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X9501400202.


14. Meshkini, Abolfazl, Moazen, Sohrab, Nowruzi, Mustafa. (2015). Assessing the quality of urban environment in small towns of East Azerbaijan province. Journal of Urban Ecology Research, 6 (12), 17-32. (in Persian)


15. Mohammadi, M., and Changluai, Y. (2013). Evaluation of quality components of urban space on the desirability of tourist pedestrian routes (case study of prioritization of pedestrian tourism routes in Isfahan). Architecture and Urban Planning of Iran, - (5), 15-32. (in Persian)


16. Nazaripour, Hamid, Tavousi, Taghi. (1400). Assessing the thermal comfort of public open space with emphasis on strengthening social relations in urban neighborhoods (Case study: Ghods alley, Zahedan). Urban Social Geography, 8 (1), 287-306. (in Persian)


17. Nejad Ebrahimi, Ahad; Farshchian, Amirhossein; Khoshrokh, Peyman; (2016), investigating the theoretical framework of urban space and the effects of existing forces in the formation of the city (aesthetic analysis). Green architecture winter 2016 - number 9 (10 pages - from 61 to 70). (in Persian)


18. Peng Y, Peng Z, Feng T, Zhong C, Wang W., (2021). Assessing Comfort in Urban Public Spaces: A Structural Equation Model Involving Environmental Attitude and Perception. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 18(3):1287.


19. Praliya, S., Garg, P. (2019). Public space quality evaluation: prerequisite for public space The Journal of Public Space, 4(1), 93-126, DOI 10.32891/jps.v4i1.667.


20. Shahfahad, Kumari, B., Tayyab, M. et al. ,(2019). Assessment of public open spaces (POS) and landscape quality based on per capita POS index in Delhi, India. SN Appl. Sci. 1, 368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0372-0.


21. Study protocol for the World Health Organization project to develop a Quality of Life assessment instrument (WHOQOL). (1993). Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2(2), 153–159.


22. Van Poll, R. (1997). The perceived quality of the urban residential environment. AMulti-attribute evaluation. Ph-thesis, Groningen: University of Groningen.


23. Ma, X., Tian, Y., Du, M., Hong, B., & Lin, B. (2021). How to design comfortable open spaces for the elderly? Implications of their thermal perceptions in an urban park. The Science of the total environment, 768, 144985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.144985


24. Zolfi Gol, Sajjad and Karimi Moshaver, Mehrdad. (2019). Extraction of sensory function of behavioral sites in urban spaces using spatial monitoring, case study: Bu Ali Sina Tomb Square, Hamadan. Urban Studies, 8 (30), 97 - 108. (in Persian)


25. https://www.pps.org/