Analysis of the relationship between the citizens’ economic level and the urban landscape quality based on the spatial structure components of the city the case study A babol city

Document Type : Article extracted From phd dissertation

Authors

1 Department of Geography, Noor Branch, Islamic Azad University, Noor, Iran

2 Department of Geography, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Analysis of the relationship between the citizens’ economic level and the urban landscape quality based on the spatial structure components of the city the case study A babol city
A B S T R A C T
One of the propositions for measuring the household's social welfare level is the economic level and the amount of income. Residence is one of the essential aspects of citizen welfare. Since benefiting from a favorable urban view is one of the fundamental rights of citizenship. Therefore, our goal in this research is to prove the hypothesis that the neighborhoods where the citizens have a lower income level do not have a desirable urban view. This research was carried out with a descriptive-analytical method and collected information from reliable sources, using the library method as well as field visits and referring to relevant organizations and finally using a questionnaire. Software such as SPSS and Super decision were used for data analysis, and the model used in this research is the Analytical Network Process (ANP) model. In this research, the relationship between the effective urban spatial structure components in the urban landscape, including visual-qualitative, functional-spatial, semantic-sensory, physical-structural and environmental components, is evaluated with the income level of the local residents. The research results prove the correctness of our hypothesis, and thus, prosperous residential areas have a better urban landscape quality and vice versa. Therefore, according to civil rights laws, urban planners and managers are obliged to improve the quality of the urban landscape in all neighborhoods of the city with the participation of the people, regardless of class levels, so that we do not witness the ecological and social separations that cause the decline of individual well-being and social dignity
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The urban space is the platform on which human civil life flows, and one of its unique and significant features is the topic of the urban landscape. On the other hand, one of the big problems in less developed countries, is the inequality in environmental standards, especially the spatial location among the types of uses of a city, which causes the emergence of non-standard settlements, disproportionate body tissues, undesirable urban furniture, the expansion of marginalization and unconventional residential areas, and ultimately an unpleasant urban landscape. the residence of low-income people in places that do not attract other social groups. The lower price of housing leads to the concentration of poverty, and the continuation of this process leads to the separation of the low-income class from other social groups. Often, the low-income group does not have the financial ability to optimize the spatial landscape of their respective uses; as a result, we do not see a favorable urban landscape in poor areas. With a field and specialized survey of different spaces in the central part of Babol city located in Mazandaran province, we realize the problem that the prosperous areas have a more favorable view than the average and poor areas. Now, according to the issue of citizenship rights in the constitution, which states that "all citizens must be fairly provided with healthy and favorable environmental conditions to continue living"; It is hypothesized that:
"Is there a direct relationship between the citizens’ economic level of the residential area and the urban landscape quality level of Babol in terms of the spatial structure components?"
Therefore, in this research, it has been tried first to identify the components of the city's spatial structure that affect the urban landscape quality, and then the relationship between the perspective obtained from the relationship of these components with the citizens’ class level of different regions should be evaluated and then analyzed.
 
 
Methodology
In this research, in which the descriptive-analytical method is exerted, information has been collected from reliable sources in the library method, as well as through field visits and referring to the relevant organizations, and finally using the questionnaire tool. In order to analyze the obtained data, software such as SPSS and Super Decision were exploited, and the model used in this research is the Analytical Network Process (ANP) model. The reason for this choice is the multiplicity of internal relationships between the independent variables, which has led to the emergence of a network of relationships that cannot be analyzed hierarchically. The statistical sample is the central part of Babol city. The sampling method is deliberate-judgmental to reduce the error rate and increase the reliability rate. In order to obtain the sample size, Cochran's method was used, which is 96 people for each region and includes an urban expert group of 96 people, a total of 384 people. The distinction of the class levels of the neighborhoods is based on the "housing price" index. In this research, from the five components of the spatial structure of the city as visual-qualitative, functional-spatial, physical-structural, semantic-sensory components, and the environmental components with their related criteria and indicators as "independent variable," the quality of the city landscape as "dependent variable" and the economic level of localities as "mediator variable" have been used to analyze the issue.
 
Result and discussion
The results obtained from the analysis of the data from the questionnaire in the model (ANP) obtained from the Super Decision software prove that due to the positive results of the outputs from the paired relationships between the variables (N≥0), all the components mentioned above by ranking, they affect the quality of the urban landscape. The following proves that different urban places do not have the same quantity and quality of landscape. Prosperous neighborhoods with the highest output (Amir Kabir = 0.4619) have high urban landscape quality, average neighborhoods with medium output (Navab = 0.3745) have average urban landscape quality, and poor neighborhoods with the lowest output (Muziraj = 0.1636) have the lowest level of urban landscape quality. Therefore, it is proven that the citizens' economic level living in the neighborhoods relates to the quality of the urban landscape. In the meantime, visual-qualitative components with weight (N=0.4027) had the most impact, and environmental components with weight (N=0.0277) had the most negligible impact on the urban landscape quality.
 
Conclusion
Among the selected areas, the "Amir Kabir" area, which is prosperous based on the research conducted, has been assigned the first place in terms of the quality of the urban landscape according to the components of the spatial structure of the city (N=0.4619). It means that the region with a higher economic level has all the effective components in the urban landscape in that region. "Navab" area, which is in an average position in terms of class level, also has an average urban landscape quality in terms of the influence of the components of the city's spatial structure (N=0.3745). Moreover, finally, the "Muziraj" region, which has a low economic level, unfortunately, based on the research conducted on all five components and the responses received, ranks last in terms of urban landscape quality (N=0.1636). This means that the lower the economic level of the region, the lower the citizens' satisfaction with the factors affecting the quality of the city landscape. Therefore, according to the above explanations, our hypothesis is proven that "there is a direct relationship between the economic level of the residential area and the quality level of the urban landscape in terms of the components of the spatial structure." Therefore, managers and urban planners, to improve the quantity and quality of the urban landscape of Babol in all areas, especially the weak middle areas, should pay special attention to the visual-quality components of the city's spatial structure. On the other hand, they should pay more attention and invest in the environmental components that guarantee sustainable development.
 
Funding
There is no funding support.
 
Authors’ Contribution
 Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved thecontent of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.

Keywords


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