Journal of Spatial Analysis

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Today urban livability reflects a powerful discourse in urban development and city design that is prevalent in urban planning literature suggests that there is an ideal relationship between the urban environment and the social life .On the one hand, the livability indicates the strong urban influence and attraction. On the other hand, the livability will further strengthen the urban connectivity and influence by attracting more investment, human and cultural resources. The livability of a city is closely related with a healthy and ecological city and sustainable urban development. This study aimed to measure the livability in the neighborhood of  region(2) of Sanandaj city and research methodology is descriptive-analytical.  A base map of the study area was prepared using Arc view Software. The region (2) is located in the central parts of the Sanandaj city.and the population of region is 239,965. The sample size was calculated using the formula Cochran. Therefore, 370 residents of neighborhood filled the questionnaire and expressed their viewpoint about the indicators of livability. A data collection method with respect to the merits of subject is Library and field method. The filled questionnaire by residents of different aspects of livability is measured. According to the Social features, facilities, geographic, economicfacilities and services available in the region , urban managers and experts have weighted the dimension and index of urban livability.The index of economic, social and environmental livability was calculated and  the sum of these three dimensions is considered as total livability.To assess the livability of neighborhoods, data from filled questionnaires by people have been analyzed by the software GIS, SPSS and Excel. Using hot spots, three indicators and total livability of each neighborhood displayed.The results of the analysis of economic indicators showed that the areas in  the western parts of the city  are hotter and more color spots, But in the East and South East areas neighborhoods, like Shahrdari, Sepahdegaran  have  in colder and less color spots. This actually shows the cluster distribution of economic indicators. Also the results of the analysis of social indicator showed that spatial distributon is cluster neighborhoods like Khosow Abad, Masnav, Chahar Divari, Mobarak Abad are in the hotter spots and neighborhood Adab, Varmaghani, Hassan Abad are in colder spots.The resualts for environmental indicator reveals  that spatial distribution is cluster. Mriginal neighborhoods are in colder spots and Nezam Mohandsi and Shardari town and Degaran allocated the lowest Z. In contrast neighborhood like Mobarak Abad and Khosrow Abad are in hotter spots. Analysis of hot spots for total livability implies that neighborhood in West area of city follow clusters of  hotter spots and the South East neighborhood follow colder spots. This can result in injustice in space services and  the lack of performance in order to improve the quality of the environment and quality of life in area, livability is defined as one of the aspects that could contribute to a high quality of living, because high quality of living will affect citizen's lifestyles, health condition and shows stability of the built environment. most researchers agree that livability refers to the environment from the perspective of the individual and also includes a subjective evaluation of the quality of the place so measurement of urban livability   for all places promote the perception of urban managers and planners and with such knowledge, the path will be open for practical, creative and futuristic management of the urban environment. In relation to the livability of neighborhoods to each other, spatial and non-spatial analysis shows that areas with different ratings are compared to each other. With respect to results of measurements of livability: centrally located neighborhood is more livable than their peripheral counterparts which may calculate that location has significant importance in the pattern of livability. Therefore spatial distribution of dimension and index of livability is not the same extent.The results showed that between main dimensions of neighborhood livability is not different. But in terms of spatial distribution, three dimensions are not equally distributed and it is cluster. Ranking based on total index indicate neighborhood of Khosrow Abad with score (3.279) is ranked at first and Sharif Abad with score (2.228)is ranked at last.

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In the present era, most cities have been faced with numerous problems. But the environmental dimension has been more challenging. Many urban professionals constantly seek to present effective solutions in order to prevent damage to the environment. Thus, theories, models and many views in this subject have taken, including livability approach derived by the school of sustainable development. So today, as one of the views livability approach is rooted in the theory of sustainable development has been focused on, and the above approach can cause problems in multiple cities. In this research, Region 17 of Tehran as the most problem area, was selected; and the overall goal of this study is assessing the livability of the Region 17’s neighborhoods, and the objective aims are including the assessing of livability dimensions, i.e. the environmental, the historical pattern, the urban management policies, the social, services, activities and facilities, the urban economy at the local level and identifying the livability homogeneous clusters and assessment the impact of livability’s variables, dimensions and indicators in that area. According to the study of the history and theoretical foundations of livability, the most important dimensions, indicators and items related to livability were extracted and the all selected dimensions and indicators, rooted in history and theoretical basis of their livability. In the present study include the following six dimensions of environmental, historical pattern, urban management policies, social, services, activities and facilities, urban economy with 20 indicators and 94 items were considered and the pattern of research in terms of goal, is cognitive; in terms of nature and method, is comparative – assessment; and about location of territory is Tehran’s Region 17, in respect of timing, is temporal and related to the 2015. Combined data collection method is combined0 (documents, survey) and it is the type of quantitative-qualitative data (questionnaire). The data used in the research is preliminary data that were obtained by questionnaire. The statistical society are the residents and citizens of Tehran’s Region 17 who are questioning. The necessary actions to operationalize the research was conducted in several stages: 1) Adjustment of questionnaire (using five Likert scale ranging from very low to very high range, verifying the validity by experts, verifying the performance reliability of the questionnaire by using the Cronbach's alpha in software of SPSS as a result 0.8), 2) Determining the sample size and sampling (400 samples determined by Cochran formula, using multi-stage sampling), 3) Entering data into SPSS software and doing the statistical tests (parametric statistical tests such as one sample T-test, ANOVA, Friedman) analyzing the data by SPSS and statistical tests of one sample T-test, ANOVA, Friedman, represents the undesirable od livability and its dimensions, the difference between neighborhood in terms of livability and more economic effectiveness on the livability of Region’s 17 and its neighborhoods, 4) The showing of spatial diagrams of research findings and preparing the livability’s maps by using ArcGis software and interpolation method. Ultimately, according to the findings and viewpoints of researchers and field observations, it can be concluded that the causes of problems in this area should be within the region and neighborhoods, it's time to overcome the situation that has been searched. In other words, the root of the problems in the above range is due to its geographical bed’s situation and other substrate characteristics. The meaning of geographical bed’s situation, climatic and tectonic characteristics of the area and the order of the micro-feature is the problems with the nature of the social, economic, administrative, infrastructure etc, so that were formed following the influx of population. Until two important problems raised in this region is not considered to be flows: 1) Geographic bed features, 2) the capacity of Region 17 for accommodation of population and services to them.

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A new Approach to Urban livability, Thermal Comfort as the Primitive Condition to enhance the livability: Case study, District 22 of Tehran.
 
 
Ahmad Porahmad: Professor of Urban Geography and Planning, University of Tehran
Hossain Hataminezhad: Professor of Urban Geography and Planning, University of Tehran
keramatollah Ziyari: Professor of Urban Geography and Planning, University of Tehran
Saeideh Alijani^*: PhD candidate of Urban Geography and Planning, University of Tehran
 
The concept of urban livability is defined as the quality of life and wellbeing of urban residents. That is the interaction of people, environment and built environment. The residents can achieve happy life and well-being only when the nature surrounding them is happy and healthy. According to the range of welfare concept there is a spectrum of quantitative indicators that directly measure (human body temperature, heart rate, air temperature, wind speed ...) and qualitative indicators such as quality of life, pleasure and joy. The comfort and ease of environment are in the middle of the spectrum, in other words, the intrinsic concept of ambient comfort is environment. The inadequacy of natural environment will affect both indicators in the spectrum and lead to citizens' dissatisfaction and decline in social welfare and threaten the health of humans. Living in a salty marsh or very dry hot climate is never happy and satisfied. Accordingly, many concepts such as living quality, living environment, and quality of place, quality of life and sustainability are often used interchangeably with livability).
         This research is trying to weight the natural environment at least equal to the other two components of the sustainable development triangle. Among the components of natural environment, climate is playing the most important and significant role. Urban climate affects all aspects of city including building interiors, city architecture and open spaces. Thermal comfort of open spaces promote the social life and interrelations of residents. Therefore, in order to promote the social relations and economic activities especial consideration should be paid to open spaces. Accordingly, two types of data were measured for calculating the thermal comfort in the district 22. Subjective and objective evaluations which present qualitative and quantitative data. Objective data includes micrometeorological measurements with mobile instruments. Subjective data evaluated actual sensation vote or perception vote of thermal comfort by people using the urban open spaces. To this goal, questionnaires were prepared and scattered through space users simultaneously with micrometeorological measurements. Subjective data evaluated perceptual sensation vote of thermal comfort by people using the urban open spaces in three hot days of August 2018. Nine points are selected for site measuring and field survey which are representative of two types of urban open spaces in this research:1) Urban park and 2) street. Four cardinal points were chosen adjacent to the Shohadaye Khalije Fars Lake inside the park located in sidewalk pathway around the Lake.  Other five points were selected in streets with different orientation and aspect ratio through the district. The physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), mean radiant temperature (Tmrt), sky view factor (SVF) and aspect ratio (H/W) are the most important indicators in this research which were calculated for evaluating comfort in the district.
      Results showed that urban open spaces in the district are discomfort and expose people to the extreme heat stress; over 40°C. This determines that, the natural environment especially around the Shohadaye Khalije Fars is not comfort. The questionnaire also indicated that people felt warm and dissatisfied.
        There is a high linear correlation between thermal comfort and mean radiant temperature and globe temperature. Therefore, it is concluded that thermal comfort in the district, is directly affected by urban areas.  Also in the streets with low SVF and high aspect ratio, PET were calculated more comfortable than other streets. Point 5 at Naghibzade street, confirmed the effect of urban geometry on thermal comfort. Otherwise, the lack of tremendous trees for creating shade is visible especially around the lake. The high linear correlation between Tmrt and SVF around the lake confirmed the openness of the area and the high amount of solar radiation. Therefore, planting more trees for creating the shade effect is necessary. 
        The perceptual analysis of thermal comfort indicated that by increasing of PET, people felt warmer. However, in a city like Tehran, people are more resistance to the heat stress. In addition, the characteristics of human body strongly depends on psychology and individual features and is a hard issue to predict. Otherwise, the people who felt warm were more than those felt slightly warm which indicates dissatisfaction of people. To be noticed that, thermal comfort of above 40 °C in summer is an alarm to urban planner and designers to rethink about climate consideration and global warming as a most important urban challenge in the district seriously. Besides, the consideration of thermal comfort and urban geometry should be imbedded into the comprehensive plan. This research proved that the climatic consideration for improving the quality of life and livability is important and urban designers and planners should rethink and review the comprehensive plan of Tehran to make a livable and sustainable city in the future.
Keywords: urban livability, climate comfort, sustainable development, urban sustainability, urban geometry, physiologically equivalent temperature, district 22 of Tehran.