Users' preferences of usability and sustainability of old urban parks in Tabriz, Iran.

Parks should be noble public spaces that provide greenery and nature not only for people to enjoy but also for a particular city to be sustainable with its ecological functions and values. However, some of these parks fail to attract people to visit and use them. El Goli, a park in the city of Tabriz, is an example of a park that people do not use frequently as they had before. One of the factors presumes to contribute to the problem of idle parks is that the parks fail to provide the activities people prefer. Therefore, this study is about users preferences for parks activities in the city of Tabriz, Iran. To gauge people preferences for park activities, 208 of the park were surveyed. The result shows walking and picnicking were rated as the most preferred activities and from the factor analysis of the activities items; three activities groups emerged. They are 'appreciation and exploration of nature', 'social interaction', and 'group physical activity' and 'passive involvement'. The result of analysis shows that 'appreciation and exploration of nature' group has the highest preference mean score

Determining sound, smell, and touch attributes in small urban parks using NGT

All senses in the landscape area are always interrelated in a complex way. Since concept of multi-sensory integration has been considered as an influential factor on the human environmental perception, engagement of the non-visual (sound- smell- touch) factors could add some information to human knowledge. The literature review of the paper initially addressed the effectiveness of non-visual factors. The summary extracted Natural, and Mechanical, Human, Instrumental (for sound), in addition Natural, Environmental related and Human-body (for smell), and finally Natural and Furniture (for touch). Furthermore, research with application of literature conducted NGT (Nominal Group Technique) to determine more salient information regarding availability of non-visual attributes in the urban environment (e.g. small urban parks). The finding of this research could offer some insight into the design elements. Indeed, the extracted information could help the designers and policy makers to propose applicable and appropriate combination of the elements in the urban area such as small urban parks to establish a more successful environment

Influence of non-visual factors on visual preferences of visitors to small urban parks in Tabriz, Iran

The small urban parks (SUP) are the urban parks that vary in size from .04 to 2 hectares and are located close to the neighborhood areas in the cities. These parks play important roles in enhancing the urban life quality by providing easy access to green areas for recreation, leisure, and community interactions. Due to their important roles, increasing numbers of these parks are being built all over the world. The small urban parks provide intimate spaces where the users are more aware of the multidimensional sensory experiences. Unfortunately, most knowledge regarding the design of the parks in general is based on their visual dimensions. This study was an attempt to investigate both visual and non-visual preferences for the small urban parks. The visual factors investigated in this research included the Prospect, Refuge,Mystery, Legibility, Coherence, and Complexity, while the non-visual factors encompassed the sound, smell, and touch. The study was conducted in several selected SUPs in the city of Tabriz, Iran. A total of 394 visitors volunteered to participate in this survey in which photograph surrogate the actual scenes and textual questionnaires were used. A panel of experts advised the researcher in selecting a total of 52 scenes, representing the variables of the visual preferences in 6 categories. The questionnaire contained 76 items divided into three parts, were categorized as non-visual factors with the help of the nominal group technique (NGT) and based on the literature. The data was analysed using the descriptive and inferential statistics as well as the principle components analysis and the confirmatory factor analysis. Using the descriptive analysis, the public’s ranked order preferences were Natural,Spiritual, Human, Instrumental, and Mechanical (for sound), in addition Natural,Human-body, and Environmental related (for smell), and finally Natural and Furniture (for touch). The obtained results indicated that for the visual factors,Mystery had the highest value, whilst Prospect achieved the lowest public preference. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed that the natural stimulus (Natural sound-smell) as well as human related stimulus (Human body sound-smell) exerted significant effects on the visual preferences, while the Instrumental sound, Touch factors and Environmental sound-smell stimulus did not receive any significant values. Meanwhile, the final structural model showed that the Kaplan-Kaplan information-processing theory could be reliable in defining the public’s visual preferences in relation to the non-visual factors. However, it is important to note that Legibility and Prospect from the Appleton theory and Coherence constructs were removed from the final structural model due to their high correlations with other variables. Probably, understanding in which order the non-visual factors influence the visual preferences would be a primary implication of this study. Hence, it could be concluded that consideration of the public multi-sensory experiences shape a robust way in the design approach which challenge the designers and policy makers to improve their attitudes towards designing the small urban parks. Application of the sound levels, sound sources, the amount of smell, attention to Natural and Human body stimulus, and consideration of other types of manmade touch toward the visual preferences would be suggested for future studies