Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• M. Taghvaei ¹
• sohila rezaiee adaryani ²

¹ Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, University of Isfahan

² PhD student of geography and urban planning of Isfahan University

Abstract

Introduction  
A child-friendly city is one of the theories of urban planning, in line with allocating citizenship rights to children and taking care of their wishes and needs, with the aim of creating an opportunity for children to shape or change their surroundings (Sardar Masri,897:2017). 
Many studies have been conducted in connection with child-friendly cities in recent years. For the first time in 2007, UNICEF introduced the city of Bendigo, Australia, as the first city to successfully implement child-friendly city projects. Bendigo was introduced as a city where attention to children's rights is the priority in solving urban problems (Kiani & esmailzade kavaki,2012:51). Examining cities' current situation indicates children's neglect in urban planning, especially in Iran (Ghaffari et al., 2014:27). This is even though children, in addition to being an essential part of society, are strongly influenced by the environment and space. One of the urban places that require special attention in this regard is parks and green spaces because they play an essential role in children's leisure time.
The present article has examined the studies that have been conducted in the field of the child-friendly city since 1980. Since the 1920s, Western countries have shown early attention to children and their relationship with the environment, and since the 1990s, they have begun to build child-friendly cities, and currently, they have made positive achievements in both the theory and practical examples (Yao & Xiaoyan,2017:699). This research is more about assigning citizenship rights to children and providing for their needs. Today, the child-friendly city is at the top of decision-makers agenda in urban affairs.
Therefore, this article examines children's chances to have a share in creating their environment and highlights their ideas, especially in green space design.
Data and Method
The main goal of this study is to identify the indicators of child-friendly green spaces and, in the next step, to measure the realization of child-oriented green spaces in Nazhvan in Isfahan. The method adopted to conduct the present research is descriptive, analytical, and based on the library method and field studies. For this purpose, using the library and documentary method and referring to the available sources in this field, this theory's intellectual and theoretical foundations were studied, and valuable indicators for creating child-friendly green spaces were identified. These indicators were extracted from different scientific sources (including books, articles, and scientific reports). The framework of indicators is produced by collecting all the indicators in a matrix and deducing the most frequent ones. As the main and most important indicators of children's green space, these indicators include security, participation, and sense of belonging, a healthy environment, creativity, interactive spaces, accessibility, variety of spaces, safety, and services. Then, the necessary information was collected by using the field method, including observation, interview, and completing the researcher-made questionnaire. The study sample was selected due to the uncertainty of the community's population size, which included the number of visitors to the green space; based on Cochran's formula in communities of unknown size, 384 cases were selected, including 200 children and 184 adults. Finally, data analysis was done using SPSS software and a T-test.
The results of the research show that Nazhvan Park has nine defined components. Based on this, the criteria of a healthy environment, creativity, having interactive spaces, participation, and sense of belonging, security, accessibility, variety of spaces, safety, and services have obtained the highest to lowest points, respectively. In order to improve the level of child-oriented in Nazhvan Park, measures such as: improving the level of services, increasing children's playgrounds suitable for different age groups with high safety, designing and implementing intellectual, group, and various games in the park, improving the quality of access to the park from Through public transportation, it is suggested to improve the safety of the environment and increase the participation of children.
Results and Discussion
The results of the research show that Nazhvan Park has nine defined components. Based on this, the criteria of a healthy environment, creativity, having interactive spaces, participation, and sense of belonging, security, accessibility, variety of spaces, safety, and services have obtained the highest to lowest points, respectively.
Conclusion
In order to improve the child-friendly approach in Nazhvan Park, some solutions were suggested, including the following: Improving the service level, increasing playgrounds suitable for children of different ages and groups and with high safety, applying and using all kinds of intellectual games in the park, improving the quality of access to the park through public transportation, improving environmental security and increasing Children's participation. Based on the obtained results, we can determine the score of Nazhvan Park in nine sections based on the opinions of children and adults. This result shows the strengths and weaknesses of the park in order to improve the situation according to the child-friendly approach.

Keywords

• planning"
• index
• child-friendly city"
• child
• "
• Nazhvan Park "

Main Subjects

• Urban Planning