Quality Assessment of Residential Area of City Center with Emphasis on Stability, Case Study: Sarshor and Chahno Districts of Mashhad

Development evolution with control and management framework is a major reason for residential crises at downtowns which results in gradual discharge and increase in its deterioration. The studied area of this research is an important part of the central texture of Mashhad; which is faced with same phenomena. Existence of Imam Reza’s Holy Shrine and his high number of pilgrims and tourists increased the importance for investigating and removing problems of this area.
This research tends to investigate potential threats and causes of the loss of the quality of residential areas as well as searching for solutions for modernizing and restoring the concept of “residence” in these textures with the goal of establishing sustainability.
This research primarily concentrates on the following questions:
What are the main threatening factors for the studied old texture at downtown of Mashhad? What is going to happen on these old textures in the future? What is the approach of modernization plans of the studied old textures with a perspective of promoting residential quality and increasing their satisfaction? What are definitions and indices used to present a clear definition from different dimensions of “the quality of residential urban environment” at the studied old texture?
This is a descriptive analytical research which is established on scientific method with stages. Related theoretical fundamentals and literature analysis and analysis of current conditions were performed for determining indices and criteria of the quality of urban environments for having sustainable residence. Research conceptual model is one of the major achievements of this stage which is based on the origin of the subject or general concept of this research i.e. “promoting the quality of residential environment at old textures of the city of Mashhad”.
Data collection techniques partly included field study of the studied area; analysis and processing of which was performed using GIS software. For ranking and analyzing criteria and indices, we applied hierarchical analytic method and Expert Choice Software.
Using quantitative data collected from 120 questionnaires for control groups (urban experts, citizens, pilgrims, and tourists) this paper evaluated current status of the dimensions and constructive indices of the quality of urban residential environment.
Using AHP software, the importance of the most important dimension among eight dimensions of the quality of urban residential environments was determined for old structures located at downtown of Mashhad; and effective loads were tested and evaluated.
Findings of this research are presented in two parts: model test and hypothesis test. This paper emphasizes on the content that satisfaction of the residents of the studied area affects on sustainability of population and security of the area. Despite deterioration and decrease in efficiency of the texture, residence is still going on but in danger. It sounds that “increase in satisfaction of residents through promoting the quality of residential urban environment (sustainable neighborhood) is applicable; therefore, regeneration of old texture of the studied area is applicable subject to the approach for promoting the quality of residential urban environment and local sustainable development”. It is to be noted that environmental quality criteria, including experimental-perceptual, population- social- economic, ecological, in four main dimensions and based on functional priority have significant effect on amount of sustainability in residential tissue. The aforesaid dimensions are in improper status, average and threatened. In continue, most important dimensions in construction of the quality of urban residential environments of the studied area are operational. The Analytic Hierarchy Process results indicated that multiple land use criteria and a balance between jobs and housing in functional dimension, durability coefficient and controllable expenses of housing in social-population-economic dimension, the absence of pollutants in ecological dimension, and two other criteria, named citizen satisfaction and environmental security in perceptual-experimental dimension are the most prominent criteria affecting the quality of the aforementioned districts. These factors yielded the most important results in binary assessment among variables. 0.03 of analysis inconsistency rate is a sign of accurate judgment among criteria and indexes. By making alterations to the rest of neighborhood tissues of the district in city center, the suggested criteria and indexes of this study can be employed.