Authors
1 Professor, Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, Department of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
2 Ph.D Candidate, Geography and Urban Planning, Department of Urban and regional planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran.
3 Ph. D Candidate, Geography and Urban Planning, Department of Urban and regional planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract
Highlights
Introduction
Along with the growing trend of the country's elderly population, this group is also facing problems and challenges. One of these issues is the decreasing trend of cohesion and continuity between the elderly and the young generation. Consequently, the communication and interaction between these two groups is fading day by day. Another issue is that the participation of the elderly, as a group full of experience, in the community and their active presence in the heart of society have decreased. On the other hand, Iran's aging population and the changes that have occurred in the family structure toward nuclearization, gradually threaten the elderly with social, economic, and psychological problems. The current research was carried out in several aspects compared to the previous research that was conducted in the field of elderly-friendly city indicators: First, examining the opinions of the elderly about the indicators of an elderly-friendly city is an inevitable and necessary issue, but it is not sufficient; in other words, the elderly are not capable of solving their problems by themselves, and the role of city management (city managers), as one of the main pillars, is essential and can have a decisive role in achieving the indicators of a friendly city.. The next issue which is worthy of consideration is to pay attention to the importance of studying and investigating the indicators of the elderly-friendly city in informal, orunplanned, settlements. Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that the aging population of this metropolis has been increasing over the past years, appropriate measures have not been taken to improve the living conditions of the elderly residents of this city. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the state of the Tabriz metropolis with an emphasis on the indicators of an elderly-friendly city in formal and informal settlements. Thre areas of Tabriz which were studied in thisresearch included Area (formal settlements and affluent class), Area 8 (formal settlements and middle class), and Area 10 (informal settlements and poor class). The vast majority of the residents of the Second Area are in official settlements and the residents are in the first economic deciles. Second Area is the most exposed to the dilapidated urban fabric and contains most of the urban middle class. Tenth Area where most of the neighborhoods have informal settlements and their residents are among the less privileged sections of the city. The main purpose of the current research was the investigation of the status of Tabriz metropolis in terms of having the indicators of an elderly-friendly city with an emphasis on formal and informal settlements.
Methodology
The current research was an applied and descriptive survey. The data collection was done through questionnaires and field studies. The statistical population of the research consisted of people in the age group of 65 years and above in the metropolis of Tabriz (areas 2, 8, and 10) and also a certain number (27 people) of city managers. According to the general population and housing census of 2015, the number of people aged 65 and above in Tabriz metropolis was 117,097, and using the Cochran relationship, the sample size was 384. The sampling method was cluster sampling. Metropolis of Tabriz is divided into three income classes of low, medium, and high, based on the average income of the municipal areas between the years 1395 and1400. One area from each class was selected as a sample. In other words, areas two,eight, and ten municipalities respectively represent high income, medium income, and low income people . Due to the unknown number of elderly people in each area, 117,097 people were classified according to the population of the selected areas and the sample size for each area was 128. The standard questionnaire of the World Health Organization based on the indicators of an elderly-friendly city (buildings and public and religious places, social participation and communication, safety and ease of transportation, social respect, public health services, open space urban, intra-urban transportation and cultural-entertainment), which contains 67 questions, was used. To estimate the validity of the research tool, a factor analysis techniques, KMO index and Bartlett's test were used. and to meaure relaibilty, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used .
Results and discussion
From the point of view of urban managers, the metropolis of Tabriz corresponds to the criteria and indicators of an elderly-friendly city, because both of its limits are positive, which means that these criteria and indicators are more than the average. Consequently, Tabriz metropolis is above average and close to the standards of elderly-friendly cities. From the point of view of the elderly, on the other hand, these criteria and indicators are lower than the average, because both their limits are negative. Therefore, the metropolis of Tabriz does not match the indicators of an elderly-friendly city. To check the presence or absence of significant differences between areas 2, 8, and 10 of Tabriz metropolis in terms of the indicators of the elderly-friendly city, an ANOVA analysis was used. A Tukey's post hoc test was used to compare two groups of elderly people and city managers. It should be noted that the neighborhood fabric of areas 2 and 8 of Tabriz is often in the form of official settlements. Meanwhile, the area 10 of Tabriz metropolis is faced with a large number of urban car settlements. Regarding the indicators of urban open spaces, public and religious buildings, and places, intra-urban transportation, safety and ease of movement, social participation and communication, respect and social, cultural, and recreational dignity of the elderly in area 10 was different from areas2 and 8. There were differences between areas 2 and 8 regarding the indicators of safety and ease of transportation and cultural and entertainment. In terms of the index of public and religious buildings and places, area 2 was in a better condition than areas 8 and 10 with an average of 2.47. The index of social participation and communication in area 2 was in a better condition with an average of 2.47, although it was lower than the standard (3). It had a better situation among the three studied areas. In terms of safety and ease of traffic index, area 8 was at a higher level than areas 2 and 10 with an average of 2.65. At the next level, the index of social respect and dignity was was the highest in area10 with an average of 2.31, and in terms of the public health service index, area 2 was the highest with an average of 2.65, although all three regions were below average and were in a disadvantageous situation. From the point of view of the urban open spaces index, area 2 was at a higher level than areas 8 and 10 with an average of 2.42. In terms of the intra-city transportation index, area 2 had the best situation with an average of 2.40, but it was lower than the average (3) and was generally in an unfavorable situation. From the point of view of the cultural and recreational index, area 8 with an average of 2.36 was in the best condition but it was lower than the standard (3). In general, among the majority of indicators, area 2 had the best situation, area 8 was evaluated as more suitable only in two indicators of safety and ease of movement, and cultural and recreational, and area 10 was better only in the index of respect and social dignity. Other regions were evaluated and in the rest of the indicators, it had the most unfavorable situation among the areas. Therefore, it can be concluded that there were significant differences among areas 2, 8, and 10 of Tabriz metropolis in terms of the indicators of an elderly-friendly city from the point of view of the elderly. To compare the views of urban management (managers and urban experts) as well as the elderly about the indicators of an elderly-friendly city in areas 2, 8, and 10 of Tabriz metropolis, an independent t-test was used to check equality. Levine's test was used for variances. There were differences between the opinions of two groups (elderly and city managers) regarding all indicators of an elderly-friendly city. Therefore, the results indicated that for all eight indicators of an elderly-friendly city (urban open spaces, public and religious buildings and places, urban transportation, safety and ease of transportation, social participation, respect and dignity social, cultural-recreational and finally public health services) the average opinion of city managers was higher than the average opinion of the elderly. Therefore, there were significant differences between the views of the elderly and urban management (city managers) in terms of the indicators of an elderly-friendly city. Finally, to investigate the presence or absence of a significant difference between the level of life satisfaction of the elderly in the metropolis of Tabriz and their education, a one-way analysis of variance test was used. Considering that the value of the significance level was higher than 0.05, it can be concluded that there is no significant difference between the opinions of the elderly with different education levels regarding life satisfaction.
Conclusion
The results of the research showed that the views of two groups of elderly people and city managers were very different about the indicators of an elderly-friendly city; In other words, the city managers evaluated the metropolis of Tabriz by the standards and criteria of an elderly-friendly city. Meanwhile, from the point of view of the elderly, the metropolis of Tabriz was in a significant distance from the criteria of an elderly-friendly city. It should be noted that the difference in the average opinions of city managers and the opinions of the elderly was evident in all 8 indicators of an elderly-friendly city. Contrary to what was expected, in general, there was no significant difference in terms of residents' satisfaction with the indicators of the elderly-friendly city in official and informal settlements of Tabriz city; consequently, the total average level of satisfaction of the residents of the target areas was evaluated as lower than average. This important point indicates that it is not possible to evaluate the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the indicators of the elderly-friendly city only with the quality index of the settlements (housing),because the discussion of satisfaction is a multi-dimensional and complex category and includes a set of objective and subjective indicators. On the other hand, the results of comparison of the the status of the studied areas (areas 2, 8, and 10) in Tabriz metropolis in terms of the indicators of an elderly-friendly city showed that although the average level of satisfaction of residents with the indicators of an elderly-friendly city in The formal and informal settlements of Tabriz metropolis were below the average, but in general, area 2 had the best situation in most of the indicators, followed by areas 8 and 10.In the "safety and ease of traffic" index, region 8 had a better situation than the other areas, and in the respect and social dignity index, area10 was better than the other areas. Other results of the research indicated that there was no significant relationship between the degree of life satisfaction of the elderly in Tabriz metropolis and their level of education;. Regarding the differences in the views of city managers and the elderly based onthe indicators of an elderly-friendly city in the studied areas, it can be said that it seems that the urban management in the metropolis of Tabriz has not been able to meet the needs and problems of the elderly living. There should be serious and practical measures in connection with increasing the satisfaction of the elderly in the Tabriz metropolis. On the other hand, municipalities, as non-governmental organizations, alone cannot take the necessary measures to make the city suitable for the elderly and increase their satisfaction. Indeed, they should benefit from the cooperation of other relevant institutions such as the country's welfare organization, the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education, insurance and pension fundsto achieve elderly-friendly cities. Attention should also be paid to the category of participation in decision-making, specifically in connection with the intervention of the opinions of the elderly in connection with the improvement of the indicators of an elderly-friendly city. To realize an elderly-friendly city in the metropolis of Tabriz, it is necessary to use participation-oriented approaches. Participation is one of the differences between the traditional management perspective (centralized, top-down, technocratic) and the systemic management perspective (holistic, decentralized, bottom-up).
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