چكيده به لاتين
River, as an urban space, is part of the environmental-spatial context of cities quality of life, thus, forming it into an effective and sustainable place is one of the urban design missions. Urban design, through human-based activity place-making, focuses on creating a "sustainable river-oriented public place" to balance the ecological protection of the river. This common path simultaneously accommodates the health of the river and human presence, and is effective in transforming rivers back into an urban context in which human and social values are honored.
Objects: In the last two decades, in the revitalization of waterfront areas, a process has emerged with a "sustainable urban regeneration" approach that seeks to revive rivers in the form of "sustainable places" with distinct social, cultural, historical and environmental characteristics. To this end, the present research seeks to explore the mechanisms of public urban space of rivers reclamation as a sustainable public place, as well as to measure the current quality of the country rivers in the context of such a framework.
Research method: This study chooses the philosophical basis of pragmatism and mixed research approach, as on the one hand, it collects river regeneration mechanisms and sustainable public places qualitative criteria and, on the other hand, examines the current quality of public places based on the river which needs to be quantified .For this purpose, case study method is chosen as the research method, and four cities of Isfahan, Ahvaz, Ardebil and Rasht, in four different climates of the country, are selected for the study due to their reputation of river communication with people. Different mechanisms and criteria have been explored through the literature review of and are completed using various tools through the study of librarian documents and field surveys of state officials, specialists as well as urban management and people in selected cities. Furthermore, to assess the existing status, interviews with 196 people in the selected cities and rivers area as well as their urban management are used. In addition, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used for data analysis and validation.
Findings: Comparisons among case studies show that according to the model of this study, the overall quality of public places around the Karun and Zarajub rivers is moderately low, in Baliqli-Chai is moderate and in Zayandehrood is in the upper middle level. In addition, remedial measures have to some extent improved the condition of the river and its public places. Also, the common weaknesses of all these public places are, more or less, in the areas of economic and environmental sustainability, resilience, Contextualism, socialization, security and safety, citizen acceptance, and so on.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that the prospective and long-term process of river regeneration as a sustainable public place justifies to re-establish coherent relationships between the river with the city, its inhabitants and beyond them, with the entire river, its watershed and the environment. The result of this process is to upgrade the river to a "sustainable public place" in the form of a "bedding, sustainable place-making, place management and cultivation" cycle. The present research argues that adequate attention to the formation of the river-oriented sustainable public place provides the expected general qualities of such places, namely, resilience, sustainability, Humanism, individuality, and universality.
The macro mechanisms of this approach include: balancing the dimensions of the river and active and comprehensive exposure to it, facilitating the different roles and functions of the river, adopting a holistic approach to the river, prioritizing river health as an open and diverse bio-system, focusing on “Input, process, output, qualities, effects", emphasis on river cohesion, paving the way for human presence to experience place, redefining the place of river in environmental / social / economic systems, matching process with sustainable public place life cycle and relying on its constituents, paying attention to citizens expectations in the referral process and facilitating city / citizen / river relations.
