Identifying the Factors Influencing the Planning and Design of Age-Friendly City (Case Study: Tabriz Metropolis)

Abstract

The global population pattern has a growing trend towards aging and it is necessary to ideally plan and design urban spaces, structures and services with the elderly in mind. In this regard, in 2006, the World Health Organization proposed 8 key indicators as the necessities of an elderly-friendly city, which requires the planning and design of cities in line with the realization of these indicators. Considering the importance of realizing age-friendly city in today's era, the purpose of this research is to identify the factors influencing the planning and design of age-friendly city in Tabriz metropolis. The research method in the current study is quantitative with an applied-developmental nature, in order to analyze the data, partial least squares model was used in Warp-PLS software. The statistical population of the research also includes managers, officials and urban experts of Tabriz (about 1500 people) and the sample size is estimated to be 340 people based on the modified model of Cochran. The findings of the research show that the most effective in the realization of age-friendly city in Tabriz is in the planning dimension related to the components of the integrated planning and management system and institutional coordination and participation, and in the design dimension related to the components of the elderly-friendly body and transportation, respectively, the coefficients extracted based on The structural model of the research was 0.76, 0.68, 0.62 and 0.57 for each. Also, the results indicate that benefiting from inclusive views of urban spaces such as Bankzon's, Goldsmith's, and social design is an inevitable necessity for the realization of age-friendly city in Tabriz.

Keywords

• urban planning
• urban design
• age-friendly city
• tabriz metropolis