Due to the change of lifestyle and improvement of public health the number of aged people has considerably increased. Considering the relationship of the environment and people, the built environment features could exacerbate or facilitate the elderly people’ s vulnerability and social needs. Recently, a large number of studies have put emphasis on the relationship between the neighborhoods’ open spaces attributes and seniors’ social needs. This study seeks to investigate the impact of the built environment indicators on the time the elderly spent in urban spaces of Banafsheh neighborhood in Mashhad. In order to do this, through a cross-sectional survey research, 33 indicators were collected from recent studies and categorized in seven main urban design qualities based on perceived and self-report data collected by questionnaire. A regression analysis revealed the impact of each quality on the sociability of the elderly. Results demonstrate that in this context, “ safety” is the most effective factor on the elderly presence in open spaces. “ Attractiveness” and “ all age presence” are at the next points.

built environment does not “simply appear overnight, like a movie-set springing up on a vacant lot, but has to be produced”. Thus, the first point in dealing with such an environment is considered to be the tracing of time in the evaluation of the city and keeping in mind that the whole is more than its parts. The last point becomes naturally understood when the process of city building is probed; because the notion of process in itself comprises the relatedness among the socio-cultural events that resulted in urban artefacts. This also means considering a large number of factors, especially socio-cultural ones, involved in this process. By doing this, we can relate the physical environment with the social, “relating the world of artefacts with the world of people” – who built and used them Considering this argument, the paper examines structural elements influences on the development and use of urban space in Qatar-chyan quarter, Sanandaj, Iran as a historical narrative. It is argued that the existence of Dara-bayan River, socio-political role of the Wakils’ family and Ulama (educated people with religious backgrounds), and the continuation of principal route, through the residential segregation, formed and drove the phases of quarter’s development and defined the main socio-spatial structural elements of the quarter. The paper then proceeds to examine those structural elements as they were before overall influences of modernism in Iranian context, especially before the first cross-roads of the city in 1930. The paper concludes that, in defining and conceptualising the structural elements of a particular built environment, it is difficult to rely on one factor. While the role of nature as form giver is an important factor, we can not undermine other soft factors, especially socio-cultural ones. This defines the nature of built form which comprises both the realms of the physical and the social and multi-dimensions background namely as socio-spatial factors.

the relationship between public health and urban planning is an innovative and important issue that it has prominent position in future urban planning. In this context, adverse air quality condition and air pollutant concentrations higher than the permitted limit set by the World Health Organization is considered as a threat to the health of citizens in big cities. According to result of air pollution monitoring (conducted in the Tehran Air Quality Control Company), Tehran air quality have deteriorated in recent years. In this regard, according to the World Bank estimates the annual economic value of losses of life and damage caused by air pollution in Iran is totaled $ 1.8 billion and pursuant to figures, Tehran residents’ lifetime has been averagely shorter by 5 years. Tehran metropolitan due to the special geographical condition (topography and meteorology), social (population distribution and traffic), culture (level of culture and related education) and urban development, is faced with the dilemma of air pollution. It’s necessary to mention, motor-vehicle emissions are the primary source of most fine and ultra-fine particles in Tehran (More than 70 percent of Tehran's air pollution is related to motor-vehicle emissions). Planning and subsequently design of built environment feature could have various effect on urban life style and public health, modality of mobility and urban transportation are sobering instance of this effectiveness. Promoting walk ability and reduce reliance on motor vehicles can play an effective role in improving urban air quality. According to that, The main goal of this article is the analysis of the built environment impacts on urban air quality by examination of built environment variable and concentrations of air pollutants in surrounding areas of fourteen air quality monitoring stations in Tehran. In this regard, built environment indicators in reducing reliance on motorized transport and promoting walk ability, reducing heat Islands and increasing urban respiratory lung derived from the theoretical literature were analyzed in Arc Map software. Then the relationship between these indicators and the mean annual concentrations of NO, CO, NO2, O3 and PM10 were examined in 2010. We use regression analysis to explain the relationship between the independent and dependent variables and confirmatory factor analysis to determine the main factors of built environment indicators. The results suggest that indicators of distance from the main arterials, distance from city centers, block areas, intersection density and area of open and green urban spaces have the highest correlation with concentration of pollutants. Additionally, the different behavior of pollutants based on primary and secondary air pollutants were determined by using spatial analysis about distance from downtown. This issue is well understood in the context of O3 and PM10 pollutants. So that Primary pollutant PM10 increase by approaching to downtown and secondary pollutant O3 increase by getting away from the downtown. Also in connection with the built environment indicators, results showed that population density, intersection density, retail density and green space area decrease with distance from the city center.

Although many environmental problems such as pollution shortage of natural resources and damages to the environment are apparently results of mans unplanned and wrong use of nature the root of the problems should be sought from neglecting the spirituality and (symbolic) meaning of nature and its elements which have been considered in all traditional cultures. The quantitative thought predominated over the modern era (like modern architecture which considers buildings and cities as machines) approaches the nature as a machine from which the maximum economic and material efficiency is the final aim.Researching the hypothesis which considers effects of promotion and revitalization of spiritual culture on protecting environment and elements deals with three main components. "culture" "natural elements" and "geographical place". In this research "Iranian culture" "water" and "Iran" are respectively selected as justifications of the above mentioned components. The mechanical school of thought takes into water as a part of the machine of existence by which human physiological and material needs can be responded. Whereas by paying attention to different degrees of human life (spiritual mental and material) and by considering the importance of spiritual and mental aspects of human life everything in the world is meaningful. Being away of the fact that nature and natural elements have (symbolic and spiritual) meanings will help straighten and enrich in addition to being a guide in the quantitative field in relation to nature. Basic subjects in Iranian culture will be considered in this paper. Moreover the paper endeavors to investigate the ways of getting benefits from historical experiments by which besides solving material problems human life will be meaningful. The main titles (subjects) of the paper are as follows: "introduction and generalities" "spiritual aspects of water in Iranian culture" "water in Iranian architectural and urban spaces" "water and its related architectural elements" "present situation" and "conclusion and suggestions".

Cultural landscape represents different meanings such as the interaction between people and the environment, evolution through time, cultural tangible and intangible values and vernacular traditions. The term “culture” represents people’s relationship with their inhabited environment to gain a livelihood and presence of tangible or intangible values. These values are the common notion between cultural landscapes and cultural properties. This research aims to study one of the registered sites of Iran’s cultural heritage, the Qazvin’s Traditional Gardens with the cultural landscape approach; The research hypothesis is to discover common notions between cultural landscape and the Gardens such as evidences of mutual relationship between the Qazvinians and the natural environment of the region and management of water resources throughout history which will be investigated by referring to national and international documents. For example, the inhabitants as the gardeners have used the annual flood of seasonal rivers and have implemented a special irrigation system for the Gardens named floating agriculture in the submerged area once a year.The Garden trees such as pistachio, almond, apricot and grape are resistant to harsh weather and have produced precious fruits throughout history. Two major characteristics of the Gardens, that means historic continuity and vernacular characteristics can categorize them under “continuing landscape” or “vernacular historic landscape” according to the upper level classifications. The major contribution of the research is an analysis of the Garden’s features or elements according to the documents of WHC or NPS.These multifaceted features are studied specifically in three categories of natural resources, plantation, and ecological systems; built environment consisting of spatial organization, circulation paths, irrigation systems and objects and structures; and human factors and management systems of traditional gardening. These wisely interconnected features are evidences of mutual interaction between people and the environment. As a paper in the field of architecture the research has studied physical elements such as land patterns, spatial organization, structures, site furnishings and objects in more detail. Conclusively, the research shows an integrated interrelated relationship between elements of the cultural landscape of Qazvin’s Traditional Gardens. The research emphasizes on a comprehensive approach toward preservation of different interconnected built and natural elements of the Gardens and human factors to ensure a sustainable relationship between people, environment and economy of Qazvin’s city over the centuries. This work is an applied research with descriptive and analytic method of information gathering and retrieval. Its data type is qualitative.

This study investigates the application of landscape ecology in planning and design of urban ecological systems. The ecological approach to landscape planning and the concepts of designing and implementing ecological systems have gained increasing attention in the last two decades. However, the ecological systems of urban environment need more research to consider built and natural patches and corridors together and to provide proper and applicable strategies that meet all of the diverse aspects of planning and designing sustainable urban systems. This approach could help in defining sustainable landscape development, aiming for a balance between both physical and natural systems in urban areas. This research is focused on Tehran’s metropolitan area as a case study to provide a relationship between landscape ecology and urban planning and design to propose a model for analyzing and providing strategies and policies for conserving and resorting urban ecological systems. The spatial structure of green and natural areas are studied and categorized based on the patch-corridor-matrix model. Overlaying the selected layers helped provide strategies for conservation and reclamation, and policies to improve the structure and function of urban landscapes. The strategies to restore the ecological structure and to develop its function in Tehran metropolitan area are based on structural congruence, aggregate with outliers, Local compensation and indispensable patterns.