Environmental Impact Assessment of Urban Footpaths by Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix Method the Case Study of Shiraz Health Footpath

A B S T R A C T
The expansion of construction and industrial activities in the city has caused increased waste, problems, and numerous environmental effects. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out environmental impact assessments before implementing any urban project. In this research, the evaluation of the environmental effects of urban footpaths has been done with the rapid impact assessment matrix method. In the mentioned method, after identifying the activities of the proposed plan, their impact on each of the four dimensions, "physical-chemical," "biological-ecological," "social-cultural," and "economic-technical," is identified in two phases of construction and operation. However in the current research, to clarify and limit the dimensions, the activities of the proposed plan are examined in two dimensions "social-cultural" and "ecological-biological." For this purpose, after library studies and field observations, some urban experts selected the most important "social-cultural" and "biological-ecological" environmental factors in the Shiraz Health footpath and scored the footpath in two phases of construction and operation using the criteria of rapid impact assessment method. Finally, it was found that this project did not have any negative effects in both phases. However, the evaluation of this project in the construction and operation phase has negative scores in some of the sub-groups of the mentioned environmental factors and low scores in some of the sub-groups. Considering that the physical development of the city is a dynamic and continuous process; This urban project can bring constructions again in the future and be considered as a model for other urban footpaths. For this purpose, strategies and policies have been presented to improve the environmental quality of the footpath
Extended Abstract
Introduction
In the past few decades, due to the rapid growth of urbanization and the expansion of construction and industrial activities, we witnessed an increase in waste, effects and numerous environmental hazards on human life. On the other hand, environmental protection, in order to achieve sustainable development, requires us to carry out environmental impact assessments for all urban projects. One of the most common urban projects is the creation of pedestrian spaces, including urban footpaths. Although the design of pedestrian-oriented spaces is a factor for sustainable development and reducing environmental pollution in cities, it should be noted that any urban project, including the construction and creation of urban footpaths, often leaves negative effects on the environment during the construction and operation phase. For this purpose, this research evaluates the environmental effects of urban footpaths with an emphasis on the case study of Shiraz Health footpath.
 
Methodology
There are many tools and techniques to be used in environmental impact assessment processes, including checklists, matrices, quantitative and qualitative models, literature review and decision support systems, etc. In this research, which, according to its nature and content, is one of the applied studies that is carried out with a descriptive-analytical approach, we evaluated the environmental effects with the rapid impact assessment matrix method. In the mentioned method, after identifying the activities of the proposed plan, their impact on each of the four dimensions, "physical-chemical," "biological-ecological," "social-cultural," and "economic-technical," is identified in two phases of construction and operation. However, in the current research, in order to clarify and limit the dimensions, we only examine the activities of the proposed plan in two dimensions as "social-cultural" and "ecological-biological." For this purpose, after documentary and library studies and field observations using the snowball method, some urban experts
 
selected the most important factors for evaluating the environmental effects of Shiraz Health footpath in the two mentioned dimensions. After scoring them, this urban footpath was evaluated in two phases of construction and operation using the rapid impact assessment method. It should be noted that in order to increase the validity of the research, in the field part of the research, the indicators were investigated and evaluated by two questionnaire methods (experts' opinion) and also the authors' field observations (as a supplementary method).
 
Results and discussion
We review the results of the evaluation of environmental effects in two dimensions, "social-cultural" and "ecological-biological," in both construction and operation phases according to the opinions of urban planning experts and specialists below:
In the "social-cultural" dimension in the construction phase, among environmental factors (nuisance and noise, employment, creation of local traffic, landscape and security), two factors of nuisance and noise and creation of local traffic have negative consequences. On the other hand, employment has a positive outcome. This means the worsening of the two factors of nuisance and noise and local traffic during the construction of the project.
In the "biological-ecological" dimension in the construction phase, among the environmental factors (mountain destruction and loss of green space, bio-ecosystem including water ecosystem and land ecosystem, impact on plant growth, impact on animal habitat, production of sewage and waste and pollution air) all the factors except the two factors of bio-ecosystem, which includes two ecosystems, water and land, and also the effect on the growth of plants, have a negative effect. These two factors have been evaluated as ineffective by experts. Among the negative factors, mountain destruction and loss of green space have had the most destructive effects in the construction phase. Other factors have had almost the same destructive effect.
In the "social-cultural" dimension, in the exploitation phase, among the environmental factors (impact on the area perspective, impact on future development plans, security, physical health, physical comfort, psychological comfort, impact on the landscape and impact on transportation) three impact factors on the area perspective, the impact on future development plans and the impact on the landscape have the most positive consequences. In other words, the exploitation of this project has strengthened these factors more than other factors. On the other hand, the impact factor on transportation has been evaluated as having no effect.
In the "biological-ecological" dimension, in the exploitation phase, among the environmental factors (loss of green space, bio-ecosystem including water ecosystem and land ecosystem, air pollution and climate change), the factor of loss of green space has a negative effect. This means that the operation of this project has caused the loss of a part of the green space in the area. On the other hand, the two factors of air pollution and climate change have a positive effect. This means that using this project has improved these two factors. According to experts, the bio-ecosystem factor has also been evaluated without consequences. This means that the exploitation phase of this project is ineffective on this factor.
Finally, by examining the final score of the construction of Shiraz Health footpath, emphasizing all the environmental factors in "social-cultural" and "biological-ecological" dimensions, the results showed that this project, in total, both construction and operation phases, according to the experts' opinions did not have negative effects.
 
Conclusion
Although, according to the opinions of urban experts, the construction of Shiraz Health footpath has not had a negative effect, as discussed in the discussion and findings section, some subgroups of "social-cultural" and "biological-ecological" environmental factors received negative and low scores in both construction and operation phases. Considering the importance of the fact that the physical development of the city is a dynamic and continuous process, this urban project may also bring construction again in the future, and even this urban footpath may be a model for many other pedestrian streets. For this purpose, at the end of the research, the authors try to improve the environmental quality of the mentioned urban footpath by relying on the experts' opinions and also the authors' field observations (as a supplementary evaluation method) by presenting strategies and policies.
 
Funding
There is no funding support.
 
Authors’ Contribution
Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved thecontent of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
 We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.