Sustainable city

Sustainable city

Exploring the Vision of Urban Development Programs with the Participation of Children: the case study of Revision of the Comprehensive Plan of Tehran Metropolis

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Mohammadjavad khosravipoor 1
Bahare Bahra 2
Shahrzad Bakhshi 3
Reyhaneh Asadi 3
1 Faculty of Technology and Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Urban Engineering Department, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Tarbiat Modares University.
3 Department of Urban Engineering, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Islamic Azad.
10.22034/jsc.2025.479627.1807
Abstract
A B S T R A C T
The topic of participation and social learning has garnered significant attention from urban planners today and plays a crucial role in the success of urban development projects. However, the role of children as a group of citizens has often been overlooked. This paper is based on a collaborative project between the steering and monitoring body of Tehran's urban development plans and an executive-research team. The project aimed to create opportunities for children's participation in the process of revising Tehran's comprehensive plan and to understand children's perspectives on their ideal Tehran. To this end, 100 students aged 10 to 11 participated, and group drawing techniques, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups were utilized for data collection. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the collected data. The research findings indicate that despite children's limited knowledge of urban concepts, their attention to the main dimensions of urban development is broad. This attention can be categorized within social, physical, environmental, managerial, and economic dimensions, as well as the components of a vibrant, inclusive city with social cohesion, a city that fosters a sense of belonging among citizens, is connected to nature, conserves natural resources, has economic efficiency, is smart and up-to-date, possesses a diverse image, offers diverse physical structures and housing, and exhibits physical sustainability. One of the achievements of this executive-research endeavor is the establishment of a foundation for children's participation in envisioning urban development plans by the relevant authority. Alongside creating these platforms, leveraging these components and prioritizing them in the process of revising Tehran's comprehensive plan can be a fundamental step towards strengthening participatory dimensions and realizing a desirable Tehran from the citizens' perspective.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Urban planning theories in today's world emphasize participation and humanization of plans more than in the past because participation is one of the requirements of urban life, and it is realized when every urban dweller feels responsible and becomes responsible and participatory citizens from typical urban dwellers. Therefore, participatory urban planning worldwide emphasizes institutionalizing citizens' presence in decision-making processes about cities. For this reason, urban designers and planners have increasingly noticed the topic of social participation and learning and its application in urban planning. It plays a significant role in the success and acceptability of urban development plans. In many cases, the role of children as a third of the world's citizen population has been neglected. In short, the reasons for the importance of children's participation include supporting the right of children to participate, increasing democratic processes and the need to fulfill legal responsibilities, improving relevant services and supporting children in local communities, more awareness of the urban environment and decision-making processes, and improving decision-making. Children's skills were mentioned, especially in relation to civic participation in society, promoting positive communication with society, increasing the sense of belonging to the city, and promoting empowerment to help children's self-esteem. This research seeks to answer the basic question:
-What are the characteristics of the desirable vision of Tehran city from the perspective of children that should be taken into consideration in the process of revising the comprehensive plan?
 
Methodology
The present article is prepared based on a joint project between the Tehran Urban Planning Agency and a ten-member executive-research team to create grounds for children's participation. In revising the comprehensive plan for Tehran 2016, we aimed to understand children's visions of their ideal city. To achieve this, we employed a multi-method approach that included group discussions, focus groups, brainstorming sessions, and consensus-building among children. This process was based on semi-structured interviews and picture drawings, allowing us to actively involve children in creating a vision of their ideal Tehran. With this aim, 100 students in the age group of 10 to 11 years and the fourth grade of elementary school, including two groups of boys and two groups of girls, participated in the 8th district of Tehran in four workshops in six hours. The vision of Tehran is ideal because they depicted their views in groups of 4 to 6 people in a cooperative manner.
 
Results and discussion
Finally, outputs of text-painting-collage type were extracted; based on the review of the CDS and Ergon landscape models, one of the main and essential foundations of landscape creation is its partnership.  In other words, it means "common and collective vision." Therefore, the children, in the form of focused groups and with the presence of a facilitator, note down the wishes and preferences of the children without shaping their ideas, and this illustrates the ideal vision of Tehran metropolis. Since one of the appropriate analytical techniques in qualitative research is thematic analysis, which can be used well to identify patterns in qualitative data, in this research, in order to extract the ideal vision of Tehran from the eyes of children, using thematic analysis method, It has been used in such a way that the data extracted from the implementation stage and the result of discussion in the focus groups have entered the process of thematic analysis and the Atlas.ti software. The research findings indicate that despite children's little knowledge of urban concepts, their attention to the main dimensions of urban development is broad, and they think about their city in the form of 5 social, physical, environmental, managerial, and economic dimensions. The children participating in this workshop are divided into 12 components, including a lively city, a welcoming city, a city with social cohesion, a city that inspires a sense of belonging among citizens, a city in connection with nature, a city that preserves natural resources, an economically efficient city, a smart city, an up-to-date metropolis, a city with a diverse view and landscape, a city with diverse housing, and a city with physical stability have been implicitly taken into consideration.  Having a "happy and lovable city," "technological progress," paying attention to "recreation and entertainment," and the proper condition of natural resources such as "proper condition of air, soil and water resources" are at the top of children's wishes for having a desirable city.
 
Conclusion
Benefiting from these components and giving priority to them in revising the comprehensive plan of Tehran can be considered a fundamental step in strengthening the participatory dimensions and realizing the desirable Tehran from the citizens' point of view. Considering children in this process can contribute to the sustainability of the city. In this way, the collaborative visioning workshop on the future of Tehran from the perspective of children has been in search of children's image of the future of Tehran city. This image is supposed to create a vision of the future development of a sustainable Tehran through the participation of future generations, along with many other images of other citizens about Tehran.
 
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.
Keywords
Participatory Visioning
Comprehensive Plan of Tehran
Social Learning
Children's Participation
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Sustainable city
Volume 7, Issue 4
Autumn 2024
Pages 93-114