An Analysis of Healthy City Criteria Case Study: District 6 of Isfahan- Iran

Abstract

The growth of population and urbanization and consequently, the emergence of urban problems such as insufficient urban infrastructures, housing, green areas, etc., increase of various pollutions, degradation of air quality and as a result, prevalence of different diseases and physical and mental disorders among citizens have made the subject of “healthy man” the “center of sustained development”, so that urban science scholars consider a “healthy city” as one of the routes to achieving “sustained urban development.” A healthy city is one the quality of which is continuously improving and one which keeps providing its citizens with new opportunities. Therefore, urban health is very important and in this regard, economic, health, environmental, social and cultural factors of development play a crucial role. This study has analyzed and evaluated the conditions of district 6 of Isfahan, using 20 indicators (4 criteria) in terms of health, socio-cultural, economic and infrastructural-environmental aspects. Descriptive-analytic method has been employed and the data have been collected mainly through a questionnaire which has been analyzed using SPSS and statistical tests such as independent and one-sample T-test as well as Pearson correlation coefficient. Results indicate that district 6 of Isfahan is not in favorable conditions in terms of healthy city criteria. Economic, infrastructural-environmental and health criteria are lower than the average level. Among the four criteria, only the socio-cultural criterion is higher than the average. There also exists a significant relation between the levels of these criteria, and citizens’ gender and educational levels have had no impact on their attitudes toward healthy city criteria in district 6 of Isfahan. Finally, some suggestions have been presented for the improvement of healthy city criteria and indices in general and for district 6 of Isfahan in particular.