The Evaluation of Physical Features and their Impact on the Liveliness and Viability of City's Old Neighborhoods (Case study: Sonbolestan neighborhood in Isfahan)

Quality of life is one of the influential factors in the sense of attachment to the environment. Low-quality environments are susceptible to lose their liveliness and viability and, consequently, their users and residents. New urbanism seeks equilibrium between social, environmental and local aspects of life and, from this perspective, one of the important factors which plays a role as a unit of urban life is neighborhood. In recent years, due to the dominance of market-driven approaches in cities, old urban areas have become the object of speculation. Inefficient physical interventions have reduced the liveliness and viability of old urban fabrics. This leads to the generation of low-quality environments in which lack of safety, loss of health and cohesion are the main characteristics. The aim of this research is to investigate the physical features of Sonbolestan neighborhood in Isfahan as well as gain knowledge about the condition of economic, social, cultural and environmental liveliness and viability in this neighborhood and, finally, evaluate how much these physical features influence the liveliness and viability of Sonbolestan. In this research, descriptive-analytical and quantitative methods have been used. Statistic community includes residents of Sonbolestan neighborhood and “structural equations” model is used for the analysis of the connected factors. Research findings demonstrate that economic liveliness is the most important physical factor in Sonbolestan whereas there was no significant relationship between physical indicators and social and environmental viability. Economic liveliness was the most important factor influencing residents’ attachment in Sonbolestan neighborhood.