The Impact of Urban Natural View Corridors of Hamadan City on the Citizens’ Mental Health

Fundamentally, the urban landscape is the level of human and “urban phenomenon” contact; consequently, it is a dynamic concept and a substantial part of citizens’ knowledge, and emotions. Environmental behavior is also formed under its influence. The importance of urban landscape as an intermediary between human and urban phenomenon is that, it has sometimes been mentioned that “urban design” is the management of the urban landscape (objective and subjective landscape).” Meanwhile, the interaction of man and the urban phenomenon has been formed through the urban landscape, and the urban landscape position is very important in the multifaceted human-environmental relationship. View corridors are passages of public spaces to view environmental qualities. View corridors are formed along linear openings and are placed in front of signs or strategic landscapes or excellent urban vital points. View corridors may be used on different scales and for various functional or formal objectives in urban design. Since urban corridors allow an optimal and enjoyable view of the urban landmarks and visual and natural values, they can create a desired mental memory and a coherent mental image of urban public arenas that strengthens citizens’ sense of orientation in the city. Urban thinkers and experts have always considered the interaction between natural and human ecosystems; however, the range of ideas and theoretical foundations of views has been different in dealing with and intervening with them. Regarding the eras and the occurrence of events, the progression of technology and the expansion of cities, different perspectives, theories, and approaches to ecological issues, the coexistence of city and nature, and their interaction have been shaped. Inspection of life quality indicators showed that mental health is one of the main components of life quality. On the other hand, the results show a meaningful relationship between the dimensions of life quality and the concept of mental health. Summarizing the studies and opinions of experts in line with the role of visual and natural urban corridors reveals that view corridors along with natural and urban green infrastructure can provide a healthy environment and deliver physical and mental health for residents. A healthy environment can also bring about socio-economic benefits to the communities in which people live.

Nowadays, many studies have revealed that the destruction of the natural gateway corridors is one of Iran’s current urban development problems. The natural view corridors were destroyed during the unorganized development of Iran cities, including Hamedan city. The literature and the subjects of natural urban corridors are less studied in this city as a way to create mental health in citizens. There seems to be a lack of theoretical and spatial-oriented rules and solutions as a knowledge gap in this regard. It can be argued that in the context of a comprehensive, local, and thematic urban plan policy, the lack of policies for view corridors can be considered a problem. Without a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the city and urban spaces as it is to its citizens, it is difficult to explain why people interact with a particular place and how it benefits them. It is almost impossible to know how to modify and change the desired location to make it a matter of personal preference without a complete understanding of the city.

Consequently, in the current research, based on some sensitive theories obtained from the study and review of theories and investigations, an attempt was made to ask people and the main users of spaces about their preference of specific places in people’s lives in a qualitative research method. Therefore, people’s level of mental health and well-being attributed to or perceived from the place must be identified to understand people’s preferences. Thus, based on the analysis and combination of the results, a conceptual framework was formed to better understand people’s interaction with the environment and the role of urban natural corridors, and the meanings of production and reception in improving citizens’ mental health. Due to the lack of research in this field, it can be said that the findings of this study have strengthened the existing knowledge by establishing a connection between reading the text of urban corridors and receiving their meaning and also interacting with the environment. Regarding this research approach, this issue is also important in the context of our society and the role of social and physical background in the formation of such a mechanism. In this regard, two natural view corridors in Hamedan, which continued towards Alvand, were selected as case studies. In the current research, the role of these two corridors in Hamedan citizens’ mental health was examined. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire and regression analysis were used in SPSS19 software to achieve this goal. The results revealed that environmental criteria, mental landscape perception, objective landscape perception, socio-cultural ecology, and adaptation to daily vital requirements had a significant impact on citizens’ mental health in the form of two urban natural view corridors in Hamedan.

In terms of practicality, it can be said that the most important finding of this research for experts of urban management, planning, and urban design, especially managers of Hamedan city is that, in changing and developing natural corridors, they should have a complete understanding of the meanings of place and its effect on the health of individuals and for the interested groups in the natural urban corridors. Given the importance of meaning, urban managers should apply the environmental changes regarding the individuals’ multifaceted interaction with space.