The Landscape Improvement of Urban Highways (Case Study: Chamran Boulevard of Shiraz)

Highways are linear infrastructures that alter the environmental resources in a territory, structure, and functions while constituting a significant component through which the individual comes into contact with the landscape. The fragility of the natural-ecological environment exerts tremendous pressure on sustainable development in cities. In the city’s sprawl, ecological factors and functional properties during urban development process have less considered and have reduced the citizens’ quality of life. Since the observer has looked at the landscape of the adjacent highway, and all elements observed can be considered the aesthetic aspects and safety components. The aim of the research is to identify the problems and find the solutions for the edge of Chamran Boulevard in Shiraz. The solutions involve creating a continuous walking route that would provide more recreational opportunities, link up with existing gardens and culture of the region. Pay attention to green pedestrian pathways, safety, legibility, coherence, taking into account the visual features of the road, improving the outdoor comfort conditions, organizing leisure/cultural spaces are associated with green spaces and open spaces, and the user’s visual interest related to cognitive processes have been emphasized. In the first stage, the effective indicators of landscape improvement have been extracted from the literature and categorized. Then, the impact of the extracted factors was evaluated and prioritized using the Delphi technique and conducting semi-structured interviews with experts. Afterward, Shiraz citizens have been selected to measure the existing status and prioritize users’ preferences. A closed questionnaire survey was used to collect data from participants. All data analysis was performed by SPSS software version 22. The findings show that the vegetation diversity around the pedestrian pathway, considering collaborative activities (Mean=3/88), considering the legibility of way-finding, diversity of lighting and creating the continuous and interrupted sequences (M=3/61) are among the users’ priorities.