Regenerating Enghelab Street with the Approach of Improving Environmental Quality

Introduction: Urban spaces are the center of social life and the stage for people's daily lives. Urban spaces with inappropriate qualities become a breeding ground for social disorders and create depressed, chaotic, and unsafe places. One of the effective approaches to improving urban spaces is the urban regeneration approach, which seeks to improve the environmental quality of urban spaces.
The Purpose of the Research: The purpose of this study is to identify the components that affect the improvement of the environmental quality of Enghelab Street (between Ferdowsi Square and Vali Asr Intersection) and to provide solutions for its regeneration and improvement.
Methodology: This research is of an applied type and has a quantitative approach. To examine the effect of the identified indicators on the regeneration of the study area, the SEM method was used in AMOS software. The statistical population of the research consists of experts, specialists, and professors in the field of urban regeneration and environmental quality improvement. The questionnaire prepared is of a closed type and based on the Likert scale. To calculate the sample size, due to the uncertainty of the population size, Cohen's formula with a medium effect size (0.15) and a confidence level of 95% was used. Accordingly, 127 people were examined as the sample size. Finally, the SWOT QSPM technique was used to provide strategies and action plans.
Findings and Discussion: According to the obtained model, among the components of the physical dimension, the recreation of the public space is most affected by the beauty component with a factor load of 0.983, and has the greatest effect on the recreation of the public spaces, and in terms of the influence of the economic components, recreating public space is the first component of justice (0.964). Also, this is most affected by the indicators of responding to the needs of tourists (0.491), responding to the daily needs of the surrounding residents (0.403), and access to services by different classes of people (0.121). In the second place, the economic revitalization component (0.886) has the greatest effect on the regeneration of public spaces. In the social and cultural dimension, the component of meaning and identity (0.100) is in the first place. In addition, this is most affected by the indicators of attention to the historical nature of the urban context of the space (0.591), memorability of the public space (0.548), and the sense of belonging to the public space (0.466). In the second place, the component of security (0.966) has the greatest impact on the recreation of public spaces, and among the environmental components, the cleanliness component, with a factor load of 0.671, is the most important. This component is most influenced by the factors of cleanliness and space supervision (0.902), absence of disturbing and polluting uses (0.793), use of clean transportation to access the space (0.549), absence of noise (0.395), and absence of air (0.351). The protection component with a factor load of 0.243 has an impact on improving the quality of the environment in public space.
Conclusion: The results of this research indicate that the defensive strategy is considered as the main strategy and the first priority for the urban regeneration of Enghelab Street in Tehran. By implementing solutions such as improving the visual landscape (using foldable awnings made of resistant materials to quickly assemble it at night and maintain security), paying attention to the audience of the space (humanism and citizen-centeredness in the street landscape), beautifying the space (using unifying elements of materials, flooring, paint, and guest rooms), creating opportunities for social and economic prosperity (providing opportunities to attract a wide range of stakeholders and interact with them), organizing abandoned and wasteland uses (creating new and appropriate uses according to the role of the areas), creating spatial diversity and social interactions (using specific species to define the space and create pauses), recreating cultural and historical values ​​(preserving and recreating spaces and buildings with historical and cultural value), establishing the role of Enghelab Street as the cultural-artistic axis of Tehran (holding ceremonies and cultural art festivals), enhancing the beauty and desirability of the street space (using natural suitability of vegetation cover), promoting spatial unity based on planning indicators and urban development criteria can help organize studies with an urban regeneration approach.