Role of the Public Engagement in the Reconstruction and Revival of the Distressed Urban Textures : Case Study of District 4 in Isfahan , Iran

Old textures suffer deficiencies in terms of answering the needs of the today’s life due to old age and the resultant weariness and destruction and even the lack of urban facilities and equipment. When the urban life in part of a city becomes stagnant and no efforts are made to regain its boom. The urban texture in that area will be exposed to wearing out. The goal of this study is to review the existing drawbacks and bottlenecks in the process of the revival of the distressed texture of one of the neighborhoods located in District 4, Isfahan, called Kerdabad. The research method is applied in nature and follows a descriptive analytic approach. The findings of the research covers issues such as incompatible applications, resulting in the fact that 80 percent of respondents attribute their dissatisfaction from the environmental conditions of the neighborhood to workshop areas and agricultural fields in the margin of their neighborhood which in turn has resulted in slum life problems in the neighborhood and formation of an inconsistent social context in which 63 percent of the people are dissatisfied of these conditions. While 70 percent of the respondents express their willingness to refurbish their houses, only 73 percent of the respondents attribute proximity to their workplace as the main reason why they prefer to stay in the neighborhood and 89 inhabitants are not well satisfied with the urban services delivered.


Introduction
The role of providing facilities for the revival and renovation of the distressed urban textures is known by everyone.However, revival and refurbishment of the living areas is not limited to mere physical construction or the renovation of the old city textures, but also it encompasses urban renovation and urban reconstruction, improvement of the social, economic, political, administrative and cultural structure of the city (Shammaei and Pourahmad, 2006).What we face today is the fact that there are textures within a city with the history as old as the history of the whole nation which are distressed and worn out, a place with high levels of social anomalies, poverty, and lack of even minimal urban living standards (Homayouni, 2006).According to the latest administrative divisions of the country, Isfahan has been divided into 15 districts, among which district 4 is the easternmost that includes about 107.88 hectares of distressed textures (Shafaghi, 2000).Increased weariness, destruction, and inefficacy of the distressed texture necessitate appropriate measures and effective strategies with respect to this phenomenon and the course of its urban development within the framework of organizing the distressed urban textures (Shafieinasab, 2007).The question posed here is "Have cultural, economic and social context of the district have been taken into account in the existing refurbishment plans?", "Have Sustainable development patterns been borne in mind in the development of these plans?" (Shafiei, 2008), "Which of the factors mentioned above have contributed most to the peoples' disinterest in the distressed urban texture plans which are to be implemented in this neighborhood?"(Taleb, 2000), -i.e., which of these factors have been more influential in the (lack) of engagement of the people in the renovation of the distressed texture of Kerdabad neighborhood -"Which of the factors among laws, upstream development plans, limited financial resources, lack of people's engagement, or dynamic and identity elements of the region have mostly contributed to the lack of interest of the inhabitants in the renovation of the old distressed urban texture?" (Aghili, 2007).That is why appropriate strategies have been suggested for the organization (renovation and reconstruction) of Kerdabad neighborhood located in district 4 of the city of Isfahan.Therefore, this study identifies the spatial physical structure, problems that exist in the texture and factors contributing to the weariness and destruction of this neighborhood, and puts forward appropriate strategies for the organization (renovation and reconstruction) of Kerdabad neighborhood, located in district 4 of the city of Isfahan.
However, the history of attention to the distressed textures goes back specifically to about half a century ago, where the study of economic, social and physical aspects of distressed textures gained popularity under different titles such as renovation plans, reconstruction plans and so forth in the post-world war II era, particularly since 1960s.
Edwin John Weliger (2008) identifies the notion of sustainable urban design, and reviews basic factors required for the improvement of social stability in the urban improvement and renovation plans.In his research which was conducted using a questionnaire based visit in Hong Kong, the opinions of architects, designers, managers and citizens of the region was gathered and analyzed.
The results obtained from the analyses of different factors indicated that specified constructs must be aligned for the achievement of social stability.Creation of a consistent residential environment, accessibility to the daily living environment, direction of the developments and accessibility of market areas are among basic and important elements for increasing social stability within urban reconstruction plans.Also, in Iran, Mirsaeid Ghazi (2009) has performed numerous research projects in the form of research projects, university dissertations, and research papers for seminars, each of which have studied the special views of the distressed areas and their causes.
Distress has different interrelated dimensions, some of which go back to the attributes of the buildings and their applications.The degree of weariness differs for each building in terms of the individual dimensions, whereas other dimensions go back to the whole expanse of the area (Alavitabar, 2000).

Social
Low social status of the inhabitants, high value of rentals in comparison to the real estate's value, prevalence of social anomalies due to limited social development that leads to the emigration of the people with relatively good economic status and their replacement with aliens and people with lower social status with social anomalies and low economic power Infrastructural Lack of urban facilities and weariness of the infrastructures, including, natural gas, water, electric power, inefficient sewerage system Legal Low urban facilities, plots of land with no definite borders, lack of official title deeds and dominance of letter-of-intent based entitlements, existence of numerous heirs and unclear proprietorship of the real estates Managerial Inadequate urban utilities, inefficient and poor civil projects and urban services Source: Nasr (2004).
As far as urban development and interventions carried out in the old urban textures, two viewpoints prevail: (1) Functionalism and (2) culturalism.The functionalist viewpoint involves economic categories and does not attach a fair importance to the cultural content.On the contrary, the culturalist viewpoint cares for the corresponding cultural features and values in the formation of the setting (Mozayeni, 2000).Extreme propensity to the past is the distinctive feature of this idea.The functionalist view considers the ancient premises from a utility point of view and believes in the necessity of transforming them, while the culturalist point of view looks at these premises as museums.So, it attaches importance to protection (Nourian, 2000).The functionalist point of view advocates interruptionism, that is, to stop the historical trend of the monument, whereas the culturalist point of view advocates the perpetuation of this historical trend (Jamalpour, 2000).
Different viewpoints to ancient textures and urban renovation and improvement fall into the three categories of conservatism, radicalism and logicism.The conservative viewpoint believes that least possible interventions in the status quo of the monument should be made (Mehdizadeh, 2009).In the radicalist point of view, the advocates prescribe intervention in the ancient textures of the city and the transformation of the old textures with the conservation of valuable cultural monuments (Mehdizadeh, 2001).They propose the destruction and reconstruction as the only solution.The logicist point of view, conversely, consists of the theoretical basis of restoration, revitalization, and conditional reconstruction of the old textures (Habibi, 2007).It cares for the demonstration of the historical and cultural values of each historical period in the urban compounds.In the urban revitalization theory, this notion means the reviving of parts of the urban areas where there is a lack of general living standards (Memarian, 2000).They take shape in various parts of the city, but mostly occur in the middle of cities and face problems such as lack of decent accommodation, illogical conflicts in land appropriation, traffic problems, lack of space, social problems and so forth (Moallemi, 2000).

Research Area
District 4 of the city of Isfahan locates at the northern banks of Zayanderood River.It accommodates 125,978 people in an area of 1,342 ha (map 1).
Map 1: The location of District 4 of the city of Isfahan Source: Isfahan Improvement and Renovation Organization scale 1:50,000.

Research Hypotheses
Inhabitants' social context is related to the renovation of the distressed texture.
Renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture is related to the people's engagement.

Materials and Method
The method adopted for this research is descriptive analytic by nature and follows an application-development approach.For the selection of sample in this research, a systematic quota based random selection procedures has been adopted.A questionnaire survey approach has been followed for investigating the social and economic characteristics of the inhabitant population and to measure their propensity to participate in the residential units' renovation and reconstruction projects at the district level.
The sample taking procedure goes as follows: the number of the people residing in the neighborhood was multiplied by 315 and the result was divided by the whole district's population.The residential units were selected as sample by the systematic random sampling method.One out of twenty residential units was selected as sample.First a residential unit was taken as sample in the neighborhood, and from then on one residential unit was selected from each 20 residential units upon which data required was taken from the families using the questionnaire method.SPSS and Excel have been used as means of data analysis.Cochran method was followed for obtaining the sample size (Hafeznia, 2011).
The result of estimating the sample size: The Alpha-Cronbach has been used as the measure of reliability.It fluctuates between zero and one (0 1) α ≤ ≤ .The Alpha Cronbach obtained by SPSS is 0.9 for this study, which suggests a relatively high reliability and validity of the questionnaire.

Findings of the Research
In order to evaluate the socioeconomic features of the inhabitants and their propensity to participate in the residential units renovation and reconstruction projects, given the population dwelling there an assessment has been made using the questionnaire technique.A 315 people statistical sample was assigned and questionnaires were distributed in June, 2014.Some findings, including the demographic data such as age, gender, level of education, and type of proprietorship are shown in Table 2.It indicates that 6 percent of the household heads were women and 94 percent were men (Table 2).The results indicate that 45.4 percent of the respondents aged between 40 to 60 (See Table 3).In proprietorship terms, 91.7 percent of respondents had houses of their own (See Table 4).In terms of the education level, 82 percent of the respondents hold high school diploma and lower (See Table 5).(1/ 96) (0 / 7)(0 / 3) (0 / 05) 1 (1/ 96) (0 / 7)(0 / 3) 1 ( 1 ) (0 / 05) In terms of employment 71.7 percent of respondents are employed (See Table 7).As far as the reason behind residence in the distressed texture, 73 percent of respondents specified the proximity to the work place as the main reason (See Table 8).The number of natives over 15 living in the neighborhood is highly significant (See Table 9).Most of the inhabitants are dissatisfied with their houses, and would rather reconstruct their houses despite all these deficiencies.58.4 percent of the respondents said that they are willing very much to reconstruct their houses (See Table 11).Total 47 14.9 14.9 100.0 79.4 percent of the inhabitants believe that there is a close relationship between the financial status and their home reconstruction and their propensity to stay in the neighborhood (See Table 13).the respondents believe that there is a relationship between the cultural and social status of the neighborhood and its reconstruction trend (See Table 15).
Table (15).Distribution of respondents by their belief in the relationship between social and cultural status of the area and its effect on the reconstruction trend Respondents' belief in relationship between social and cultural status of the area and its effect on the reconstruction trend

Conclusion
Due to their agedness and destruction resulting from it, and lack of urban facilities and equipment suffer from insufficiencies in responding to their residents.This has resulted in the dissatisfaction of the native population and their relocation and moving to other neighborhoods.Then low-income classes of people replace them due to the low housing costs.In this situation, the only motive for the people to stay in this area is to have a minimal accommodation.Thus instabilities will emerge and intensify in social, economic and cultural affairs in such neighborhoods.Since Kerdabad is located in district 4 of the city of Isfahan, and is in the easternmost part of this city, it is physically made up of a compound comprising houses, workshops (spinning and weaving), farms, repair shops, trade and service units and is made of a very irregular anthropological and ecological texture and anthropologically it is made of a very heterogeneous social and cultural texture.Considering these features is essential for the attainment of a neighborhood with sTable indicators.

Testing Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1: There is a relationship between the renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and public engagement.
Null hypothesis: There is not any relationship between the renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and public engagement The results obtained from the statistical analysis of the response given by the respondents to the questionnaire and the calculation of the mean score and results obtained from Table 18, since the level of significance has proved zero, and is > 0.05, thus there is a relationship between the renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and this hypothesis is supported.It should be pointed out that this relationship is positive and direct.In other words the more renovation and reconstruction occurs the more public engagement will occur, and, conversely, the less renovation and reconstruction occurs, the less public engagement will occur.Hypothesis 2: there is a relationship between the renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and the social texture of inhabitants.
Null hypothesis: there is not any relationship between the renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and the social texture of inhabitants.
Given the results obtained from the statistical analysis of the responses given by respondents to the questionnaire items and their calculated mean scores, and with due regard to the results obtained from Table 19, since the level of significance is zero and is smaller than 0.05, consequently, there is a relationship between the renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and social texture of inhabitants.In other words, the more homogenous the social texture, the more renovation and reconstruction will occur, and, conversely, the more heterogeneous the social texture the less renovation and reconstruction will occur.
The assessment of the surveys with respect to the level of satisfaction of the inhabitants with the municipality performance indicate that the inhabitants are not very satisfied with the urban services delivered to this neighborhood, and inaccessible public transport means and deficiencies that exist in this respect, poor quality of the thoroughfares asphalts, inaccessibility to trade and service premises, insufficient recreational spaces and greeneries, are among the most frequent reasons for the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants.

Table ( 2
). Distribution of respondents by gender of the household head

Table ( 5
). Distribution of respondents by education level In terms of the household head's income, 44.1 percent of respondents earned higher than USD 266 per month (See Table6).

Table 7 .
Distribution of respondents by employment status

Table ( 9
). Distribution of respondents by duration of stay in the neighborhood In terms of the degree of satisfaction with the urban 87.7 percent of respondents expressed their dissatisfaction with these services (See Table10).

Table (
55.2 percent of the inhabitants were satisfied with the security of the neighborhood (See Table12).

Table 12 .
Distribution of respondents by their assessment of the security of the neighborhood Neighborhood security satisfaction Frequency Percentage Reliability percentage Cumulative frequency

Table ( 13
). Distribution of respondents by their belief in the relationship between financial status and propensity to reconstruct their houses and willing to stay in the neighborhood Residents' believing in the relationship between financial status and willingness to reconstruct homes and stay in the neighborhood 80 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the environment conditions of the neighborhood (See Table16).89.9 percent of respondents believe that there is a high relation between people's welcoming to neighborhood reconstruction plan and level of urban services (See Table17).

Table ( 18
). Renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and social texture of residentsTable (19).Renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and social texture of residents Renovation and reconstruction of the distressed texture and social texture of Renovation