Reviewing and Analyzing the Influential Components of Citizens’ Perception of Urban Green Elements on Footpaths: A Case Study of Tarbiat Street in Tabriz

Urban green elements are some of the major influential factors in shaping the general visage of a city. The importance of urban green spaces reaches to the level that its efficiency plays the role of a developmental indicator in different societies. Therefore, landscape designation is a conscious and creative process which leads to the creation of green places. The forms of these places affect the sensation of the citizens and through the process of perception and integration of the past experiences along with the mental phase of the observer, formation of these places occur in the mind of that person. Accordingly, a landscape designer uses visual (plants, water...) and tangible elements in order to create spaces which will arise mental images and the capacity to keep the memories for long-term periods. Thus, in order to create appropriate meaningful environments, we should first identify influential factors in the process of citizens’ perceptions in cognitive, emotional, interpretive and appraisal dimensions. On the other hand, city as an alive and dynamic system is consisted of spatial networks with different visual qualities, and citizens grasp some sensory perceptions through passing by in these spaces. In this regard, walking as the most natural and essential way of human transport in his environment allows a better observation of the places, activities and attractions to occur to humans and it has an important role in the perception of spatial identification, creating a feeling of attachment and receiving environmental qualities. The aim of this study is to investigate the importance of green elements and to bring out its components in relation to the ways and types of their presence in the walking spaces. In the first part, through using combined approaches, the theoretical basics of the research which had been studied and then theoretical frameworks which include influential components in choosing the green elements in the walking areas are extracted. Then, in order to evaluate this study and its’ conclusions in the qualitative section, the case study which are two walking trails of Tabriz city are studied to extract and analyze the mental components of the citizens which are derived from their culture and mind.